Iman Shumphert tells story of what LeBron told the team on the bus when down 3-1 to Golden State
Lestradamus
LeThanos hittin that time stone before Doctor Strange made it cool
He seems almost prophetic sometimes bc of how cerebral he is. Thinking Basketball noted before how LeBron typically plays better and better later into a series upon picking up opponent tendencies and schemes.
Hence his penchant to treat Game 1s as a “feel out” game
That’s often the gist of someone with a high IQ in some certain field right? They’re gifted enough (Although in LeBron’s case he is generational) physically to do what he needs to do… but their ability to spot weaknesses, adapt and overcome in (usually) such a tight time schedule what makes them special.
Yeah he was an unholy combination of generational basketball IQ and freak athlete. In a vacuum, he’s easily the best basketball player ever
Jeff Teague said Hawks beat Cavs many times during 2014-2015 regular season and in the playoffs Bron figured out their play. Swept them clean 🧹
Same with Lionel Messi in the first 20-30 minutes of football games.
LeActuallyKnew
Shump the best NBA story teller. The one time he told how LeBron called out a play before felt like a movie
Lebron literally left the raptors bench stunned because he told a raptors player what to do on offense because he forgot his own play. That’s legitimately sick.
Patrick Patterson haha
Fucking Patterson, was always more interested in watching movies than watching film.
He’s one of the few raptors I’ve met in real life and it was at the cineplex vip theatre on don mills LOL
What’s his Letterboxd?
What movie were you about to see?
I don’t remember unfortunately. It was like 6ish years ago but i did see him there a couple times.
2Pat 2Furious
Let’s not act like LeBron didn’t do Toronto favors for them either. Remember when he stopped Powell from going to the bench because it would’ve resulted in an illegal substitution and free throws?
Grabbed him by the jersey lol
the slight moments of happy really help to quell the decade of pain
Love when this happens. Jokic did it to the wolves as well
His was a bit different he knew the wolves play. Lebron knew raptors the play and actually told the opposing player what to do.
A Jokic glazer shows up on a LeBron glazing post. Crazy
That always reminded me of something Larry Bird would have done back in the day.
Look holmes, Larry would tell you what he was going to do, and then do it in your face
I clicked on this post so fast just from seeing Shump in the thumbnail
It’s gotta be him and Teague
B-hen reacting and riffing off Teague is the best
“Whoa.. I am open.. I can dunk this ball..!”
watching him explain the Kobe game at MSG was pure story-telling.
Link?
https://youtu.be/h0LA1l2-z24?si=D_3Nr1bnrTm4l-JA&t=2241
starting from 37:00 timestamped
I know this story by heart now lol “You been regular ALL GAME??”
With all due respect to his athletic talent this story is a garbled mess.
All he does is talk about playing with LeBron….bro go raise your kids!!!
All of Cleveland loves his stories about those Cavs teams ♥️💛🖤
Greatest championship in NBA history.
https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/7x0xaj/spears_kevin_love_yelled_there_you_go_kyle_korver/
2018 Cavs were a meme factory
This was after they got like fucking alec burks or some shit right?
rodney hood was going to save them
That’s right. It was Rodney hood!
It was after they traded away half of the team and blew out the Celtics
Iconic ass championship generating decades of content fr
TBH it was exhausting listening to this. I’d rather listen to RJ’s stories
The lack of “killer instinct” thing is usually my first tell someone has no idea what they’re talking about. This man is obsessed with basketball
You got all the top 1% commenters punching air in the comments rn lmao
hot damn they do be yappin just to yap
How dare you lump my lifeless nerd ass with those other lifeless nerd asses. I will always cherish my goat
Type of “instinct” Bron has, 99.99% people won’t experience in their entire lives, how are they going to talk about that baffles me all the time
Easy way to weed out the idiots
So much of it feels like people just judging him negatively for not being an asshole
Why even bring this up? It has nothing to do with the video?
Don’t pay attention to any of his clutch statistics though. He laps every other great
The crazy thing was GS only lost twice at home the whole season and once in the playoffs before the Finals. Then they lose 2 at home in that series including G7.
There’s a clip of Klay talking about how even after dropping game 5&6, he was still very confident because they don’t lose at home, and it had taken historic performances from LeBron and Kyrie for them to lose game 5 at home. I will say though, with the benefit of hindsight, It’s kinda underrated what Cleveland’s defense did to the warriors those last 3 games, particularly the ones at oracle. They held the greatest offense in history at that point to 97 and 89 pts at home. One of the greatest displays of mental fortitude in sports.
underrated what Cleveland’s defense did
LeBron’s defence. He led both teams in both steals and blocks. He was the best rim protector, on ball defender, and help defender on Cleveland.
