Transcription
Alright man, peace. So brothers, as we all know, aging is a very unfortunate part of life. It is going to happen to every last one of us. And in the sports world, athletes actually die twice. Their athletic career dies, and then they actually die later on in their lives. And we see them creep towards mortality on the football field, on the baseball diamond, in the boxing ring. And it happens incrementally, and then all of a sudden, they just fall off.
In boxing, the great Muhammad Ali was known for being able to dance around the ring for 15 rounds. And then after his three and a half year layoff, he had to take breaks in the middle of the round. And that led to him taking punishment that he did not have to take. In the 1960s, because he had great natural stamina and footwork. In the 70s, because he did not have the best defensive principles or fundamentals, he would get hit by fighters like Joe Frazier, and Ken Norton, and George Foreman, etc.
And football, at one point in his career, Jerry Rice was the most dynamic, game-breaking receiver in the NFL. Despite the fact that he only ran about a four-six, but he could stretch the field like no other wide receiver. He could break the game open like no other wide receiver. And after his injury where Warren Sapp tore his kneecap in the backfield, he came back and he was still a relatively good wide receiver. But he became relegated to crossing routes and intermediate patterns. Well, he would just catch a little button hook or tenure out round, etc.
And baseball, we've seen certain hitters like Ken Griffey Jr., who at one point could knock the baseball 450 feet to right field. After a while, because his bat speed slowed down, they would pop flies to second, or pop flies to the right fielder, or to the first baseman.
And basketball, I think that we're starting to see LeBron James's mortality creep up on him. And it oftentimes starts at the defensive end, because that's where your reflexes and your foot movement are so integral. I remember when Michael Jordan first started to show age. It was incremental in the second three-peat with the Chicago Bulls, but you could see it at times where he would just beat his man baseline and dunk over the center in the first three-peat era. In the second three-peat era, he'd take two hard dribbles and just fade over his man. By the time he is with the Wizards, it was a bunch of pump fakes because he couldn't even jump over the defender anymore on his fadeaway.
Will LeBron James, he's still able to leap over his opponents, his defenders. He can still accelerate relatively well. He's in great physical condition. But I do see some age. And it always starts on defense. And it's been that way for a while now. Really for like the last four or five years, LeBron has pretty much taken off on defense. And he's finally starting to get called out about it. Because he's trying to pass the buck to the young guys on the team, hoping that many of his plants in the mainstream liberal sports media will pick up on it and blame them for a lot of his defensive foibles.
So anyway, they don't care. Because at the end of the day, you're gonna fall back on the "my legacy's already set" argument. That's all you're gonna do. If you play against the Houston Rockets, and they constantly run pick and rolls to get you switched out on Chris Paul or James Harden, you're gonna get roasted. Everybody knows that. But all you gonna say is, "I'm just a young kid, format grid. I never thought I was gonna get here. I won three championships. I scored more points than Michael Jordan. I got more assists, so and so. When I got more rebounds, so and so." So, you know, it's okay. Maybe I'm not quite the defensive player that I once would be, but I can still stop most of the guys in the league. That's all you gonna say. It's not good. Off they have you playing free safety, they're trying to hide you. You're playing the same defensive position right now that Larry Bird played in his last five years with the Celtics. So let's not try to act like you still gonna shut people down. Yeah, you know what you do. Form all right, you raise a damn blood pressure.
LeBron's like one of these chicks. He's like LeBron, like the wife of one of these dudes who's scared to come home after work because they're like, "What am I gonna have to deal with this [ __ ] now? I'm gonna walk through the door and she's gonna claim something happened. She's gonna be screaming on me for 20 minutes as soon as I walk in the door." That's LeBron James. He got them poor young boys, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo and Josh Hart, scared to coming to the locker room because of what? "Hey, hey, how come you didn't grab my man after he put two got your man in my man? I'm the free safety, you know, I got you guys back." Oh, yes, I do.
