Bill Russell's Mt. Rushmore response

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by TUM301

Bill Russell to start my team, greatest north american team player ever. After Red retired he said there`s only one person that can coach and keep Russell motivated , he wins the last 2 championships as player coach at age 37 I think. Since we brought up the 2 on 2 match ups I`d go with Magic and Hakeem against anyone.

Hakeem was a straight beast...I'd take him over LeBron any day. Not to knock LeBron because the dude is great, but something tells me that we've already seen his best basketball...it looks like Durant is starting to take over the top spot in the NBA.

As for Russell's comments...he was making a point to LeBron. He was simply putting him in his place. I mean, sure LJ has been the best player in the league for a while now, but does that automatically put him atop the best of all time? Doubt it. Could be eventually be considered that...absolutely. One thing that I've learned over time is that a lot of people will favor what they see in front of them versus players that have been retired for some time. I believe I would give LJ a lot more credit if he would have continued to play for Cleveland and eventually won one or more championships there. I just don't believe LJ is much of a leader. I don't completely blame him for running away from Cleveland, and he did earn those two championships, but I'm not raising the LJ flag simply because he built his own team of all-stars to get to that point...weak if you ask me. If he was a leader, he would have stayed put or built a team around him instead of doing it the way he did. Great players make players around them better...LJ doesn't really do that IMO.

As far as people trying to compare him to Jordan...pure blasphemy