I think it shows what can happen to a team when their best player is giving maximum effort. LeBron was the best defender, but even guys like Kevin Love were playing awesome defensive positions
Still remember Kevin Love locking up Steph
The block, the shot and the stop.
Amen
Shump talks about this in this interview as well lol
Very funny
That clip of Love locking up Curry while Love Lockdown is playing is one of my favorite things on the internet
Yea he played probably the best defense I’ve seen him play outside of 2012 in that series, essentially was Draymond for the Cavs. That said tho, the team as whole suffocated the warriors. Tristan thompson, Jefferson, shumpert, JR, and even Kyrie left it all on both ends of the court.
He was a monster defensively right through 2012-18. He just doesn’t get the credit. Anchored the defence for 8 straight Finals teams with 3 different head coaches.
He took some of the regular season off playing hard defense after the first year in miami but he didnt really need to and was playing so many games each year, so its understandable. He was a near dpoy level defender when he tried that like 70% of the time and every playoffs
He didn’t anchor shit in Miami wtf are y’all talking about
How old were you during the Heatles?
Yeah, this is why I think it might be the GOAT finals performance. Golden state had arguably the greatest offense in the history of the sport, and they were an excellent defensive roster too. Sure, LeBron, Kyrie, and KLove were all great offensively, but who was the Cavs second best defender? Tristan Thompson? Shumpert? LeBron had a modern day Bill Russell performance and anchored an otherwise mediocre defense to have one of the greatest defensive performances a team has ever had in finals history.
Was it 89? Memory is funny. I remember the 89 but in my mind it was Cleveland beating them 89 -85. I was devastated nonetheless. Still am. Still love The Chef.
Well Draymond suspension and Bogut injury help
Draymond being suspended is a major reason why they lost game 5.
Draymond was out for game 5 and Lebron scored 41 points.
Draymond came back to guard Lebron for game 6 and Lebron scored 41 points.
Cavs lost Love & Kyrie for finals the year before, had 2-1 lead…
I’d argue Bogut being out was a bigger impact for game 6 and 7. There was absolutely no interior defense once he was out. They had to play Varejao it was awful to watch him flop around the court
Bogut was huge for those GSW teams. Maybe people don’t remember but he was a high end rim protector and a top screener, very important for their offense in that sense.
We playing Steph curry, you talking bout Steve Kerr system? That had me cracking up, even the production guys were laughing lmfao
I’ve never heard Shump really talk before, he’s so entertaining and engaging.
His Kobe story is my favorite
His recap of Melo vs KG is hilarious
if you haven’t seen already, a couple years ago Shump went on a crazy run of podcast interviews and stuff and there’s a ton of clips out there like this one with different stories. he gives the same energy to all of them, he’s a great storyteller. just type in like “shump talking about lebron” in youtube and there’s a bunch
His bit on Melo was the best. “Melo came prepared to score this, and that’s his job. ‘You want the last shot? By all means, do your thing. But you better make it, and we better win.’ “
He is an actor as well
Dude even raps…
shump could talk about dirt and make it sound interesting. hes like your favorite min wage coworker
Looks like he’s doing a Jordan Peele impersonation for the first 30sec
His appearances on podcasts are my favorite. He got 2 with Gilbert arenas worth watching
I worked with him on a reality show. He was stoned basically all the time.
This reminded me to check in on something Rich Paul said the other day lol
He was talking about Ty Lue taking the Cavs to a prison in the middle of that series? There’s just no way that story hasn’t come out once before this over the last 10 years lmao
It always interesting to hear how coaches across all sports try to get the most out of players. You usually expect a good old rally cry but I guess that method got patched
i mean when it comes to Ty lue his main game plan was nothing more than doing his best rallying cry every game to get everyone to hand the ball to his star player, than put his hand in his pockets and watch what they do. so he probably had to do something different to even have a shot.
Ngl, that seems like something that would be out of Mazzula and Harbaugh’s playbook, so I’m not surprised. I can already envision a trip to Rikers already…
Never heard of this lol
The NBA was at its pinnacle in 2016 and you can’t change my mind. That was peak competition with two top 10 greats going at eachother
Add the Spurs and the Thunder. The slam dunk contest. Curry making over 400 3-pointers. 2016 was incredible for the NBA.
2016 was just fucking awesome in life in general. That was the year fuckin AJ Styles debuted in the WWE. It was the year the fucking Cubs won the world series. Crazy awesome shit was happening…and then…yeah.