Number one, LeBron is lying. Not the first time. He does kick his teammates. It's not all that matters to criticism from the public as well. That's number one. Number two, he's me a very, very slick with his quote, right? As usual. I'm not gonna for that. All right, if you slick, you slick. It's all right. But here's how he's being slick. He's acting as if folks were saying he can't play defense. That is not what people are saying. What people are saying is that you pick and choose and chosen rather several occasions where you don't play deep. It. I don't think that LeBron would deny that. I think that LeBron contention is, "Our defensive schematics are set up so that I don't have to play one-on-one defense anymore." So people who are watching me on the basketball floor just stand there and watch one of my teammates guys drive past them and expected me to help. I don't have to help unless I want to, because I'm LeBron James. That's his point. His real point is that the viewers don't understand that the system is set up so that he only has to play offense. That's LeBron's point. And beyond that, if the opposing team wants me to guard one of their best players one-on-one, it don't really matter because I've already accomplished so much in the NBA that I had to end of the game, even if we lose, I have something to fall back on.
LeBron, LeBron, the master of the matador defense, pointing the finger at others, equal rather than yourself, to think you are culpable for not others. It's the issue. Nobody's questioning the abilities of LeBron James. We know what he can do. Even in the sixties, empty channel, three-time champion, four-time league MVP, eight straight finals, nine overall. There is nobody with six who can't question the greatness of LeBron James. What we have been questioning is the will. Because the thing, well, I'm not quite sure if it's fair to question the will either. Now, if you want to say that you wanna question the verb that he shows on defense, according to your sensibilities and what you want to see, I mean, we've been watching this for the last five years, right? Now, this is how he's played defense the last five years or so. So it's really nothing new. He does okay because of the reasons that Max has articulated on several occasions where you've been in the league this long and as a result, you know, you can afford to take some plays off because your every plan in league love seeing LeBron switch out on them like the highway 23 because you know what your responsibilities are sensibly. That's totally understandable. It makes sense. The problem is when you know that an assignment is yours, when you have elected to take plays off, and then in front of thousands of people in attendance and millions of people watching, you are demonstrably pointing the finger at your teammate because Steve Naismith. Hello, LeBron stated this earlier in the season. Remember when he said, "These young guys in here complaining about being tired?" He said, "When I was their age, I never got tired." That was his way of saying, "You guys are gonna have to pick up the slack on defense." It's already been agreed upon in their defensive schematics that the other four defenders for the Lakers are gonna have to make up for what LeBron lacks on defense because he's going to be expected to lead the team on offense. I promise you, that's what's been agreed upon already. It's obvious. Why do you think he's so brazen and pointing the finger at everybody else for their alleged offensive foibles? Because, sorry, Ben agreed that they have to make up for where he lacks on defense. LeBron don't feel like playing defense anymore. Steve Naismith, ever since the NBA jobs him either at Defensive Player of the Year award, 23 team, LeBron said, "Bump that. I'm not even playing defense anymore because they're gonna give me the award, not you." It's a problem. And why is it a problem? Because of what Kevin Durant said earlier in the season, playing with him, the expectations that come with it, media members at other sports all over him. He can do no wrong, so it must be somebody else's fault. That's part of it. Combined with play, it's naturally feeling that way because others have alluded to it to it as well. As a result, it puts them basically in the position of a bully pulpit to some degree where you're able to point the finger at other people, and there's little bit nothing that they can do because they don't have the cachet or the credentials to their question LeBron James, let alone speak out. A kids tip, and LeBron can afford to sully the reputation of many of his younger teammates because for the most part, he knows that he has so many plants in liberal sports media, they're gonna give him a pass. But once again, I promise you, there ain't no. When I say they, I'm talking about his younger teammates that they're going to have to guard his man. They're gonna have to help guard LeBron's man.
