You have to go with Lebron here. The fact that the Cavs are going into a Game 7 against Boston is just absurd when you look at the Cavs roster. Who besides Lebron would even crack the rotation on any of the other remaining playoff teams? CP3 has David West, Deron Williams has Boozer, Kirilenko and Okur, and who does Lebron have? Daniel Gibson? Wally Szczerbiak? These guys are terrible.

When you are going against a team with three possible hall of fame players and you are the entire focus of the Boston defense, and you can push it to game 7, that is just something special.

Demerits however for yelling at his mother the other night. (Video Here).

Lebron is the obvious choice, hes simply out of his mind.

As a Boston fan, I am quite a bit upset that the Celtics cant win a road game, but they dont have to to win a championship.. it would be nice, but if they win every home game, they win the title.

In game 7, dont bet against the Celtics in the garden. :)

I'd be bitter about the NBA if the Knicks were my team, but Mike D'Antoni has the potential to do some great things for you guys, so don't give up hope.

I am so excited about the Hornets, as is everyone in NOLA. They're a nice bunch of guys, a terrific team, and they have done so much for the city. Chris Paul is so mature and talented and a joy to watch.

If you add up the ages of LeBron, Chris, and Deron, they're still younger than John McCain.

This season featured one of the best races from the No. 1 spot in recent memory. The Western Conference was ridiculous with a 50-win team as it's lowest seed. Great games. Great times.

A lot of great talent in the NBA. Young and old (Paul, Williams or Garnett and Kobe). The playoffs have been exciting too.

But the most exciting player --in my mind-- is Kobe Bryant. He does something spectacular every game.

Then again I'm a fan of basketabll. I have a lot of friends who don't like the NBA for a myriad of reasons: tattoos, braids, crossovers, dunks, no fundamentals (??? you ever watch Tim Duncan or Garnett?), etc.

I have to remind them there's no moral conundrum to watching basketball. Someone's either good at it or they're not. I could care less if I feel good about myself because it's easier to cheer for said person or not. It's not a campaign. It's just a game.

Next year the Blazers will have Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge AND Brandon Roy. And all the old "Jail-Blazers" are off the roster. By 2010 folks will be saying "Lebron Who?" and "Chris What?"

The NBA used to be an interesting sport. Sometimes there is simply too much coverage of a sport played too often by guys who really make more news for being idiots off the court than stars on it.

It has not always been that way. The league itself is in dire need of someone both talented and marketable. LeBron James? Great talent, not ever the night in, night out consistent greateness of players past. Same with Kobe. Overall the talent level has approached a similar level of mediocrity. Perhaps defenses are just better these days but the days of multiple superstars in ther sport have been absent for years.

I'm really thinking that alot of players should mature in college instead of the NBA, it seems many guys are entering after one year and having very mediocre careers. Something about Bird and Jordan and Johnson taking their teams to the championship game in colege made them great NBA players and champions.

San Antonio and Detroit have been the leagues best teams, both of them entirely snoozeworthy when it comes to watching play.

Basketball - that's nice...but hockey's got the tougher run to the championships. Here's hoping it's a Detroit-Pittsburgh final for a smooth skating, high energy series.

Oh and "Bob not Robert" - if you don't like what John's posting, you're always free to start up your own blog. Frankly it's nice to have a brief diversion from the political circus.

As for those three - I would have no issue with any of them playing on the Raptors with Chris Bosh.

End all sports during wartime -- that's the quickest way to end the war.

Have to go with CP. He has taken the defending champs Spurs to game 7. LJ was a very close second.

I would disagree that the play has been poor in the NBA this year. Well at least in the West, the play has been fun to watch.

When The Sonics signed their lease agreement w/ The Key Arena, they got 100% of _all_ rentals in the building (which used to house lots of amazing shows from Robyn Hitchcock to George Clinton), plus the parking. Even though it was a "publicly owned" building, they got these perks because the NBA is a huge, engorged pig that demands to feed off the public trough, and they get insulted when you ask them to be a profitable business. Just five years into the lease agreement, The Sonics began to complain. Even though the Key Arena was built to their specs, the piggies wanted more: one of their demands was a tax on all restaurants & bars in the area, so they could use that money to build restaurants and bars in the Key, to directly compete with those that they're taxing. Only the sickest, most gluttonous organization would consider such a transaction fair. Kinda like the contractors in Iraq.

And, of course, since they didn't get their way, because Seattle actually thought that a private business should stand on its own, the owners declared basketball "impossible" in the NW, sold it to a group whose obvious intent was to move the team, then appeared as shocked as Claude Rains when they declared their intent, all with the aggressive blessing of the NBA. I have no respect for greedy corporations that suck out of a community far more than they put in, which is precisely what the NBA is. I actually like the sport, yet it's being run by folks with Bush-level morality.

I voted for King James as well, but Chris Paul is a talent in the mold of Bird I think.

Good comments on this thread..and not one whining about a sports thread. ;)

No great playing?

