The Lakers have about a four-year window of guys at or near their prime…Michael Jordan won his last championship at 35…The (aging ) Big three in Boston advanced to the finals and beat Lebron in his prime, Dwight Howard in his Prime and Dwayne Wade his his prime with Ray Allen (34), Kevin Garnett (34) and Paul Pierce (32), and being a realist, they came within a few minutes of beating the Lakers on the road in Game 7 for their second title in three years, and will be formidable again next year now that they added another older still capable center in Jermaine O’Neal while Perkins recovers…You do need some younger guys, which they have Rondo and we have Bynum, so it works out.

The way I look at it, the Lakers can compete for at least four years, then build around Bynum when all their contracts expire at or near the same time…. Look at the ages..

Ron Artest 30
Kobe Bryant 31
Andrew Bynum 22
Pau Gasol 29
Steve Blake 30
Lamar Odom 30
Sasha Vujacic 26

If they keep them
Shannon Brown 24
Josh Powell 27
DJ MBenda 29
Luke Walton 30

Only over-age player will be Derek Fisher at 36 next month, and by the time this Lakers team gets old, we might have the cap room to go after Durant, Lebron, Wade or whoever else, so I’m not worried….Bring on the Big 3 in Miami…

Pat Riley will be the Head Coach if Le Bron signs. Guaranteed !

Riley vs Jackson might be better entertainment than Kobe vs Wade and Artest vs Le Bron and Gasol vs Bosh. Still Miami has no answer for Bynum or Lamar.

Lakers in seven ! Credit to Riley…he gets a standing ovation every time he’s introduced at Staples Center.

West, Riley, Magic, Dr, Buss, Phil Jackson, Wade, James, Bosh, Kobe, Gasol, the Kardasians…what a who’s who! That series migth break all records

lakers had a hard time with lebron and wade last year. now they are on the same team. it all depends who else they pick up because the east is so tough compared to the west.they have to still get by celtics and magic. lakers should breeze thru to finals.

Le Bron will be busted for steriods very soon. Soon all the dirt will surface. Le Bron quit on his team in the playoffs and now the truth comes out. What ever dirt can be exposed will. Same goes for super steroid freak Wade. Nike pulled this deal with money on the back end. Too bad they’ll be booed for a while. Kobe played with Smush Parker and others and finally got a team together to win a Championship. Pierce won with an aging KG and and even more aging Ray Allen. The Pistons won with defense and a team of good but not great players so it can be done.

Funny but the Celtics were one half away from beating the Lakers this year with a non All Star for a center and an over weight and short back up in Big Baby. Role players win Championship “games” while superstar get the team there.

Two words…Trevor Ariza, without his two great steals the Lakers are out two years ago. This year the Lakers won with the slowest PG in the League and a Center who has yet to play a full season.

Sorry but the league took a hit today. Every team in the East will bring it now. What a waste of talent. Imagine if Paul Pierce abandoned the Celtics years ago when they had Walker and nothing else. Le Bron proved one point today…he’s not The One. In fact on his new team Wade is better overall.

LeBron is by far the best individual player in basketball and for anyone to say otherwise must be blind.

And LeBron knows that the Cleveland team, which is unlikely to change for the next two years, isn’t going to win any titles. Winning 61 games against the weak Central is meaningless to him…he needs an NBA title or else his legacy will be just like Barkley and the other greats who don’t have a ring.

So Laker fans, cut LeBron some slack because we got titles because of the likes of Wilt, Kareem and Shaq, who all changed teams.

Hey Laker fans, AI is out there looking for a team…with Farmer and Brown gone, is he worth taking a chance for a couple of million?

Miami has their big three now and may be looking for a point guard, guess who may go there to help that cause out. Derek Fisher. I truly think LaBron needed to step into a situation where the team he went to was going become his team as a leader. Chicago, New York or the Clippers could have been just that for him. The Heat is Wades team and Labron, not being the headliner there will cause problems in the ranks unless Wade steps aside and says this is now Labrons team. I do not see that happening. Lots of Egos there that will clash. If and when it becomes Labrons team and you know it eventually will Miami will then start to play basketball. Can they beat the Celtics I dont think so. Miami has no bench with the trio getting all the money. Can they beat the Lakers I dont think so you are playing 3 (miami) vs 5 (lakers)There is one basketball to play with and The town of Miami is Wades for now. Labron just may have screwed that team up more then what he helped it. Chicago or New York is where he should have gone. Labron left alot of money on the table not playing for those two cities. Endorsements alone would have made him huge $$$ with Chicago being a team he could compete for championships with right now. Miami does not have that market in endorsements for Labron. In Miami he may just get in trouble in that party town with drugs and women. Doesn’t Tiger Woods live in Orlando FLorida. well you get the picture.

