The King's Throne

Over the weekend Miami Heat forward LeBron James was awarded with his 3rd NBA Regular Season MVP award. Only seven other players in NBA history have accomplished that feat. LeBron is only 27, so I imagine that he might win a few more. The biggest difference between LeBron and the seven other 3 time MVPs is that they’ve all won at least one NBA title. That said, I still think LeBron ranks pretty favorably all time as his career stands right now.

To adequately assess LeBron’s place in NBA history we’ll use The Book of Basketball written by ESPN.Com/Grantland.Com columnist Bill Simmons. He knows a lot more about the NBA than I do, so I’m comfortable using his rankings even though I disagree with a few of them.

LeBron was ranked 20th back when the book came out in 2009. Simmons wrote, “A dopey ranking for obvious reasons: he’s twenty-three and headed for the top-eight (possibly higher) in the The Second Book of Basketball, which should be released somewhere between 2016 and 2018 after my wife leaves me and I need a quick influx of cash.”

I know LeBron hasn’t won a title yet (just wait about a month and that might change), but he’s unquestionably the best player in the world. He took an absolute dogshit Cavs team to the finals in 2007. Aside from LeBron that team featured Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Big Z, Varejao, and Daniel Gibson.

I think that LeBron, at the very minimum, ranks 14th all time right now. Here are the players that currently rank ahead of him.

1.) Michael Jordan- 6 time NBA champion, 6 time NBA Finals MVP, 14 time All-Star, 5 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 10 times, All Defensive First Team 9 times, NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1988), 10 time scoring champ (7 consecutive), starred in Space Jam (1996)

Career averages- 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists

2.) Bill Russell- 11 time NBA champion (they didn’t give out the NBA Finals MVP Award until 1969), 12 time All-Star, 5 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 3 times, 5 time rebounding champ, was awarded the presidential medal for freedom (the highest award a civilian can receive)

Career averages- 15.1 points, 22.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists

3.) Kareem Abdul Jabbar- 6 time NBA champion, 2 time NBA Finals MVP, 19 time All-Star, 6 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 10 times, All Defensive First Team 5 times, 2 time scoring champ, 2 time rebounding champ, 4 time blocks champ, NBA’s All-Time leading scorer, starred in Airplane (1980)

Career averages- 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.5 blocks

4.) Magic Johnson-5 time NBA Champion, 3 time NBA Finals MVP, 12 time All-Star, 3 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 9 times, 4 time assists champ, 2 time steals champ, is HIV positive

Career averages- 19.5 points, 11.2 assists, 7.2 rebounds

5.) Larry Bird- 3 time NBA champion, 2 time NBA Finals MVP, 12 time All-Star, 3 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 9 times, All Defensive First Team 2 times, dominated the first ever 3-point contest with his warm-ups still on



Career averages- 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists

6.) Wilt Chamberlain- 2 time NBA champion, 2 time NBA Finals MVP, 13 time All-Star, 4 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 7 times, All Defensive First Team 2 times, 7 time scoring champ, 11 time rebounding champ, 1 time assists champ, NBA’s All-Time leading rebounder, scored 100 points in a game, slept with over 20,000 different women

Career averages- 30.1 points, 22.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists

7.) Kobe Bryant*- 5 time NBA champion, 2 time NBA Finals MVP, 14 time All-Star, 1 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 9 times, All NBA Defensive First Team 9 times, 2 time scoring champ, allegedly sexually assaulted a hostess in a Colorado hotel (we all know it was just consensual sex though)

Career averages- 25.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists

*Simmons had Kobe at #15 in his book, but wrote in the epilogue wrote the following because the Kobe’s Lakers won the title in 2009, “For the paperback I’m expanding the Pyramid to 13 and sticking Kobe at No.8. And you know what? Duncan’s No. 7 spot isn’t safe. Let’s see how the next few years play out.” Well Kobe went on to win another title and Finals MVP in 2010, so I think it’s safe to bump him past The Big Fundamental. Everyone else listed will obviously now drop down a spot from where they were when the book was first published.