Cleveland has established himself as an established himself as a champion at the top and still couldn't be but so forthcoming about what turned him off. So that is right. But you guys know what it was that turned Kyrie Irving off? It's just that you're not at liberty to say so on national television. Exactly what caused that major fissure between LeBron James and Kyrie. But I'm pretty sure that it does not have to do strictly with basketball. So that you shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, then. Because when you first said, "Well, I said that's not really fair because LeBron James's will is always to win." He might not go about it the right way. We know that he loves to stat pad. But he also needs to win because he's chasing Jordan. So we know what that means. He has to put up, at the very least, the appearance of somebody who wants to win. He might not have the best team basketball IQ, but when it comes to individual basketball IQ, he's up there with anybody who's ever played. So that's the issue with LeBron. He's a spoiled brat. He's been told that he's perfect throughout his entire basketball life. So it's difficult to change him now. You pretty much just have to deal with him. It's just a willingness to point the finger at other people publicly. That is what this is about, not what he's trying to make it about. People question his ability because nobody would sit what question his ability. But that, well, hey, let me say this. Maybe he's hiding something. Maybe he's protesting so much because deep down, he's starting to question his own defensive abilities. Maybe he feels insecure about that. That's the trade-off you make as you become an aging superstar, still capable of winning championships. One of the reasons I think Michael Jordan walked away, and they walked away again, is because Jordan played 82 games a season, 40 minutes a game through the playoffs, both ends of the floor, every play, right? Well, if you let Cabela's tell it, the reason why Jordan left the game the first time is because the NBA forced him out. How true that is or not, who knows. But I do know this. Michael Jordan, quietest kept, he actually wanted to retire after the first championship. He wanted to retire to the first championship and go play baseball. But he was convinced to come back. Both he and his father wanted to leave basketball after 1991 and go try baseball. But he was convinced by many people in the Chicago Bulls organization, maybe even the commissioner, to come back and continue to play. And if I remember correctly, Jordan really wanted to retire after 1990. He was so frustrated with not winning the championship, and they convinced him to stay around and just to see it all through. Phil Jackson convinced him to stay around and see the team through to the fruition of what they had been working on for the previous three years. Jordan agreed, he came back much stronger, and they finally were able to get over the hump. But I know for a fact he wanted to retire after the first championship because he was done with basketball, at least in his mind, after the first championship, and he was going to go try to conquer baseball. They convinced him to stay for another two years, he won the three-peat, and then he left for whatever reason. Came back, played 82, 82, 82, and he wanted to keep playing again. But Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf wanted his handler, Phil Jackson, out of the picture. Hey, that's because he's the greatest ever and he was superhuman. But even he had to be like, "Whoa, I need a break." And then eventually walked away before he came back for the Wizards. Doesn't even count because it just, he was spent. But guys like Kobe, LeBron, first met Kobe before him, who just plays season after season after season after season to pace themselves. Who simply can't play every game, 40 minutes a game, both ends of the floor, and still be a great player without your body falling apart. And still be a great player, given the number of minutes LeBron James has on those legs, the miles LeBron James has on those legs already.
So what are the issues Kobe faced too? As you age, if you can no longer lead by example on defense when your team needs you offensively, you have to take plays off. And yet you still have to lead. And that doesn't rub everyone the right way. So Kobe had Metta right in that second run-in at Metta, so Ron Artest, find that Metta World Peace. So that dude is going to play defense on every play, and he can be the enforcer. He could be the kind of camión that Derrick Fisher is going to play defense on every play as well. So Kobe was fortunate to have other players who enjoy playing defense. LeBron James also has other players that enjoy playing defense. The difference is that the NBA today is so offensively geared, it's extremely difficult to stop anybody anymore. It was a disaster because Kobe wanted it to be a disaster. Kobe wanted to break Dwight Howard down first to show him that I'm the