He didn't turn into Karl Malone until after losing the Finals to Mavs and spending the summer with The Dream.. that is paying off more in these Finals than it ever did. On Miami he sprinkled his post game here and there, in this series he said, "fuck jump shots."

I think that what people like Kobe and LeBron and other superstars that work with Dream get the most out of is his mental attitude to competition, and to what is expected of the BEST player on the team, not so much the actual footwork stuff, although that is always a big help if practiced. LeBron and Kobe practice as much as any of the all time greats.

I hate seeing fuckers who cannot do free throws. that shit is LAZY. it is the only shot you can practice enough to make it pure muscle memory. The Rockets would have won the series or at least been more competitive against Warriors, if goddamn Howard would practice 200 free throws a DAY

Shaq never ever practiced free throws either.

Dude Shaq didn't practice basketball . ZERO fundamentals. He couldn't dribble, had no footwork, wasn't a skilled passer, had an embarrassingly bad jump shot, and even looked clumsy getting rebounds.

Imagine if Shaq had actually cared about basketball? He would have averaged 60 points a game.. its why Hakeem recently picked Shaq for his top center all time. Shaq was good despite being more or less bad at playing basketball.

As to Lebron and Dream, i literally have this fantasy where I see dream on the couch watching younger Lebron yelling at the TV, "Lebron come to me, i can make you the best all time if you let me teach you how to post up and dribble on the block."

Nobody and i mean NOBODY had footwork and ball handling in the post like Hakeem and nobody i mean NOBODY Lebron's size has ever had his ball handling skills to begin with! So i can see Hakeem viewing Lebron as his perfect pet project. ONLY Lebron has the size and skill to duplicate Hakeem things, and since Lebron uniquely matches those post skills by being able to push the ball up the floor and make lazer passes i think he can surpass even Hakeem as the most fundamentally sound bball player ever. Jordan could score, Magic could . pass but Dream is Mr. Fundamentals because he played PG in school before his growth spurt. Now? Lebron has a significant chance to both replicate and even surpass Hakeem

Shaq practiced eating....

Agreed......however, this isn't about white anything.

According to the callers to the radio show about this subject, this is strictly a black thing. Again, according to the callers I heard, it dates back to the brighter / farrier skin slaves getting to work in the big house while darker skin slaves tolled away in the fields.

In the 80's, it was often referred to as good hair vs. bad hair.

More recently, according to one black caller, a good deal of all this is attributed to, Drake......who is pretty, whines as he sings and overall is considered soft.

If you twitter, search out the following hashtag: #LightskinVsDarkskin

You will find tweets and video from black individuals using this slang / term a great deal......just not sports related.

Why am I even asking???

It was a topic that I wasn't aware about and really surprised when it discussed on sports radio. I'm just curious if this is more a East Coast / West Coast thing or just something practiced by a few???

Sometimes I forget just how much black folks I am fam with until white folks discover something black and I realize not every white guy already knew that.

The issue with light vs black skin is one of politics, culture, and economics. Light skinned folks tend to have white family, and therefore somewhat benefit from white privilege whereas darker skinned black folks tend to get the wrong end of the stick in many regards. This has even been proven psychologically, that because of systemic racism even black people subconsciously react more negatively to images or experiences with darker skinned people (not even black, studies use images of darker skinned Indians and East Asians, same results)

For many reasons the American experience has created a subconscious mindset that darker is badder in every regard. Therefore in black culture darker skinned folks see themselves as something of an underdog character, and are ecstatic when they can stick it to light skinned folks.

Its part of the narrative as you mentioned of "good" and "bad" hair and also "passing"...

Today it manifests itself in the context of "acting white" or moving "to the suburbs"

Speaking of black politics and culture, its also why i value THIS era of the NBA so much better than the 80s and 90s.. while everyone likes all the fighting on the court, the reality is it reflected a sadder truth about rich white men exploiting black on black violence. I sizable portion of the 80s NBA audience had the mentality of "hey lets watch these jigaboos fight" or even worse "i hope he [white player] sticks it to that n****r"..

