Hines making more than LeBron?
- Thread starter Bluebeard
- Start date
Deliberately taking a massive pay cut to chase one last championship. Shameful. He should stop chasing Jordan already.
Has 4 years of eligibility. Perhaps he ends up at Duke after Philly
"Hines making more than LeBron": The value of a Seton Hall education.
Well most teams had no cap space left...he chose to draw out the process of finding his next fit.
I have a different take. He’s a basketball player, he loves doing that. Why not keep doing something he loves. Springsteen certainly doesn’t need money. But he’s an entertainer and obviously loves what he does. He wants to keep doing that as long as he can.
He can play as long as he wants but when he is deliberately continuing to go to stacked teams in order to try to win championships the wrong way so he can pad his stats and try to be like Mike, it gets tiring. He should LeQuit already. He's not Mike, he's not Kobe, he's not Magic, he isn't Bird. He's lucky to be top 5
I hear you on that. Before The Decision the top stars didn’t move around from team to team as freely. It would have been sacrilege for Ewing in his prime to leave the Knicks to join MJ to chase a title. Stars in their primes got moved or left, but there always seemed to be a reason beyond trying to form some super team and play puppet-master with organizations at the level it’s been post LeBron to Miami.
Lebron James started free agency?
Come on
He spent his first 7 years in the market that drafted him and then went back for 4 more seasons. The narrative that he ruined the nba because he went to Miami is overrated and tired. 4 teams in over 20 years.
Knicks super teamed long before
In Ewing later years, traded for Johnson and Sprewell, signed Allan Houston after his rookie deal with Pistons.
Shaq rookie deal 4 seasons, got to finals with Penny in season 3, signed deal at Atlanta Olympics to go to LA.
McGrady and Grant Hill signed to Orlando though did not work out.
Celtics super teamed trading for Garnett and Ray Allen.
86 Celtics Walton, Parrish, pick that became mchale and Dennis johnson all acquired through trades
You know exactly what I mean. Chasing rings by going to stacked teams and arranging for your friends to join you.
You’re giving examples of great teams acquiring players, but that’s not really what I’m talking about. Obviously LeBron didn’t invent the concept of putting multiple good players on the same team. I’m talkng about the modern phenomenon of superstar players essentially engineering their own superteam through free agency, coordinating with other stars they’re friends with, and moving around specifically to stacf the deck for rings.
The 1986 Celtics example especially has nothing to do with that. Parrish and the pick that became McHale were acquired by a front-office trade, Dennis Johnson was acquired in a trade, and Walton was an aging former superstar brought in as a role player. That’s an organization constructing a roster not Bird calling Magic and Isiah and saying lets all become free agents and play together and bring your talents to Boston LOL.
Same thing with the late-90s Knicks. Allan Houston was 25 when New York signed him and had never even been an All-Star. Larry Johnson had already suffered serious back problems and was nowhere near the explosive superstar he'd been in Charlotte. Sprewell came through a trade after Golden State desperately wanted to move him. That's just a team making acquisitions around Ewing. It’s what theyr supposed to do.
Shaq going to LA isn't really comparable either. Yea, he left Orlando in free agency, but he wasn't joining some preassembled collection of established superstar friends to chase an easy ring. Kobe was a teenage rookie who had never played an NBA game. Nobody in 1996 could seriously describe Shaq's move as teaming up with another established top-five player todominate the league.”
Orlando in 2000 is probably the closest pre-LeBron example you gave, because Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady both chose Orlando. But even there, T-Mac was a 21-year-old emerging player who had never made an All-Star team and averaged only 15.4 points his final year in Toronto. Orlando was betting on what he could become. That isn't the same thing as three established franchise-level All-Stars in their primes scheming to come togethe. And obviously Hill's injuries prevented it from ever becoming what Orlando envisioned. Orlando did sign both Hill and McGrady to matching six-year deals, so of course teams tried to attract multiple major free agents before Miami.
The 2008 Celtics are another bad comparison to what I'm takking about. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were TRADED to Boston. Boston built that team through front-office deals around Paul Pierce. Garnett didn't become a free agent, call Pierce and Allen, and arrange for the three of them to sign together.
Miami in 2010 was different, and even NBA.com's historical discussion of superteams acknowledges exactly that: what distinguished the Heat was the active role of the players themselves in creating it. LeBron and Bosh were franchise players joining Wade, an established Finals MVP, and the three had discussed playing together and entered free agency at the same time. Miami itself described James and Bosh as coming there to “join forces” with Wade.
That's why “there were superteams before LeBron” doesn't actually refute my point. Of course there were. The difference is HOW THEY WERE FORMED. Historically, great teams were overwhelmingly assembled by general managers through drafts, trades and individual signings. Miami became the iconic example of players realizing THEY have the leverage now. ITS THEM saying we can decide where we're going, coordinate with each other, combine our talent and manufacture our own championship situation.
And look at what happened afterward. LeBron didn't just do it once. He left Miami and went back to Cleveland where another superstar, Kevin Love, was immediately brought in alongside superstar Kyrie Irving. Then he went to Los Angeles, and Anthony Davis subsequently forced his way out of New Orleans with the Lakers as his destination. Etc
So yes LeBron helped normalize the player-engineered superteam idea. And the fact that NBA.com's own history identifies the players' active role in forming Miami as the thing that distinguished that team actually reinforces my argument.
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Karl Malone to the Lakers (2003-2004) came to mind even though he was chasing just one championship. It didn't pan out for Karl, and I suspect it won't for James as well.
His career was basically over at the time. Malone wasn’t a superstar anymore: LeBron made a career out of it and made it the normal thing to do.l while in your prime
Well they were all in the 2003 draft which made them open market free agents that summer. And technically LeBron and Bosh were sign and trades.
Go to 06-07 season finals was 4-1 but tight scores...LeBron 22 then look at his roster then, yes his final 2 seasons Cleveland had 66 and 61 regular season wins...if he thought he could win titles there he would have stayed
The Athletic asked Head Coaches and they came up with 18 players that are definitely making more than Lebron. Only 2 guys from the BE which I do not believe is correct - Tounde Yessofuou and Sananda Fru. I think there are several more they missed.
I saw that list, looked for Mullins, Silas Demary’s and Hines names, and was surprised I didn’t see them. Maybe the folks they contacted about the numbers believe they play for Saint Danny for free.
Because he’s doing it the wrong way in his failing attempt to prove he is the goat. You can’t spend years trying to engineer the strongest possible supporting cast, recruit other stars, jump from one favorable situation to another, and then turn around and use the resulting ring count as proof that you’re greater than guys who stayed and competed through much tougher circumstances.
There’s a difference between competing against the best and repeatedly trying to arrange the easiest possible path by stacking your team with other stars in order to prove you are the goat.
Look at the careers of any of the goats (Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kareem, Kobe, Wilt, Russell, Duncan) and see if you can notice the difference. All their rings came legitimately.
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