Kobe’s retirement tour too
This is why I’ll always hate KD. The worst part about his decision was that we got robbed of another two years of peak basketball.
It’s because he’s the Goat i will never ever get tired of hearing stories about this part of the trilogy. Mike miller and UD had a similar experience about being down to Boston before game 6 LeBron happened I cannot wait for the documentary.
The most hilarious ones are the the players who played against him sitting around and having a group therapy session
Ppl say bron dont have the stories about him of kobe/jordan but perkins saying he was so afraid of him that he prayed before g7 2008 that bron would tear his acl is the most complimentary story ive ever heard about a player
Bron’s stories just haven’t had time to marinate, they’ll be part of the canon soon enough
They just need a good documentary to go along with them
KG said something along the lines of how him, Pierce, Ray and Rondo broke LeBron by beating him without realizing how much of a self own that is lol
It’s cause the players that have stories are bums, curry, kd, kawhi, kg, Pierce, didn’t give a fuck about bron. But wow he scared demar and pg13, those guys choke every year in the playoffs they could go up against Corey maguette and they’d shit their pants.
Cavs would of won 2 or 3 more chips if h*e azz KD don’t join the Warriors
We might have won the first matchup if Kyrie and Love didn’t get hurt
I know they had pretty much no shot of winning in 2018 but I really wanted to see what the series would have been like if LeBron won them g1 in regulation instead of… what we ended up getting.
Maybe goes 6 if we win this they might have a bit more fight for the rest of the series but there was no way in hell we were winning that
It’s really insane to think about what GS would’ve done if we win that year and if they make any moves or just run it back. KD joining them ruined what could’ve been a top 5 rivalry all time. Even if Kyrie still leaves it’s competitive in 2017⁄2018 without KD. Last years of the truly unstoppable LeBron.
Idk about that but them finals wouldve been way more entertaining. Likely all 7 game series with a lot of stakes, assuming Kyrie doesnt leave
Draymond had said on a podcast that after the first 2 finals they needed KD because even though they were winning easily in the regular season the rest of the league, especially the Cavs, had figured out their system and it wasn’t sustainable in the playoffs anymore.
We were robbed of an all-time multi-year rivalry. Would have been this generation’s Celtics-Lakers from back in the day
2017 Cavs vs Warriors with no KD would have been all time. Funny thing is the Warriors didn’t even need KD just a Harrison Barnes replacement, Butler, PG13, even Gordon Hayward.
I would have taken Batum lol
Doubt they’re winning anything with the Warriors having the cap room to get Paul George as a backup plan. Cavs only won by 4 in game 7. Healthy squads coming back the next two years would have the Warriors winning.
Seriously. The Cavs barely won against Curry with a lingering injury, a suspended Draymond, Iguodala with a bad back, Harrison Barnes shooting 3-28 for the series, and Bogut getting injured and being out for 3 games.
Yet this sub acts like LeBron single handedly defeated the Warriors. In the same game they had Festus Ezeli who was nursing an injury and barely played and the following season was injured on the Blazers before retiring and Varajao who had more fouls than points.
It took all that for the Cavs to barely win. This sub acts like its a coincidence when Bogut goes down with an injury LeBron and Kyrie just happen to go off with ridiculous games. “But… but… but… Bogut only played 18 minutes a game. He had no impact.” Right, his screening, passing, hustling had no impact. /s
Not to mention the only time the league has ever retroactively suspended a player in Draymond even though Draymond didn’t even touch LeBron at all. LeBron after that game crying and saying Draymond should be suspended for 3 games. Also, Curry being the only MVP to ever get ejected from a Finals game.
Cavs weren’t winning shit, it took a Draymond suspension, iggy back spasms, suspect referring, a bogut injury, a Harrison barnes disaster class, and a curry injury for LeBron and Kyrie playing their absolute best ball of their life to barely win. Congrats to them they won, but to act like they were set to be a dynasty after that is delusional.
What was kd doing? Did he not know only LeBron was allowed to create superteams in free agency?
Remind me when LeBron went up 3-1 and then choked just to leave his all star teammate to join up with the team he lost to?
The point is KD was on the wrong side of LeBron’s superteam in 2012. Why can’t he play the game that LeBron created?
He had Russ and Harden are you high? Lebron lost to a Celtics super team by himself…
No one on the thunder were above the age of 23. Also harden left in the offseason. Likely doesn’t happen if they win.
That 2016 team held the dubs to a 3-1 deficit. Westbrook went on an MVP run the next year. They literally had the roster and opportunity to at least make the finals. KD choked and cost his team a finals appearance, then ran to a 73-9 team that won the chip last season.
