Everything 2018 Off Season

[LJ2]

Ricky vs macho man was the first big match in the WWF that made wrestling look like an art form...they were brilliant and helped introduce the masses to something other than Hogan and sergeant slaughter slow kick, slow punch, headlock hug matches.

The characters alone were just so much better than they are now. WWF use to take time to develop these guys.

[The Great One]

If you were a kid growing up in the 80's wrestling was everything. Staying up late to watch the Saturday Night Main Event was so awesome. Hogan, Savage, Warrior. All the cartoon-like characters that made me smile as a kid. Wrestling was better than any sport I watched as a kid.. even though it was fake.

And then it became awesome again when Raw came out every Monday.. Brett Hart was the center of most of that. First feuding with Stone Cold.. and then feuding with Shawn Michaels until the "Screw Job"... then the WCW/WWF wars. It was all so much fun.

And then they decided to join Wall Street and everything went to hell.

Oh well.. will always have the memories.

Favorite wrestling match or memory was the Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart Iron Man match. That's where i became a wrestling fan and Shawn Michaels fan. I still remember HBK's entrance in that match. Greatest entrance ever.

HBK = GOAT

The product nowadays is brutal. Completely unwatchable. Everything is so predictable. Cena is like a poor man's version of Hogan.

[ReubenJRD]

Frazier bases his opinion on some hard truths. The Warriors did not need Durant to win another title, and Frazier wanted to kick ass against his peers, not join the team that just set the NBA record for wins and coming off back to back NBA Finals appearances.

I really liked the Warriors before Durant joined. Totally ruined it for me. This will be known as one of the least compelling eras of the NBA.

Luckily we look poised to make this an awesome season up until the finals. Much better situation than almost every other fan base.

This.

I loved their style of play, Steph and Thompson were unstoppable already, and they managed to lose in 2016 because of their inner demons -- losing it themselves.

They should honestly have four straight championships, despite how great the "coming back from 3-1 deficit" story was for LeBron's career.

Durant, and now adding Boogie -- regardless if he plays half a season, or at 75% of what he used to be -- took away the whole "darling of the NBA" feel for me. They built it from the ground up.

Durant did have the right to leave, but, damn, I would never join the team that kicked my ass. But, hey, he's got to live with that decision, and I'm sure he's living lavishly lol.

[ReubenJRD]

I think the relationship between Westbrook and Durrant had a lot to do with his decision to leave. And Durrant now has a couple of rings and Westbrook is still a bonehead. WTF was George thinking?

I still don't fully understand this 'Westbrook is a bad teammate' talk.

Every teammate he has/had, spoke highly of him before/during/after their tenure playing with him. It was just Durant, and he never even outright said that Westbrook was a bad teammate and treated him like shit, etc. If Durant did, then, I'm proven wrong.

But, while Westbrook can be a bonehead on the court, with his 120% forward mentality, he's still a top 6-7 player in my eyes, and with him and Durant, they took the '10 Lakers to a 7-game series, went to the Finals in 2012, and nearly took out the Warriors in 2016. They had their chances plenty of times. It was a team capable of winning a championship, and the results were there.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

The Westbrook being a bad teammate thing is a narrative spun by KD and Warriors fans to make his decision to leave seem about more than just stacking the deck to win a title.

[Hotshot]

I still don't fully understand this 'Westbrook is a bad teammate' talk.

Every teammate he has/had, spoke highly of him before/during/after their tenure playing with him. It was just Durant, and he never even outright said that Westbrook was a bad teammate and treated him like shit, etc. If Durant did, then, I'm proven wrong.

But, while Westbrook can be a bonehead on the court, with his 120% forward mentality, he's still a top 6-7 player in my eyes, and with him and Durant, they took the '10 Lakers to a 7-game series, went to the Finals in 2012, and nearly took out the Warriors in 2016. They had their chances plenty of times. It was a team capable of winning a championship, and the results were there.

Westbrook made Durant look less than the player he was due to the style of their game. When you are more ball dominant player, others get less touches and you look as being more passive.

[LJ2]

I still don't fully understand this 'Westbrook is a bad teammate' talk.

Every teammate he has/had, spoke highly of him before/during/after their tenure playing with him. It was just Durant, and he never even outright said that Westbrook was a bad teammate and treated him like shit, etc. If Durant did, then, I'm proven wrong.

But, while Westbrook can be a bonehead on the court, with his 120% forward mentality, he's still a top 6-7 player in my eyes, and with him and Durant, they took the '10 Lakers to a 7-game series, went to the Finals in 2012, and nearly took out the Warriors in 2016. They had their chances plenty of times. It was a team capable of winning a championship, and the results were there.

