Cavs' number comes up to win NBA's 'LeBron lottery'

CNN ^ | May 22, 2003 | CNN

[Daus]

*Gratuitous Taunt Warning*

I would just like to thank any Atlanta Hawks fans for taking Glenn Robinson off our hands and giving us the 8th pick. :)

[Hatteras]

Bias was drafted by the Celtics after playing his senior year for the Terps. He passed out and died while "celebrating" with a few teammates two days after the NBA Draft.

[E Rocc]

Well, unfortunately for the Cav fans on this thread he WILL be playing for a college team. The Cleveland Cavaliers. :)

The "Cavs" were a college team. The Cleveland Cavaliers might be different. >:)

-Eric

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Yep. I watched them and we (DeLand) had The Big "O", Oliver Lee that year.

Into my group of names you can also include Vince Carter, touted from High School as the "next Michael Jordan"

[Afro_conservative]

LOL lebron is averaging 20pts. 6 assists and 6 rebounds and almost 2 steals per game from an 18yr. old 6 ft. 9inch. rookie running the point guard. are you still unconvinced

[discostu]

His late season performance has dropped dramatically, which is to be expected since an NBA schedule is almost 4 times as long as a high school schedule. It's gonna take a lot more than one season to convince me, remember one of the big defenses when LeBron announced his draft eligibility was "Kobe turned out OK" inbetween then and now how Kobe turned out became a legal matter. If LeBron makes it through 25 with good numbers and no court appearances then I'll become convinced.

[Afro_conservative]

he is averaging 20pts. 4 rbs. and 5 assists this month and 21 5 and 6 last month. What are you talking about slump, that is right there with his average and believe me people have so much riding on this kid financially you will not see a lebron sex trial, remember kobe came in with t-mac, AI, Shaq, MJ was still there so they didn't ride on him as much but Lebron is the next Jordan of the league financially so he won't have these problems.

[discostu]

this month he's had a 12 point game, 2 14 points games and one 9 point game. No big deal, even kids that go to college have troubles late in their rookie year, the NBA schedule is really long compared to any other level of the game.

The only thing having a lot of people with a lot riding on him garauntees is that there'll be somebody to try to cover it up. He's still an 18 year-old boy in a traveling circus of sluts and drugs. Trying to say that a league that allows the Portland Jailblazers will somehow manage to protect LeBron from the slimey side of the sport is positively laughable.

Like I said, IF he makes it THROUGH his 25th year without a sex scandal, drug scandal, mysterious death, choking his coach, or refusing to practice, then and only then will I say he turned out OK, everything between now and then is only a progress report. So far so good is a nice progress report, but it has little if any bearing on the next 6 years.

[Afro_conservative]

he also has had a 32pt(against the lakers) and a 38 pt game this month and his monthly average is 20ppg. Also note that refusing to practice doesn't mean he is a failure.
Please understand no one is waiting for you to judge someone as I can tell that you don't have that much experience in bball in playing and/or coaching, I just wanted to point out your bad judgement

[r9etb]

I think there's absolutely no doubt that LeBron James has incredible talent. But will he be a "great player?" I think discostu's point is that it remains to be seen -- he has to survive a few years, first.

[discostu]

Refusing to practice, harming the team setting oneself over the team and harming the coaches ability to manage the team, certainly does mean someone (Allen Iverson in this case) is a failure. Any athlete that puts himself above the team like that shouldn't be in a team sport, those who play exclusively for themselves should play individual sports like golf or tennis.

Apparently you are waiting for me to judge LeBron. There was no bad judgement on my part, as Kobe proved bringing someone intho the NBA too soon doesn't necessarily create visible problems the first year it. If LeBron manages to become a mature adult without falling into any of the meriad traps then and only then will I admit I was wrong, but understand that to rush to judgement before he's even finished a complete season and suddenly try to declare the LeBron experiment a success is silly. So far so good I agree, but understand that "so far" isn't very far at all, he hasn't even had a chance to have a sophomore slump yet.