I'd much rather see successful, multimillion dollar black men hang out and have fun playing a game with each other as co-workers, not combatants.

Fighting is for the playground, this is entertainment.

 

https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif

I couldn't get the link to open / play for me......

10 4th Quarter points for Clevland


Just how bad was it for the Cavs......Kendrick Perkins got in the game.

Lebron Flashed His Penis On Live TV

Speak of, for the 3rd time in a Game Four of the NBA Finals, LeBron scores ZERO 4th Quarter Points:

2011 Finals Game 4: ZERO
2014 Finals Game 4: ZERO
2015 Finals Game 4: ZERO

LeBron hit a shot 1:03 left in 3rd Quarter to make it 73-69 GSW. Clevland only made 2 shots the rest of the game (2-20).

LeBron James has now suffered 2 of the 5 worst home losses in NBA Finals history:



LeBron asked about fans leaving early, "I have no comment on that, I came out of the game early, too, so I guess we were on the same page"

Cavaliers shot 6-45 (13.3%) outside the paint, their worst shooting performance outside the paint this season:



Big night for, Andre Iguodala......sharing team-highs in scoring w/ 22 points (4-for-9 on 3FGs).

After Cleveland cut GSW lead to 3 with 34.0 seconds in 3rd Quarter, GSW out-scored Cleveland 30-12 the rest of the way.

Warriors had seven turnovers tonight, tying a franchise record for fewest turnovers in a playoff game (San Francisco at St. Louis, 4/8/67).

In Vegas or at your local bookie, GSW are now -340 to win the series.

While that was bad, i blame the cavs for trying to run with dubs rather than slow it down on d. I blame exhaustion and the bench finally looked shallow.. however dubs biggest weakness haas been playing cocky so this win might send them back to their old ways..

playing just 7 players will wear a team out.

Exactly. Some marion-miller-harris minutes are inevitable. Mike Miller played 6 minutes game 3 but they were enough to rest guys. Perk can set a few screens.. i think blatt got greedy when he saw how well they played the 1st 3 games.. time to readjust. At end of the day Cavs only hope is defense first game plan. They had totally got in Dubs head that way.. also Lebron shooting 35 wore out Iggy, its no surprise iggy played better without having to chase Lebron as much..
Smith AND shumpert can go cold same night.. i think Lebron got greedy too.. he lost to spurs by deferring to teammates that just weren't making shots. In these Finals he did opposite, just was relentless at taking shots. Cavs need two more games of LeKoberon instead of LeMagicbron.. if we see more 35 shot games they can pull off the upset

Indeed Iggy, Green, and Barnes all played bad the 1st three games cuz they were so tired from LeBron just carpet bombing the paint and hanging out in the Karl Malone spot. They were able to get their own offense going without having to worry about LeBron as much.. i expect that to change. And fuck it, let David Lee try to beat you, he can score but nOT defend so dare Kerr to leave him in when Lebron keeps hitting at em possession after possession.

the Cavs coach is sooooo lame...

He is but i think he deserves some credit for turning around this defense..

Where Blatt's lack of NBA experience stands out is his timeouts and rotations, he hasn't mastered the balance of using TV timeouts to your advantage. If you're playing a 7 man rotation, then you need to use end of quarters and TV timeouts to rest your starters.. needs tonbe looking for those opportunities to sub out starters at those junctions where it would only be a minute or two of game time but cuz of TV timeouts would translate to 7-10 minutes in real time..

I agree. That is a skill that too many coaches seem to ignore.

Rudy T was a master of it. He would put in old-ass Charles Jones (41 years old!) to spell Dream and, while the official minutes played for Jones would be1-2, the actual time Dream rested on the bench was like you say, 5-7 minutes. It made a difference.

Your insight serves you well......