Didn't say he was a bad teammate. I said it was their relationship. Both were alpha's even though Durrant was supposed to be the top guy on that team. Lots of fiery exchanges between the two of them whenever things got tough and they were on the losing side of things. I think it was some of that conflict why Durrant made the decision to leave.

Westbrook is a great player, but he's not the easiest to play with. Durrant fit in seamlessly with GSW...can you picture Westbrook doing so?

[MixxAOR]

Lowkey I think Steph, Klay and Draymond were so upset about that roasting they received when Lebron beat them in Finals they made sure it would never happen again.

[KeonClark]

Lowkey I think Steph, Klay and Draymond were so upset about that roasting they received when Lebron beat them in Finals they made sure it would never happen again.

Draymond did all the recruiting. Klay couldn't care less. I'm wondering if steph in any way regrets it..they'd probably still ve b2b champs and hed have at least 1 finals mvp and maybe be in talks for league mvp. Now hes just another star player

[Ebonhawke]

Kyle Singler has been waived / stretched by OKC. He had good three point shooting percentages early in his career, but has fallen out of the OKC rotation.

Move saves the Thunder $23M this season (because of repeater tax etc)

[KeonClark]

Favorite wrestling match or memory was the Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart Iron Man match. That's where i became a wrestling fan and Shawn Michaels fan. I still remember HBK's entrance in that match. Greatest entrance ever.

HBK = GOAT

The product nowadays is brutal. Completely unwatchable. Everything is so predictable. Cena is like a poor man's version of Hogan.

In those days you were either a bret guy or a Shawn guy. Shawn is also my favorite all time wrestler and imo best all around performer. I'm in Calgary though so you say that quietly, bret hart is the man around here

[The Great One]

In those days you were either a bret guy or a Shawn guy. Shawn is also my favorite all time wrestler and imo best all around performer. I'm in Calgary though so you say that quietly, bret hart is the man around here

Bret = boring

[ReubenJRD]

Westbrook made Durant look less than the player he was due to the style of their game. When you are more ball dominant player, others get less touches and you look as being more passive.

Well, yeah, but, we all know that he's still not ball dominant now with Curry/Thompson/Green. There have been plenty of possessions where Durant has called an isolation, and Draymond chews him out for it.

Difference in systems, sure, but Durant always had the ball in his hands more often than not in OKC.

Didn't say he was a bad teammate. I said it was their relationship. Both were alpha's even though Durrant was supposed to be the top guy on that team. Lots of fiery exchanges between the two of them whenever things got tough and they were on the losing side of things. I think it was some of that conflict why Durrant made the decision to leave.

Westbrook is a great player, but he's not the easiest to play with. Durrant fit in seamlessly with GSW...can you picture Westbrook doing so?

I get that, apologies. Wasn't debating against you, just sorta adding onto the dialogue -- the word has always been that he's not a good teammate, easiest to play with, etc.

I can understand the easiest to play with stuff. He's a ball dominant point guard who can make boneheaded plays and has a shoot-first, pass-out-of-trouble, mentality.

However, despite not being the "easiest" guy to play with, none of his former/current teammates have ever really come out to say, even in the political sense, that he's "tough to play with," or "hard to fit in," or whatever. It's been the exact opposite.

*I do understand though, it is a rare occassion for guys to come out and talk about how tough it was to play with a guy*

Durant, instead, took the "easiest" route, and opted to play with three other all-stars to carry him to a chip.

There are plenty of examples of great players not meshing well relationship-wise or having fiery exchanges, but they managed to make it work because they wanted a chip.

Kobe-Shaq is the obvious example. Durant, unfortunately/fortunately, dependant on what side of the fence you're on, ain't that dude.

Durant fit in seamlessly with GSW because of his play style, mentality, etc.

Westbrook, I believe could, but we'll never know... why? Cause he isn't jumping ship to fit in.

He and George fit quite well last season, and in many books, PG is an alpha, and proved it during his career. Not the same type of alpha that Durant is, but, they made it work.

[ReubenJRD]

In the end, if Durant felt that the relationship was toxic and bounced, he had all right to.

Leaving, no problem. Joining Golden State after a 73-win season, is an entirely different story. Just my opinion.

[planetmars]

As a fan I don't like the KD signing.. but if you take his perspective you can't really blame him. He wanted a ring (or a set of them) and that's what everyone seems to care about. Jordan > Lebron because he has 6 rings, and Lebron only has 3. Charles Barkley, Kevin Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, etc never had a ring.

All anybody cares about is the ring. KD had a chance to get one.. and took it. Just like Cousins did this summer or Lebron did when he joined Wade and Bosh or when Allen joined them. It's like the only thing most of these guys care about.