boss of LA, I always will be the boss of LA, and you'll get the keys when I feel like handing them to you. That's why their relationship never worked. On top of that, Dwight just was not built to be a winner. But I will say this, had Dwight Howard had the right tutelage, you never know how far he could have went. Because at the end of the day, even though Dwight Howard's name is besmirched for a myriad of reasons, most of them being his fault, he still was able to lead his team to an NBA Finals appearance in 2009 in a season where the soldiers were without Kevin Garnett because he was injured. So who knows how different that series turns out if Kevin Garnett no were healthy. So that's something certainly to consider. But Dwight Howard, he's kind of a conundrum when he's considered because people forget how great he was. Though at, Howard was considered either the second or third best player, arguably in the NBA, for about a five-year stretch from about 2007 to about 2012. But you know what? At this point in my career, I can't be that kind of defensive player. I'm the captain of the offense. You're the captain of the defense. The problem with Laprade is, who's the captain of the defense? If he had a Draymond Green on the team, Steve, today, this would work much better. He simply doesn't. Who is that guy on the Lakers to take that responsibility? A veteran with the energy and the kind of authority and leadership. Don't do it. There's no need to look for a veteran on the Lakers who could back up LeBron James. You know why there's no need to do that? Because LeBron James didn't do that before you decided to sign. At no point did LeBron James look at their roster and he had the list of players on the team and say to himself, "I'm not going to sign here because there's not another veteran to back me up defensively." He looked at the roster and said, "Okay, let's see what we could do with this." You know why? Because the reason why he came to LA had nothing to do with basketball. It had nothing to do with that. It was cultic and it was ritualistic and it was also economic. But just getting back to the Dwight Howard point, once again, at one time Dwight was bubbling as a top three player, maybe even top two depending on your list, certainly top five. Because in that era from the late 2000s to the early 2010s, yeah, LeBron, yeah, Kobe, yeah, Dwight, yeah, Tim Duncan, yeah, Carmelo, yes, CP3. You got Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce was still kind of sorta, you know, in that top 10 area. KG was in that top 10 area, you know, just because of his defense. But yeah, Dwight Howard, I mean, then he went like four straight Defensive Player of the Year awards or three straight, something like that. I think Ben Wallace won four straight. So I think Dwight Howard may have won three straight. But he was an incredible player for about a five-year stretch.
The young kids are looking at LeBron like, "Yo, don't point at me. You're not doing it either." And this is what happened to Kobe. Do it happens at this stage in their careers. That's why the Lakers must have that kind of guy on the team. They simply don't right now. Yeah, Max, you're absolutely right. But that's not the point. The point is what LeBron is saying is, he's talking. Is it people are questioning his defensive ability? Five-time All-First-Team Defensive Player in his career. We know that he has the ability to lock somebody down at key pivotal moments of the game. I saw him do it the other night against New Orleans. We know what he can bring to the table. He's the one that had to go about the business of guarding Julius Randle because Julius Randle was busy bullying everybody else on the Lakers. It is bad. Do you use Randle as a beast? And just goes to show you once again with Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis have pieces to work with. But I'm not mad at Anthony for this reason because I understand and I think that he understands that he's not a leader. He's not an alpha. So I actually think that he's gonna fit in relatively well with LeBron James should he get there. So this is a guy that I would have liked to still seen on the Los Angeles Lakers because I like the fire in his belly, which I think some of those other dudes are lacking. Having said that, I mean, honestly, you know, just thinking about it, you look at a healthy Elfrid Payton. A healthy Elfrid Payton is commensurate with Rajon Rondo at the very least, in my opinion. Then you have a Jrue Holiday, one at the top, certainly top 10 two-way players in the NBA, if not top five. You had a Nikola Mirotic before he got traded. You had a Julius Randle. I mean, who plays bully ball and who can score after 15 feet, maybe even 20 feet, and you can't do nothing with that? And you're Anthony Davis. That's how you know the fix was in because they were talking that [ __ ] even before the season started when Anthony Davis was sitting down at the day is at the podium trying to act like he was a team player.
