Not everyone was as wrong as Skip Bayless on this series. I replied right away to his silly tweet as it was clear after the San Antonio series that Oklahoma City was a team to be reckoned with.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook now have a team around them with some size, so OKC has length along with being perhaps the most athletic team in the NBA. Meanwhile, Steph Curry was awfully quiet for an MVP.
Let’s see what happens next. This should be a great series!
Guys love to debate sports, but have we reached the point in time with too much sports talk? With so much sports talk and debate on TV and radio, we’re bound to be subjected to the likes of Skip Bayless. He talks so much that he’s bound to make some good points, and in some ways he’s pretty good at addressing the psychological aspect of sports. But that’s all he does. And he relies so much on unwavering opinions, which just dumbs down the debate.
Here’s a clip of Mark Cuban vs Skip Bayless, where frankly both of them make some good points. Cuban respects real sports talk that analyses the game and the strategies. Bayless loves grand proclamations about which player or team “wanted it more.”
It’s all a matter of taste I guess. Check out this profile of Skip Bayless and you’ll at least have some perspective on where this guy is coming from.
Bayless gave Chris Bosh the nickname “Bosh Spice,” and Bosh came on “First Take” to talk to him about it.
On Monday, I wrote a long piece about how Michael Jordan’s assertion that he never would have called Larry Bird or Magic Johnson up and figured out a way to join forces with them isn’t a fair comparison to Miami’s new Super Friends.
Now Magic Johnson is getting into the act, per Bloomberg News:
“We didn’t think about it cause that’s not what we were about,” said Johnson, whose Michigan State squad beat Bird’s Indiana State team in the 1979 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. “From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”
“It was never a question in our mind because nobody has ever done that,” he said.
So which is it, Magic? You didn’t think about it because that’s not what you were about or because nobody had ever done it before? Because those are two completely different reasons not to do something.
While Michael’s comparison holds a little bit of water since the Bulls didn’t look like a championship-caliber team until after his fourth season (when he signed his eight-year deal), Magic Johnson joined a stacked Lakers team and won a title as a rookie. In fact, he won two titles in his first three years and went to eight Finals in his first 10 years (winning five titles total). What about that situation gives him the perspective to comment on LeBron’s decision to leave Cleveland to chase a ring? Of course he didn’t try to join forces with Larry or Michael — HE WAS ALREADY ON A STACKED TEAM.
Next up, Larry Bird. Let’s get this over with.
(By the way, I’m still trying to figure out who Chris Bosh is supposed to be in this comparison. He’s a good player, but Larry or Magic he’s not.)
For at least a year now, we’ve been hearing people criticize LeBron for potentially (and now actually) leaving the Cavs to play with another superstar. One of the arguments they often bring up is how Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson would never have left Chicago, Boston or L.A. to form a dynasty elsewhere.
Now, even Jordan has said that he wouldn’t have called those guys up and tried to join forces.
“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ ” Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”
Skip Bayless, in his infinite wisdom, has been saying this for months, and took this moment to gloat a bit about what MJ said.
“Michael said, ‘I’m going to stay in Chicago.'”
In September of 1988, coming off his first MVP, Jordan signed an eight-year deal worth $25 million. (Soak those numbers in for a moment…the greatest player ever to play the game made about $3 million a season in his prime. Amazing.) The Bulls were 50-32 the previous season (Scottie Pippen’s first year in the league) and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. So his playing situation was not unlike LeBron’s, though I don’t think too many NBA stars would choose the city of Cleveland over Chicago.
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