Did Usher finally finish singing the National Anthem?

My favorite compilation of Dream moves. https://youtu.be/22O2lApCBBs

the move against the Knicks at 8:20 is so sweeeeet

Bytor i never know if your talking shit or not. I didn't mean less than 100 points, im talking total number of possessions. Cavs won those two games by limiting GS to under 90 possessions TOTAL each game. The less times you have the ball, less likely to score.

Also, be careful how much you insult my insights, who proved right about the rockets and who was wrong? I can wait...

Rob, that was AWESOME!

It's stories like the one Robert Horry shares that are priceless (and the one you shared about Mad Max).

I loved seeing all the old floors and arenas......too bad Dream didn't play when they had HD cameras mounted everywhere like today.


How Dellavedova of me:


Score one for Team Light Skin......

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2015/0...in/#more-87860
Interesting facts and numbers.. last night dubs did NOT play faster pace, just felt that way.. they didn't take that many more shots in either of their wins than their losses, and they really didn't have any less contested shots either. Reality is Cavs just were fatigued and missed most of theirs.. also in Dubs two losses they simply missed a lot of otherwise easy shots, last night they just went in.

The eye test first three games saw a beat down, shoulder shrugging Dubs. Last night saw a worn out Cavs..

Rudy T is a greater Coach than Phil Jackson or Popovich

I agree that Rudy T is a better person, and is a more personable coach, but Big Shot being nostalgic like when Shaq was saying he kinda sorta maybe regretted leaving the Magic. The luxury of winning multiple championships can sometimes distort memory. It also makes some forget exactly what went into winning em.. phil and pop's legacies speak for themselves

12 lead changes and six ties in an edge-of-your-seat thriller of a 1st half.

Golden State is now 5-0 this postseason when shooting at least 50% in a game.

Golden State improved to 58-0 when leading by 15+ points at any point in the game.

Stephen Curry's 37 points were the most by a Warrior in a Finals game since Rick Barry scored 38 on May 23, 1975.

Steph Curry's 17 points in 4th quarter ties for most in NBA Finals last 40 years.

Kerr on the 4th quarter: "That was just Steph taking over the game."

Stephen Curry is the only player in NBA history to record multiple games with at least seven three-pointers in the same Finals series.

Warriors players to collect at least 200 boards in a single postseason: Nate Thurmond, Wilt Chamberlain and Draymond Green.

Steve Nash: "Iggy irreplaceable this series"

The NBA logo (Jerry West) was the last player who won Finals MVP honors even though the Lakers lost to the Celtics......might happen for LeBron.



How good is LeBron? In the past 20 years, no other player has posted 20 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists in a 1st half of ANY game.

Cleveland's last 13 possessions before the Half:

LeBron ast
LeBron
LeBron ast
LeBron
LeBron ast
LeBron
LeBron ast
LeBron
LeBron ast
LeBron ast
LeBron
LeBron
LeBron

After LeBron put Cleveland up 80-79 w/ long 3, 7:47 left, Curry outscored Cavs 15-11 rest of game. For game: Curry 37pts, 13-23 FG, 7-13 on 3's



Warriors improved to 48-4 at home this season (.923). Golden State has not lost back-to-back home games in the 2014-15 campaign.

So Robert Horry lived and experienced it......but according to you, he remembers it wrong?

Are you definite about this or just being defiant?

For those who may have missed the National Anthem

that was funny seeing Metallica doing the national anthem!

About rob saying rudy t is better coach? I think the 16 rings between pop and phil speak for themselves. I ain't being defiant, just sharing my sincere thoughts. Just because big shot was there doesn't mean his memory 20 years later may not be a bit distorted by nostalgia. Like i said is rudy t the better person? Hands down. Id rather be friends with him than those other two assholes any day. But would i rather him or they coach my team? Resumes are just more competitive.

The reigning MVP has NEVER lost NBA Finals when leading series 3-2 (13-0 all-time).