The Lakers and Kobe Bryant are playing phenomenal basketball.
Fischer, Gasol, Odom, plus a young and talented bench are all first rate and the teamwork this season has been the best in years. Plus the fact it is a young team with Kobe as the oldest means it will only get better.

Bob not Robert @ 14:

.

Barack Obama plays basketball. Barack Obama is a politician. Crooks and Liars is a political website. Crooks and Liars covers Barack Obama. Is that a sufficient connection?

Mike: no.

Obama probably shits too. And blows his nose. That does not make them political acts worthy of comment here.

Dusty, you spoke too soon, the malingerer cry babies are making themselves heard.

I'm glad to hear about Chris Paul, honestly never heard of him before the playoffs began.

And Deron Williams is indeed great, I remember when he took Illinois to the championship game. His backcourt partner, Dee Brown, played with him at Illinois and also is on the Jazz. Usually the bench. But Williams is a good one, gonna be a great point guard.

redcat @ 22:

i've been watching the nba for almost 50 years, and i've never seen a player with the size, strength, and athletic ability of lebron. once his basketball ability and understanding of the game evolves, and it's getting better every year, he will leave all others in the dust. to those who think detroit and san antoinio are boring, get a clue, the game is about winning.

True, but you have to admit, it's a LOT more fun watching Phoenix (before Shaq) play Golden State or Denver!

zz zoomie @ 26:

Your creds just dropped ten points. Blah blah blah I'm mad at John for hosting his own blog blah blah blah.

Get your own blog.

yes regular season suck but playoff rock. you got to get some money action going to make regular season interesting.

Thor Heyerdahl @ 15:

Basketball - that's nice...but hockey's got the tougher run to the championships. Here's hoping it's a Detroit-Pittsburgh final for a smooth skating, high energy series.

Oh and "Bob not Robert" - if you don't like what John's posting, you're always free to start up your own blog. Frankly it's nice to have a brief diversion from the political circus.

As for those three - I would have no issue with any of them playing on the Raptors with Chris Bosh.

I just love hockey and wish it had a wider audience, but that's the way it goes...There's nothing like playoff hockey.

I write posts about sports and music and detective novels and so on because I also want to tell people what I like outside of politics. It is my blog and you should have a sense of what I'm about. I'm a very serious ...haha...person who grew up playing on CYO basketball teams (point guard) until I was 22, CYO baseball teams (SS) and played HS football (cornerback and center) for WC Bryant HS. I fought in a Karate tournament when I was 23 in the Felt forum. I think it was called Henry Cho's..Somebody can correct me there.
The NBA has improved. I think there are too many athlete's giving analysis now on TV and they seem to protect the players way too much in all sports.

odanny @ 13:

I'm really thinking that alot of players should mature in college instead of the NBA, it seems many guys are entering after one year and having very mediocre careers. Something about Bird and Jordan and Johnson taking their teams to the championship game in colege made them great NBA players and champions.

San Antonio and Detroit have been the leagues best teams, both of them entirely snoozeworthy when it comes to watching play.

--you are soo right! the only team that may be a bit exciting to watch is probably New Orleans. Something else I hate about the NBA is the lack of fluidity in game play. And for once, it is not the players' fault, yet, rather the official referees. they call a foul for anything nowadays. Kobe gets sent to the line on average 10 times to the free throw line? WHat? The refs need to chill out and stop deciding games by free throws. the charm of the game is harmed that way.

Chris Paul, baby.

Obviously, all three of these guys are incredibly gifted, but CP3 is proving himself to be in a class by himself. He was the true MVP of the league this year, not Kobe. Quick as a cat, with total court awareness, and he's already the premier passer in the league, but he can also score practically at will, attacking the basket or creating shots, and at the same time elevating the games of his teammates.

Paul is the kind of player who keeps improving season by season and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that he has the potential to become another Oscar Robertson, and when it's all said and done Chris paul might be considered one of the top 10 or so players to ever step on an NBA court.

I am not a huge NBA fan, because the season is just too long. It is not possible to play all out every night, or you you will be broken down by the time the playoffs arrive. That said, this year there has been a lot of good basketball, and the Western Conference was just ridiculous. There are a ton of great players out there. I am not a Kobe Bryant fan, and I would argue that even he has learned how to really lead a team now. I do think Chris Paul and LeBron James are the two best in the league right now at bringing other players up around them. I am a Cavs fan, so I would pick LeBron first, but it could hardly be argued that either is a bad choice.