8.) Tim Duncan- 4 time NBA champion, 3 time NBA Finals MVP, 13 time All-Star, 2 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 9 times, All Defensive First Team 8 times, has never committed a foul in his career and gets fouled on every shot attempt in the paint

Career averages- 20.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.2 blocks

9.) Jerry West- 1 time NBA champion, 1 time NBA Finals MVP (in a series his team lost), 14 time All-Star, All NBA First Team 10 times, All Defensive First Team 4 times, 1 time scoring champ, 1 time assists champ, the NBA logo was modeled after him, Nicknamed Mr. Clutch even though his team lost 8 of the 9 times they went to the Finals



Career averages- 27.0 points, 6.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds

10.) Oscar Robertson- 1 time NBA champion, 12 time All-Star, 1 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 9 times, nicknamed "The Big O" which is pretty cool

Career averages- 25.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 9.5 assists

11.) Hakeem Olajuwon- 2 time NBA champion, 2 time NBA Finals MVP, 12 time All-Star, 1 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 6 times, All Defensive First Team 5 times, 2 time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, 2 time rebound champ, 3 time blocks champ, only won his titles because MJ had retired

Career averages- 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.1 blocks

12.) Shaquille O’Neal- 4 time NBA Champion, 3 time NBA Finals MVP, 15 time All-Star, 1 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 8 times, 2 time scoring champ, has a doctorate degree from Barry University

Career averages- 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.3 blocks

13.) Moses Malone- 1 time NBA champion, 1 time NBA Finals MVP, 12 time All-Star, 3 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 4 times, All Defensive Team 1 time, 6 time rebounding champ

Career averages- 20.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, 1.3 blocks


Notice that all of those players won at least one NBA Championship. That’s the only thing missing from LeBron’s resume.

LeBron James- 8 time All-Star, 3 time NBA Regular Season MVP, All NBA First Team 6 times*, All Defensive First Team 4 times*, 1 time scoring champ, nicknamed himself King James, the only thing that moves faster than LBJ on a fast break is his receding hairline



*LeBron hasn’t officially been named to the All NBA First Team and the All Defensive First Team for the 2011-12 season, but let’s be real here. He’s going to.

Career averages- 27.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists

If the Heat win the title this year I think that vaults LeBron past Jerry West to #9 all time.

I guess my point is this. Instead of bashing LeBron every time the Heat lose, you should embrace his incredible skill and talent.

"Call the Fire Department, this one's out of control"

First and foremost, I would like to thank our loyal reader Marc, from Hoboken, NJ, for designing the Shampoo Effect's new look. His mastery of binary code speaks for itself. Now while I am appreciative for what he has done, I must take this chance to condemn him for an entirely different matter. Marc is a contributing writer for a blog that I have linked to on the right hand side, and from what my sources tell me, it was at his urging that this blog (EBC) succumbed to the latest media craze and joined Twitter.

About a month ago a friend suggested that I join Twitter. She said that it was definitely something that someone with my scope of the media and politics should look into. At this point I didn't know too much about Twitter. For those of you that don't know, it is basically a website that is devoted to Facebook status updates. You have 140 characters (that number could be off) to answer the question, what are you doing? Much of the hype is based on being able to follow "tweets" (postings on Twitter) of celebrities. Now I didn't want to write this new fad off right away because based on my track record (AOL, Napster, Facebook, iTunes, Gmail, Blogger) I have fallen for each new trend as they have become mainstream. I instead waited for the man who shapes most of my opinions to decide for me.

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Twitter had infiltrated my friends, politics, and I guess I should have known that it was only a matter of time before it ransacked the world of sports. Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva infamously "tweeted" during halftime of a game against the Celtics on March 15th. The halftime "tweet" didn't seem to hamper Villanueva's performance as he scored 11 of his 19 points in the 4th quarter to lead the Bucks to victory. Upon hearing this news, Bucks head coach Scott Skiles, a hot head by nature, gracefully banned "tweeting" from the lockerroom, saying that anything that remotely gives the impression that his players aren't fully committed to winning will not be allowed. Of course the media ran wild with the story, which I'm sure wasn't Villanueva's intention because he's not the brightest (he went to UCONN for a few years and I'm sure he went to all of his classes). This "tweet" heard round the country gave Villanueva more media attention than anything he ever did on the court. It even prompted PTI's Michael Wilbon to say that "Twitter is one of the worst things to happen to the United States of America."

The "tweeting" did not stop there. On Saturday, Suns center Shaquille O'Neal "twote" (is that the past tense of tweet?)"Attention all twitterers I'm a tweet at halftime and not get fined like vill a new wave a whteva his name is." He then went on to "tweet" "Shhhhhhh" shortly before the start of the third quarter. When asked, Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said, "As long as he gets 25 [points] and 11 [rebounds], he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, MySpace."

This Twitter craze is getting out of control. Last week a court case seemingly cost a building materials company $12.6 million, but the verdict was appealed on the grounds of a juror "tweeting" during the case.

It looks like Twitter is here to stay, at least until a new fad comes along. It is in the news more than A-Rod, but it's just not for me. I mean who wants to read that I'm on the toilet for the 3rd time in one day?