*Guest Post* - LeBaby

The Dallas Mavericks finally won their first NBA Championship and you can pretty much say all of America was supporting them, even the Laker fans who just got shocked in the western conference semifinals. Everybody respects Dirk and Kidd, and felt they deserved a championship, but there was a different reason why America rallied behind the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron James went from being one of the most loved players in the NBA to by far the most hated and criticized player around. He is the reason we all wanted Dallas to win; It wasn't because we wanted Dirk to finally get his ring but it was because we love seeing LeBron fail. 


He deems himself the chosen one and the king. He also claimed he will bring 7 championships to the Miami Heat. Lets focus on winning that first one Lebron. You cant be a king without a ring but I do believe you are the chosen one. You have been chosen to fail, to choke, and to be hated, and its all on you. 


You gave up in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, you got swept in your first finals appearance, and you could not be found in the 4th quarter of this years championship against Dallas. You claim to be the best, the most talented, and the most gifted, but in the world of the NBA you arent considered amongst the greats unless you have won championships. So who are you? Well let me tell you...

You used to talk in the third person, which is beyond annoying and exceedingly arrogant. Your whole decision process and the way you went about it was disrespectful, over the top, and just plain wrong. You had every right to switch teams and join miami, but you should have been humble about it and shouldn't have turned it into this huge ordeal.  You had a shot to back it all up by winning the finals but you failed once again. 


After the game LeBron was quoted saying : “Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don’t,” “The Greater Man upstairs know [sic] when it's my time. Right now isn't the time,” First off God has nothing to do with this, so lets discard that comment. And two, its all on you when your time is. You choked thats why you lost, its plain and simple. When MJ and Kobe one the championships it wasnt because it was there time. It was because they took over dominated and found a way to win. It was on them and they made it their time. 


A true champion goes out and grabs it, they dont wait for it to come to them. So LeBron, work on your game and study basketball as Kobe does. You are extremely athletically gifted but have a lot to work on. Work on your footwork and your post game. Become a basketball genius. Love the pressure, dominate the 4th quarter, be known as LeClutch instead of LeChoke, but most of all stop portraying yourself as the arrogant and childish man in the media. 


I have actually heard around the NBA that you are a nice guy, but why doesn't that come out in media. All we as fans hear is your cockiness, ignorance, and immature being that is LeBron. Love being loved and hate being hated, not the other way around. Maybe after all of this you could salvage your reputation, but at the pace your going at right now things are not looking too good. After the Mavs won last night twitter and facebook were instantly filled with updates. A few cheering on the Mavs, but the majority were bashing and hating on LeBron. 


You may be the first person in the NBA where people love to see you lose. People actually hop on the bandwagon of every team you play because they want to see you fail and you give them every reason to do so. Congrats on being the new NBA Champions Dallas and Congrats Lebron on being the NBA's most hated player. 

Guest Post by Jamie Silverman (@jamessilverman1)

Top 500 Basketball Players of All-Time

Slam Magazine recently released a new top 500 list of NBA players and frankly the only two people pleased with this list must be Michael Jordan and Pervis Ellison. Yes, obviously Michael was first, and for those of you who haven't heard of Pervis before, he made the list at a respectable position, #500.

Now anyone who makes a list of 500 players of all time in any sport will receive more than a lot of criticism. Take that amount of hatred and multiply it by 100 because that is how bad this top 500 NBA list that Slam magazine came out with is. To start, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is somewhat high being at #7; especially when Shaquille O'Neal is #4. Then you continue down the list and see that Tim Duncan is 8th while Kobe Bryant, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Hakeem Olajuwon are 10-13 respectively. For all those Lebron James fans out there, he was placed at #31 behind Rick Barry, George Mikan, and John Havlicek; just to name a few.

I could go on for days about how wrong almost every player on this list is, but instead I will try to explain why and how Slam made these mistakes. The players on this list are only ranked by their statistics. Every basketball fan understands that a lot more goes into a star than just their numbers. Furthermore, the players that were going at it back in the day got screwed. Any ABA stats that some of the old greats had, such as Artis Gilmore, were not counted thus dropping them between 50-150 places on the list. Also, Steve Kerr, a 5-time NBA champion had his name excluded as well because he most likely didn't have a stat or two that Pervis did. I mean who cares about championships anyway, right?

The next problem is the list only includes what the individuals have done as PLAYERS, and the NBA is composed of so much more. For example, Phil Jackson (the all-time winningest man in NBA history), Pat Riley and John Wooden were all left off the list. What about historical personnel to the NBA? Don't they mean anything? What about the first African-American players to participate in the league…To me they mean more to the game today then 450 players on that list. Charles Cooper and Earl Lloyd were the Jackie Robinson of the NBA (to a lesser extent that is).