[discostu]

Absolutely, the sports world is filled with great rookies that did not manage to become veterans at all much less good veterans. LeBron COULD be a hall of famer, he also could wind up sharing a cell with Kobe Bryant and half the Portland team. Sadly because of the way the NBA doesn't discipline players there isn't enough of a support network to help keep him away from the later, he's going to have to do it strictly on his own maturity which at 18 he simply doesn't have. Hopefully the team is helping him out.

I don't like 18 year-olds jumping straight into big league professional sports regardless of the sport. The 18 year-old mind is simply not disciplined enough to handle the combination of money, travel, boredom and fatigue. They need time to become an adult before you make them millionaires and dump them in a strange city surrounded by groupies and opportunists.

I hope I am wrong, I hope LeBron manages to successfully navigate the minefield. But the way the "Kobe turned out alright" argument soured this summer (even if he didn't rape that woman putting himself in that situation was stupid) shows how difficult it will be for my hopes to come true.

[Guillermo]

If he makes it 25 years? Oh my, I bet he's really trembling at the thought of having to impress you for the next two and a half decades.

Amazing how people around here demand absolute perfection from teenagers.

This kid is mature beyond his years, and is the best player in the Eastern Conference alreay.

But, I bet you were just the most perfect little angel when you were 18.

[discostu]

No, through age 25. That's how old Kobe is, if he can keep his nose clean longer than Kobe then I'm willing to write off later indiscretions as adult stupidity that wouldn't have been avoided if he gone to college.

I don't demand perfection from teenagers, quite the opposite. I thuroughly expect abject stupidity and gross immaturity from teenagers that's why they're teenagers. That's why you shouldn't make a teenager a millionaire and put him alone in a strange city surrounded by the wrong kind of people (and the modern NBA is made up almost exclusively of the wrong kind of people). LeBron's own survival demands that he be absolutely perfect, me I'd rather he had a chance to make mistakes in relative poverty in college like most teenage athletes.

Not me, I was a typical 18 year-old who probably would have wound up dead in a brothel lying on a mound of cocaine if you'd put me in the NBA at that age.

[Guillermo]

Let's say, for instance, that a very poor kid, who was a whiz at chemistry, was offered $200 million to work for DuPont after he graduated from high school.

Should he turn it down, even though there is a very real possibility that if he goes to college, he may not get an employment offer after he graduates?

[discostu]

It depends, by going to DuPont will he be spending time with accused rapists? Multiple drug offenders? People that have choked their boss? People that have shot their chaffeur? Will he be spending time in an environment that has been called by retired DuPont chemists a "traveling brothel"? If the answer to any of those questions is "yes" then he definitely shouldn't go.

Oh and let's understand LeBron's abject poverty, he drove to school his senior year in a Hummer.

[Guillermo]

He might see them on his way to work, on a subway or a bus. That's not the point. I'm sure I'm surrounded by all sorts of scofflaws everytime I go to the mall, movie theater or ballgame. Doesn't mean I'm guilty by association.

I'm sure the college atmosphere is not angelic either.

He obviously drove a Hummer because his creditors knew he was eventually going to be good for the loan, based upin his intentions to enter the NBA draft.

Denying anyone a huge payday, that may not exist in the future due to potential injury, reeks of jealousy.

[discostu]

No it is the point. Being in the NBA puts LeBron in this sideshow of everything that's sick and wrong with America for 41 road games a year, and by putting him in that circus when he's 18 and not mature enough to deal with it it's just asking for trouble. Would you give an 18 year-old 10 million dollars and send him to a 9 month long Mardi Gras?!

College atmosphere might not be angelic but it doesn't have the fat cash either. Nobody has described the NCAA as a traveling brothel, NCAA players that get busted with drugs get suspended. And because it's college their used to having a bunch of 18 year-olds around that need to learn to be adults, the NBA isn't.

No he drove a Hummer because someone gave it to his mother.

I'm not denying him anything, I don't have the power to do such. I'm saying that putting any 18 year-old kid in that situation is asking for trouble and is stupid, and when he winds up Len Biasing anybody that thought this was a good idea isn't allowed to act suprised. It's not jealousy and your attempt to cast it as such is at best a shallow admission that you're wrong. No 18 year-old should EVER be allowed into a major sport, none. There's too much money, too many chances for trouble, too little support network, and historically 18 year-olds are too damn stupid.