Speaking off......on this day in 1998, the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan hit the game-winning shot in the NBA Finals vs Utah

That's true.. eventually the streak may end, not seeming likely this time. Anything can happen, i mean heaven forbid but Cleveland is weakened because of a freak injury in Game 1, somebody big on Dubs gets hurt could change the series. But as it is, dubs got it in their pocket

True, anything can happen......like LeBron pulling another disappearance / MIA performance in an elimination game. I doubt this happens, but it has in the past.

Lebron's only disappearance was in 2011, he has been the hands down best player in every playoff series since then, even in the loss to Spurs lasr year he showed up, its rest of Heat that crumbled. I can forsee a game like Game 5 though.. a Lebron does everything for the team but the other guys fall short defensively in the 4th..

We can't blame this on Lebron this time or last time. No excuses for him either, i mean he has to get it done or he is like Karl Malone with better jewelry

Hence the comparison between the two......in the scenario you presented, a streak eventually must come to an end. In my scenario, history would need to repeat itself.

Respect to Warriors they handled they biz..

Hard to think what it could have been with Kyrie let alone kyrie and love but is what it is. Only God crowns the victory.

I knew that the Cavs would lose the moment LeBron answered the question of "are you worried?" with "I'm the best player in the world."

I hate how when the NBA's "poster boy" is BEATEN the talk the next day is 10% "The Warriors won a championship!" and 90% "How did LeBron lose this? What will LeBron do? How does this affect LeBron? How will the Cavs help LeBron next year?"

The fuckers did the same ting after the Rockets won their championship. SI failed to release a special issue for them, as they had done for every single NBA Champ the decade prior, and all the talk was of how NY was gonna fix things, how NY lost, how Starks got cold. Fuck that shit.

^^^Last two NBA champs (Spurs, Warriors) ended the league's brief Big Three-era......TEAM ball, balanced and deep rosters!

GSW won with depth and versatile playmakers......no one trick pony specialists.



Draymond Green's triple-double (14 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) is the first by a Warrior in The Finals in franchise history.

Only Draymond Green and Ervin Johnson are the only two players in the history of Basketball to have triple-doubles in a NCAA Championship Game and a NBA Finals clinching game.

Warriors have become the first team to win the NBA title with a roster without any previous Finals experience since the 1990-91 Bulls.

GSW have the 3rd most wins in a Championship season......Steve Kerr was a player / coach of all three:

1995-96 Chicago (87)
1996-97 Chicago (84)
2014-15 GSW (83)

Steve Kerr giving credit to Steve Nash and Mike D'Antoni. "I think Mike and Steve in many ways set the table for Steph Curry."

Steve Kerr first Rookie Head Coach to lead a team to a NBA Championship since Pat Riley did it for the LA Lakers.

LeBron James in the 2015 Finals.

GM 1: 44 points 8 rebounds 6 assists
GM 2: 39 points 16 rebounds 11 assists
GM 3: 40 points 12 rebounds 8 assists
GM 4: 20 points 12 rebounds 8 assists
GM 5: 40 points 12 rebounds 8 assists
GM 6: 32 points 18 rebounds 9 assists

LeBron James is the only player in Finals history to lead all players in points, rebounds and assists.

LeBron's legacy doesn't stack up favorably against other NBA stars to today:



LeBron James: ""I haven't thought about next season, at all."



Dirk Nowitzki: "Congrats to the golden state warriors. They were the best team all year."

Andre Iguodala: "We gone be championship!!!!"

First NBA Player to NOT start any regular season games and win NBA Finals MVP.

Why did he win it......when Iguodala was on the floor, LeBron shot 38% and the Cleveland was -55. When he sat, LeBron shot 44% and the Cleveland was +30.

Steph Curry on Iguodala: "Obviously he was special and he deserved that MVP, the way he impacted the game at both ends"

How the voting went:


Whoever thought this AI would have a Ring and Finals MVP award before the other AI?