To be considered for the list in the first place, you must have played on an NBA roster for at least 5 seasons. That's too bad because I thought Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose were pretty solid players. I must be confused because I was always under the impression that the NBA Scoring Title and the MVP awards were somewhat significant.

I have tried not to look too much into the rankings and just get the overall feel of who is in and who is out, but I cannot help myself anymore…I was unaware that there are 85 NBA players that are better than Dwight Howard and even more that are better than Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. Oh yeah and I can easily name 143 players that have more impact on games than Amar'e Stoudemire. I mean come on Slam, Ron Artest is better than Manu Ginobili and Amar'e? Yao Ming, "Mr. Injured," gets to play a season or two and since he is a giant he gets #154.

All in all, most of the top 500 players of all-time are in this list, just most of them are in very wrong places. Check out the list yourself and let me know what you think!!!

KOBE over LEBRON!!!

Who is better, Kobe or Lebron? The Black Mamba or King James? People that ask that question make me laugh…I just want to scream out "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" They just know absolutely zero about the game, because Lebron James does not even compare to Kobe or other NBA greats.

DEFENSE:

To be honest, Lebron James definitely takes on more defensive responsibility than Kobe does, but that is not to say that Kobe cannot defend. Lebron consistently gets more blocks, steals and forces for turnovers than Kobe, but there is not a coach in the league who wouldn't put Kobe on the list as one of the top five on-ball defenders in the league. Bryant's defense is often overlooked because of his tremendous offensive output…Nonetheless, Lebron 1, Kobe 0.

SHOOTING:

Hello? 81 points? Kobe Bryant can make shots from literally anywhere on the basketball court. He has the best shooting skills in the game; and I don't mean just shots he makes, but he uses every possible shot fake, step back, footwork to gain an extra inch of space for that unstoppable jumper. Yes, I know some of you are saying Lebron has a better shooting percentage. And yes that is true. But can he honestly shoot better than Kobe? No, he gets more layups and dunks and doesn't see as many double teams because he is surrounded by Dwyane Wade (another player that is possibly better than Lebron) and Chris Bosh. Truthfully he can't create shots like Kobe can and when he draws the fouls down low, he can't finish at the free-throw line. Before I thrash Lebron's jumper anymore…Lebron 1, Kobe 1.

ATHLETICISM:

I don't even know what I have to write about this. Lebron James is a freak of nature and there might never have been a more athletic player at his size in history. No argument here…Lebron 2, Kobe 1.

COURT VISION:

Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul and Jason Kidd…that is who Lebron passes like. Although Kobe is averaging about 5 assist per game and is no doubt a very skilled passer, he has been known as a "selfish" player for too long in his career to win this one. And passing to Bynum and Gasol down low means automatic assists much of the time…Lebron 3, Kobe 1

EFFICIENCY:

With many people saying in the past that Kobe's shooting selection has hurt his teams at times, this is a hard one to win for him. At times the Los Angeles Lakers offense has become stagnant due to the wild jumpers he has been known to take. Don't get me wrong though, Kobe more often than not can drill these acrobatic jumpers. Now this isn't as big of a runaway as some might think for Lebron as he averages almost 4 turnovers a game: ranking him among the league leaders. With a better shot selection, Lebron edges out Kobe here…Lebron 4, Kobe 1

DETERMINATION AND WILL TO WIN:

Jackson, Jordan, Johnson, Jabbar, all say that Kobe Bryant has possibly the best work ethic the game has ever seen. He has the most intense focus and determination on perfecting every aspect of his game. For example, he spent the summer with Hakeem Olajuwon understanding and perfecting his footwork that made the big man so feared among competitors. Furthermore, Bryant has the hardest daily workout of almost anyone in this world and his discipline and preparation are an obvious illustration of his maturation into one of the best ever, if not the best (we will save that for another day). On the other hand, Lebron has an amazing work ethic during the season, but his off-season activities have prevented him from fixing some of the more obvious flaws in his game. And don't get me started on will to win with Lebron- Last Year Boston Celtics…Lebron 4, Kobe 2

PERSEVERANCE, PERSISTANCE, TOUGHNESS:

Broken index finger, knee surgery, bad ankle, bad back, etc…Those are only a few problems Kobe Bryant has. If he can walk, he can score and he will play. Kobe Bryant plays with a broken index finger on his shooting hand that made him have to change his jump shot just to be able to deal with the pain. That is a warrior..Oh and by the way, Lebron bruised his elbow and decided to shoot with the other hand because his funny bone hurt :( 

Well this was easy…Baby Lebron 4, Kobe 3

LEADERSHIP:

Ask Cleveland how great of a leader Lebron James was! They are still probably burning his jersey over there. We have all seen what Lebron can do when trying to lead a team to a title: he fails, cries and runs to a super hero, Flash. Lebron is obviously a great leader and coach on the floor, but he needs to get fierce and put his teammates in place and carry them on his back at the right time…he just doesn't know when that is yet. Yes, Kobe has Jackson and Fisher along side him, but his leadership gives confidence to his teammates. Although not as loud as Lebron, Kobe leads by example with both work ethic and performance. He demands perfection from everyone in the organization…Lebron 4, Kobe 4

WHO'S CLUTCH & WHO'S SCARED?