The problem with LeBron as it pertains to the Lakers is really the same problem that has plagued LeBron James in the eyes of critics throughout his career, it being that he's full of [ __ ]. It's no one questioning his ability. This is what I mean when I say he's trying to change the narrative. No one questions his ability. We know what he can do. The problem is is that one who or rare occasions when he's not willing to do it, he points the finger at somebody else. And there's nobody, there's no recourse for them. They can't come back at LeBron James. That's why do we know why? Because they in Syria to him. Wait a minute, Max, but this is my point. It doesn't matter if I'm superior to you, but you have a responsibility and I have a responsibility, and I ignore my responsibilities. Well, once again, it's alleged that LeBron is ignoring his responsibilities. It's alleged. Maybe once again, maybe this may be the game plan defensively. LeBron just standing the paint and just hope for the best. We're gonna let you rest on defense, and then we'll let you run the show on offense. I'm pretty sure that we're gonna find out from Luke Walton after the season, once he gets fired, exactly what the game plan was. When these dudes, you know, run out of sorry offense, right? And LeBron has to pick up the slack, right? Does he want a pat on the back? He just picks up the slack because they don't have another great offense. You know, you know, it's so funny. And I say this all the time, and this is how you know that there's something rotten in Denmark with LeBron James and his decision-making when it comes to what team he decides to play for. You're LeBron James, supposedly you want to catch Jordan. I understand you can't go to a stacked team at this point in your career with the accolades that you've achieved because you know how it's going to look. But there are other teams who were one player away from being considered a serious championship contender. And you don't, not only do you not give them a serious look, but you go to a team filled with neophytes and nobody really understands why. And then you create this energy which is toxic. And now even you've admitted to it that you like to promote toxicity by climbing that you like to feel uncomfortable. What does that really mean? You're saying that you like to promote toxicity in your atmosphere, especially in your basketball locker room. Now, as I've stated in other videos, when somebody says that they like to be uncomfortable, that's not always a bad thing. Sometimes they're just saying that they want to push the envelope. They want to, as LeBron will say, strive for greatness. But at the same time, if you're going out of your way to create chaos where there is none, if you're trying to purposefully provoke people, that can wear on your teammates, that can break them down as much as build them up, even more than build them up, especially if they're not prepared for whatever your tactics are. So LeBron James is certainly a complex case, at least for those people who don't understand what they're looking for. My element, he's saying, look, when we really need to stop, and I believe that's the game plan. What? Well, you kind of are. Steven A, you can point it, but you call cats out publicly. Max, they wonder what is the problem with the team because Steve basically, who LeBron incentives that we agreed that I'm just gonna stand there and you guys are gonna guard your man and then if my man were to get past me, you'd help me with that [ __ ] and I'll take over an office because most y'all can't shoot. So that's why LeBron is calling them out publicly. I don't agree with that, but that's why he's doing it because he's pissed off and he knows it's going to look bad on him. Right now, there are no other superstars on the team. And because Brandon Ingram is playing so well offensively, as is Kyle Kuzma, the veil is starting to come off of that media narrative. People are starting to shun the notion that LeBron James is carrying his teammates. So he knows now that if the, if the sport highlight shows are starting to focus on his alleged mistakes on defense, he has to do something to cover himself. I'm not saying he's doing it perfectly, but if these guys won't play defense, what do you want to do? Do it. Max, yes or no? I have to check the defensive ratings to figure out exactly who's playing defense or who's not. But I don't think that's truly the answer. I don't think that's going to reveal anything because once again, those young guys are expected to guard one and a half men, their own men, and half of LeBron James's guy. No, he's not. But anyway, that's basically it on that. I think that Miley Karen was, she was trying to play LeBron a little bit there with that last question. So we'll see what happens over the course of this season. I guarantee you this, the Lakers will not make the playoffs if they continue to run that same defense. But LeBron James allowed to do nothing. I don't think that they're gonna make the playoffs period. Right now, as of right now, I'm making this video coming off of their loss to Milwaukee. I'm not quite sure if they're gonna make it. If I had to bet, if I had to put money down, I would say no. But if they were to still make it, would I be surprised? No, because they have LeBron James and they also have a commissioner who understands the importance of having LeBron James in the playoffs. The only thing is that right now, I think they're looking at the standings and they're saying to themselves, "Do we really want LeBron and the playoffs in the first round against Golden State?" Unless we could find a way to get Denver to the number one seed, Golden State to the number two seed, then we get the Lakers to the eighth seed. And and we can have LeBron maybe go on a magic carpet ride where he could lead a number eight seeded team against Denver, beat them in the first round, and then from there, we'll just let the chips fall where they may. So that might be the game plan. We'll see. Anyway, peace.