Last time I checked it takes a team to win a title and the debate is still out on who is the best individual player in the league .It was thought LeBron had that title but then came Kobe in the playoffs and change a lot of minds on passing that torch to LeBron . As of right now who would you start a team with Kobe or Lebron ? To me LeBron would of had a greater legacy if he had stuck with Cleveland and see with the addition of B Scott as coach and win a title there. Playing together in the Olympics is one thing but the rigors of an 82 game season is much different . Let’s see what these young men do together first and besides I am sure Boston has something to say as far as Miami being a shoe in for the finals. What we saw on tv yesterday is all that is wrong with star athletes in today’s world of sports in America.

People, it isnt LeBrons fault that the players dont want to live in Cleveland. Isnt anyone listening because he tried to get Bosh to join him on the Cavs but was turned down? And it is the experts like Barkley that are unanimously saying that the Cavs arent going to win any titles with their roster.

And Gerry, youre nuts if you think that Dennis Johnson, McHale, Ainge and Parrish (and you forgot Maxwell-who was the 1981 Finals MVP) were scrubs. DJ had already won a title with the Sonics (he was the MVP), was a 9 time member of the all NBA defense teams, 5 time All Star and averaged 14.1 PPGhe should be in the HOF. McHale is in the HOF and was voted one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. Parrish is also in the HOF. Hardly scrubs.

And I went to a lot of Laker games in those early Kareem years including the 1977 series against Portland (led by Walton, Lucas and Hollins), who would go on to win the NBA title. These Lakers didnt suck and in fact had the best player in the league and perhaps of all-time (38,387 points) and instead just couldnt beat a superior team. And folks, this is the same problem that LeBron has in Clevelandcome on, nobody with any basketball IQ thinks that Delonte West, Mo Williams, Varejao, Illgauskas and those other guys are going to beat the elite teamsNOBODY.

When Shaq went to the Lakers, like LeBron, he was also the best player in the game but couldnt win titles without additional playersmultiple players and not just Kobe. Heres a parallel, in 1997-1998 the Lakers like the past years Cavs, won 61 regular season games but were eliminated in the conference finals. And that was Kobes 2nd year in the league so he was on that team. And lets not forget Kobe was on the post-Shaq losing teams and he was seriously threatening to do a LeBron and opt-outactually this would have happened if they hadnt acquired Gasol.

BTW, the Lakers would have won the title in 2004 with Malone except that he seriously hurt his knee, which is a lot different than saying they couldnt win with him. And, that team had Shaq, Kobe and Fisher but that wasnt enough without a healthy Malone. Isnt this more proof that LeBron was not going to win in Cleveland?

Anyone want to talk about the early Jordan years? He didnt win a title until his 6th year.

And for you doubters that are saying LeBron isnt going to win any titles in Miamiwell, the smartest guys on earth AKA Las Vegas Bookmakers are saying otherwise.

First off it is just odds out there in vegas, it doesn’t mean anything. Last time I checked the Heat did not even have 7 guys. Lebron ruined his brand, he sold out. Jordan went through trouble, kobe had his struggle, a very average pistons team knocked off the lakers in 2004, so don’t tell me Lebron could not do it in cleveland. San Antonio is not a big market yet Duncan won it wG ginobli, and parker then who else. Can you name more than 8 players off those chamionship teams w/ the bulls, ?..Lebron showed that he is a follower not a leader, that his work ethic will never be at the elite level of Kobe, Jordan, or even Tiger. The so called “chosen” one just lost that title, he will just be Lebron to us now.

The 3 head players had arranged back in 2007-08 to all and up on the same team as each took a 3 year contract that would expire in 2010. The only question was which team the knicks or heat would have the cap space for all three. This suggestion that Bosh may join LeBron in Cleveland was part of the charade.
After the last meeting with the Cleveland executives LBJ cut did not return any text,phone calls or e-mails with the Cavs owner indicating he was not going to play for Cleveland. LeBron if he had stayed with the Cavs would have one at least one championship however he decided the hard work was not worth the effort and decided to to with B and W.
The 3 had already met in Ohio and the only thing I dislike was the circus LeBron was conducting and how he said the Cavs were still the slight favorite for his services. If at the end of the season he would have said he would be leaving in a press conference in Akron fans would have accepted his desire to join another team.
Fans in Cleveland,NY,and Chicago will now show their dislike for LBJ when he comes to town. The Cavs will move on and again be a lottery team and get a chance for another LBJ in the future. The Bulls would not allow James posse to ride their private charter nor hire his boys. I hope Kevin Durant spends his entire career at Oklahoma City and his new 5 year extension will help.

I am not trying to prove you or anyone else wrong and instead am just offering my opinion. And you made it sound like Bird won with little surrounding talent and the truth is that he had HOF and all stars playing with him. So how many future HOF players are on the Cavsthe answer is NONE. And the only all star for the past 5 years was Mo Williams (in 2009) who was added to the team after, ironically, Chris Bosh couldnt play because of injury. And Stern added Mo as a carrot for LeBron and not because there werent a dozen more deserving guards.

And the only players on the 2009-10 team that remained from the Finals team of 2006-07 were LeBron, Gibson, Verejao and Ilgauskasso no West, Jamison and Williams.