Well this is the easiest one I have answered so far. Yes, people will always say that they both have a bad percentage in late game moments. Well very few people can make every late game shot…look at Jordan, his biggest highlight is an offensive foul on Bryon Russell. All I know is Kobe's late game moments have led to wins, records and championships. I can count Lebron's winners: 2007 against Detroit, one over Hedo Turkoglu a few years back, and about 1/10 this year…can you count Kobe's? Lebron 4, Kobe 5

BLING:

Last, but obviously not least, championships. I just LOL'd. Do you think Lebron knows what a championship ring looks like? I'm pretty sure Kobe knows what 5 different ones look like. He is one away from Jordan and right on pace with Magic. Lebron did make it to the finals once though! Then he was swept embarrassingly by the Spurs. Whoops! Game over…Lebron 4, Kobe 6

Lebron may have better overall stats, more triple-doubles and more athleticism. If that was all basketball counted as, then he is the best EVER! But truthfully, basketball is all about production and winning. Kobe has proven time and time again that he is the ultimate winner. I have never heard "who is the next Lebron?" I constantly hear "who is the next Kobe and will there ever be another like him?"

Is Dirk Nowitzki the Best Shooter in the Game?

48 points on 15 field goal attempts is practically unheard of and basically impossible. Those are the numbers Dirk Nowitzki put up in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. So I ask you all this…is Dirk Nowitzki the best shooter in the NBA?

Yes, of course there are “specialists” like Kyle Korver, Jason Terry, J.R. Smith, etc. But is anyone as good of an all around shooter as Dirk? He has a step back fade away that is 100% impossible to get a hand on, if he’s open from 5 feet or 25 feet he only touches the net, this guy is a German basket making machine.

His toughest competition for the title of Best Shooter has to be Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics. When Allen gets the ball, everyone knows it is probably going in. The only thing with him is, he is getting older in age and he is put more into that “specialist” group I talked about before.

In all the Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder games this season, Dirk is a combined 69% shooting from the floor. So game 1 wasn’t as surprising as most people think. Dirk gets it right where he wants it everywhere on the floor and Scott Brooks, the Thunder coach, refuses to double team. This might be a good idea, seeing as how the only game the Lakers double teamed Dirk was when the Mavericks made 20 3-point field goals in game 4.

The crazy part about it, two of Dirk’s “competitors” for Best Shooter are on his own team: Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic. According to Dirk, “it doesn’t really matter who’s on me.”

With this team of shooters, can the Mavericks be stopped? And Dirk looks like the best shooter to me, what do you think?!?!

A Look Back at the Best

Phil Jackson is the greatest NBA coach of all time, period. There is no argument, no dilemma, no confusion. Some argue that Jackson only won because he has great talent on his team. Yes, this did help, but every championship team has great talent. Saying his wins should not count because of his players is like saying Ray Allen's three pointers shouldn't count because of his amazing shooting stroke. 

During his time coaching the Chicago Bulls, from 1989 to 1998, he won 6 NBA titles. In 9 season, 6 championships…that's pretty amazing! He ran Tex Winter's triangle offense, that he later ran with the Lakers as well. 

He vowed to never coach again after his tenure with the Bulls…a year later he was back.

He decided to give it a try in Los Angeles with the Lakers. In his first year in L.A., Jackson coached the Lakers to a 67-15 record in the regular season(1st place). That same year, he won his first championship with the Lakers. He did the same the next two years, making it his third three peat. 

He would again retire and then return on June 15, 2005. He coached an at best, mediocre, Lakers team to the 7th seed in the Western Conference. For the first time his team would lose in the first round of the playoffs. 

On January 7, 2007, Jackson won his 900th game. He reached that number faster than any other coach, doing so in only 1,264 games. On December 25, 2008, Jackson won his 1,000th game. Again being the fastest to do so.

Jackson won the NBA title in 2009 tying Red Auerbach's coaching record of 11 championships. The following season, Jackson's Lakers won the title again giving him the most championships among any coach, ever. 

Jackson also passed Pat Riley to become the most successful coach in Lakers franchise history. Moreover, he tied Lakers original head coach John Kundla's record for most championships won by a coach in franchise history.

Basically, history proves Jackson = championships. Not just one, but more often than not three in a row. 

He has coached arguably the two best in the world(Kobe, MJ) and who knows where the two would be without the "Zen Master." Jackson will also be remembered in basketball history, not just for every record he set, but the way he did it.

Is he really not coming back this time? And if he doesn't, will there ever be another Phil Jackson?