As for having sports (or music or anything else non-political) on this blog, others have made the point before, but it bears repeating: John has this nifty idea where the various threads are clearly marked and you can ignore the ones you don't care about. So why is there a need to slam people who want to talk about sports too? Or music? Or anything else? I can understand getting a little peeved if your discussion of corporate welfare got hijacked by a discussion of MLB, but since you can just ignore the thread, just ignore it. I have gotten turned onto some good music here, for which I am grateful. I have enjoyed some of the sports threads. Neither is why I came to the site in the first place, but they help give it its character.

mathking @ 45:

So why is there a need to slam people who want to talk about sports too? Or music? Or anything else? I can understand getting a little peeved if your discussion of corporate welfare got hijacked by a discussion of MLB, but since you can just ignore the thread, just ignore it. I have gotten turned onto some good music here, for which I am grateful. I have enjoyed some of the sports threads. Neither is why I came to the site in the first place, but they help give it its character.

Hear hear.

The best player around whom one should build a team is definitely subjective. I've seen this topic discussed before, and most people tend to make either one of two arguments: 1) You have have a big man in the middle (think Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon) or 2) You have to have a great point guard who can distribute the ball very effectivey while being able to score some on his own as well (think Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas). Of course, these two lines of thought leave out the middle men like Elgin Baylor, Julius Erving, Larry Bird and, most notably, Michael Jordan - would any GM in his right mind choose not to build a team around any of those four players? No freakin' way.

So who would I choose? Well, if I go with the "Big Man in the Middle" method, obviously I would have to go with somebody not listed in this poll. Right now the only young center in the NBA around whom I would build a team is Orlando's Dwight Howard (though Atlanta's Al Horford would merit some consideration). If I go with the "Great Point Guard" method, I would go with Chris Paul - and not just because I live in New Orleans and have seen him play in person about 23 times this season (how lucky am I?). CP3 has everything you want in a great point guard: incredible ball-handling skills & court awareness combined with an ability to score points on his own and natural leadership skills. The only weakness of CP3's game is his 3-point shooting percentage, and even that has been improving steadily. One could make a case for Deron Williams of Utah, if only because he seems to be the only rival point guard who gets the better of CP3 in head-to-head matchups (Williams's Jazz were 3-1 versus CP3's Hornets this season largely because of the unique ability Williams and his Jazz teammates have for shutting down CP3). The funny thing is just how close these two point guards seem to be: CP3 had the better rookie year, then Deron Williams progressed more quickly and had the better sophomore season, and this year CP3 has vaulted back in front of Williams. Ask this question again next year and I might be answering Deron Williams. If I simply take the best available player regardless of position, I'm going with LeBron James - no questions asked. He's called "King James" for a reason. In fact, LeBron's been a household name for so long (ever since SI's "The Chosen One" cover story when he was still a junior in high school), people take his all-around skills for granted. You would be surprised how few fans realize that LeBron averages just over eight rebounds a game and just under eight assists per game to go along withose thirty points per game. The man is simply ridiculous.

And with all due respect to Dwight Howard, Deron Williams and especially local hero Chris Paul, I would have to go with LeBron James if I were starting an NBA team around one current player.

Kind of an irrelevant poll anyway because Kobe is the BEST PLAYER in the league.

The odd thing to note is that, of the 5 best players in the NBA, 3 came straight out of high school and the other 2 went to Wake Forest.

Now, I'm willing to remove Garnett from the list, but still:

LeBron - HS
Kobe - HS
Paul - Wake
Duncan - Wake
Garnett - HS

Kind of a coincidence.

Out of the three, I go with Lebron with a slight lead over Paul; however, I wish the best both of luck. As a New Yorker, I hate to see Boston do well at anything, and another NBA final with San Antonio guarantees good ratings to whatever else is on the telly. They're a good team, but too boring.

Now now put the tinfoil hat down.......if Bynum hadn't gone down they wouldn't have been looking for a Gasol.

In addition the Lakers were #1 when Andrew was injured.

All the way with LBJ! But with Danny Ferry (and his lifetime goal of screwing Cavs fans) as GM, the Cavs will never get those kinds of deals, and LeBron will be on his own.

Also, it's not exactly "tinhat thinking" to say that the major sports favor big markets. Those teams are given every opportunity to succeed, while small markets are the interchangeable and portable farm systems for the big market teams. The big market teams (who have a national following from tv coverage and fans relocating) may not always win, but they'll be in the hunt because the leagues need to keep the peripheral/bandwagon fans involved to keep revenues up. It's funny how much "tinhat thinking" sounds like Marketing 101.

John Amato @ 39:

I write posts about sports and music and detective novels and so on because I also want to tell people what I like outside of politics. It is my blog and you should have a sense of what I'm about. I'm a very serious ...haha...person who grew up playing on CYO basketball teams (point guard) until I was 22, CYO baseball teams (SS) and played HS football (cornerback and center) for WC Bryant HS. I fought in a Karate tournament when I was 23 in the Felt forum. I think it was called Henry Cho's..Somebody can correct me there.
The NBA has improved. I think there are too many athlete's giving analysis now on TV and they seem to protect the players way too much in all sports.

You played cornerback and center? Holy smokes, John--that's versatile, and that's not a mix I've ever heard of before. Do you have Deion's speed with Orlando Pace's size (not likely...)?

Regardless, my respect for you grows.