Duncan, who was the best player in the league at that time, won in 1999 with David Robinson, a HOF player, plus all star Sean Elliott, a very good point guard in Avery Johnson and a great shooter who was already a 2 time Champ in Mario Elie…that’s 5 great players including 2 all time greats in Duncan and Robinson. Still had Robinson for the next title plus they added Tony Parker…who would you rather have, Parker or Mo Williams? Heck, does anyone doubt that the Cavs would have traded both Williams and West for either Parker or Ginobili?

In 1976-77, the Lakers lost in the Western Conference FINALS to Portland (who won the title) and in 1978 in the semishow exactly does that make them suck by any reasonable persons standards and not some mythical Laker standard? Thats like admitting that Amats football teams have all sucked for the past 15 years because they havent won a ring. But the truth is that they have had many very good teams but just havent been able to beat the best of the best for the title, which is a far cry from sucking.

And Magic did put the Lakers over the top for the 1980 (and later) title(s) but lets not forget that the 1980 team included young all star quality players named Wilkes (1975 Rookie of the Year who averaged almost 20 PPG over a 12 year career) Nixon and Cooper (8 time all defense team) plus two very solid veterans in Spencer Hayward (a 5 time all-star) and Jimmy Chones. Of course, they also had Kareem who didnt play in the game 6 of the final but in the other 15 games he had a 31.9 PPG averageyes thats 32 PPG folks. So what player on the Cavs helped out LeBron with 32 PPG or even the 20 PPG that Wilkes also kicked in with his 20 foot lay-ups [thanks Chick for all the great memories]? Big difference in team talent between the Kareem-Magic Lakers and the LeBron Cavs who other than a past his prime Illgauskas, no other great players big, big difference.

Next year we are going to find out how good those other guys on the Cavs really are without LeBron buttering their bread. I happen to agree with Vegas who think they will stink…they are now 75-1 to win the title…the same as the 76′s and Pacers…doesnt that put into perspective how far the LeBron less Cavs have fallen?

You have a very selective memory…read the posts again because I made a simple comment that LeBron left because he knew that he couldn’t win a title with the Cavs and it was you that jumped into the discussion with an insult by saying that I was “stupid.”

Last time I checked, LeBron wasn’t the GM or owner of the Cavs, therefore, he wasn’t the guy responsible for drafting or signing free agents. And it was widely reported that he did try to persuade Bosh to join him on the Cavs but he refused, not because he didn’t want to play with LeBron, which is obvious because they are now playing together in Miami, but because Bosh refused to play (i.e. live) in Cleveland. So you are dead wrong…it’s the city and not LeBron that other stars have a problem with.

Kobe didn’t lure Gasol and instead, he was traded and Gasol never knew it was coming until he was called out of practice to see the GM who then told him…this came straight from Gasol’s mouth when he sat down for his first Laker interview. So stop making junk up that fans like myself who are paying attention know just isn’t true. And while you are at it, if you’d stop insulting me then I wouldn’t be compelled to respond to your foolishness, with facts and not some junk that you made up.

BTW, the LA Lakers have appeared in the NBA playoffs 46 times en route to 11 Titlesso does that mean that there are 35 years in which they sucked, including the 15 times that they were second best? Heck, some of those years they won the conference and Im guessing that if you added up their playoff won-loss records for those years there will be more losses than wins. So arguing that a losing playoff record amounts to sucking while not taking into account that pretty much all perennial playoff teams that dont go deep into the playoffs have an overall losing playoff record. And stop isolating the first few Kareem years and look at the overall picture, which is without him the Magic era Lakers do not win those 5 titles, same as Jordan didnt win anything his first 6 years which gets us back to the predicament that was staring LeBron in the face, namely, after 7 years there was little hope that the Cavs team was going to win a title…so he teamed up with two guys and Riley in Miami with the hope of improving his chances. Really, who can blame the guy?

BTW no one called you stupid I’ve said you’re an imbecile many times and you’ve shown me nothing to change my mind. Isn’t calling a kid a fruit as retaliation evidence enough?Or was it a “couldn’t pass it up” joke? Notice I still haven’t sunk that low and you still haven’t apologized…that’s an imbecile in my book, plain and simple.

Like I said it takes a road map to stay with your positions and the evidence you bring up rarely addresses the original point, hence the waste of time. I’d rather count ants.

You have no moral compass I can decipher and therefore I’d rather not engage you. Fair enough?

Enjoy your intellectual masturbation on someone else’s dime.

COCF,
Simple comment my azz. LeBron is the best individual player and if you don’t agree with me your blind. That is bacically what you said . I am taking a page from your book on twisting what bloggers write to validate your rebuttals to them when they disagree with you. Very simple of you to write everyone off as being blind if they don’t agree with you . That type of post is just one of many in you blogging career where you feel the need to off bloggers if they don’t see it your way and only your way . I think FC has every right to step on your nutz anytime he feels like it because of your stupid and inconsiderate post on his son of which I have yet to see a valid apology from you to his son and to him. And what nerve you have telling someone about keeping their mouth shut.