LeBron during the first Cavs stint did not have that level of help at any moment of his time there. Stop the mental gymnastics. They did not do the same thing.
I’m not arguing which is worse. They both threw off the competitiveness of the league though.
Here we go. It’s not about creating a superteam. It’s about joining an established one.
What happened to the “player empowerment” bs you LeBron fans have been talking since the decision? Does that only apply to LeBron as well?
The hardest road.
If that’s the hardest road then the decision is the 2nd hardest road
Bruh. KD called it the hardest road himself.
You’ll never get through LeBron’s cult. No matter what he does it’s excused. It’s only fine for him to leave teams and form superteams. It’s only fine for him to request and play with more All Stars than any other player in the league because, “it’s smart and the obvious thing to do”. It’s only fine for him to cry and cry about needing more help even when his teams have had the highest payrolls. These freaks always bring up the, “he wasn’t down 3-1 so shut the fuck up, it’s fine for him to take pay cuts and form super teams.” As if that makes any sense. So someone signing with one of the only four teams is seen as a bad competitor and a destroyer of parity, but someone who took pay cuts to form a super team to break the league is excused? How does that make any sense? LeBron took paycuts to play with two other All Stars and sign big name, decent role players and because he wasn’t down 3-1 in the previous series makes it okay to “destroy the league”?
The 2016 NBA Finals was on of the greatest sporting events I’ve ever witnessed
It really was. Its so fucking legendary. I love hearing all the stories around it.
Cubs winning Game 7 in extras in the World Series and 28-3 comeback in the Super Bowl that year too. Peak year in American sports. Never, ever turn the game off
Wouldn’t 28-3 technically be 2017? If we’re sticking to the calendar year, then the 2016 Super Bowl would’ve been Panthers-Broncos
Iman is definitely in the documentary
It wouldn’t be right without him
Shannon about to grab the honey if shump keeps talking about this shit 😂
And he’s not gonna wait for the bear either
We still getting stories of these finals
Shump will be pumping out LeBron finals stories till his last breath
and I love every one of them
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People underestimate how much a good system, with laid out principles of play, capable of enhancing role player productivity does for a superstar coming into a franchise. Tim Duncan doesn’t have 5 without Popovich either. Steph won all 4 with Kerr. Magic had Pat Riley. LeBron is outright the exception among the GOATs in that regard.
Nobody has taken that many different coaches to the NBA finals. There’s a reason why Heat haven’t let Erik Spoelstra go.
I think LeBron with Erik Spoelstra even with a Cavs 2018 roster behind him, would recreate the Jimmy Butler playoff runs 10 times over. And I expect Spo to plan for GSW system and schemes so much better that it might have offset the superstar imbalance.
Bruh AI🥲
LeOmniscient Readers Viewpoint
LeDemon King of Salvation
Anytime I see a Shump clip I know I gotta lock in cause it’s always a good ass story
Everybody on the bus or plane was really 🤔
LeMental Games
You know Lequasimodo predicted all this.
Shump left out the most important part.
Bron said this in 2007.
Lebron lead both teams in points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks per game for that 7 game series against the best regular season team of all time, AND he was basically directing the defense and running the offense. He was literally better at everything than everyone including the coaches lol
This is why he is the GOAT. I think his basketball mind/IQ is the best paired with his physical abilities. There will never be another LeBron James.
“How did he know?!?”
“They 73-9 they only lost 3 or 4 games”
he says at home, shump has just also started talking at that point.
Goat and it ain’t even close!
NGL…this dude will turn into Ol Dirty Bastard soon.
TT, Shump, Nets pick Greatest superteam in NBA history
“His career was older than some people’s kids” was a doozy of a line to finish on
“And that’s when I knew Kobe would score 81”
LeMephesto
Chess not checkers
This man can tell a story 😭
I swear he’s the best storyteller
Lebron gaslit them into believing in themselves
Shump and NBA 2k, an iconic duo
At least you can understand him when he takes the grills out.
LeBron is such an inspiring player. Basketball is so lucky to have him
LeBeenKnownTheseRoads
‘cause his nba career is older than some people kids
“His NBA career is older than some of their kids” haha so good
Hardest championship of all time argue with your mother
LePrinciples
Can we have some English translation please?
Shump storytime is competing work Teague Time for my favorite NBA chop-up. I like his delivery.
And yeah, Bron is a student of the game. It’s nice to hear his former teammates evangelizing him now. People really get caught up on ring count, and overlook the absolute basketball genius involved.
Why is imam getting this type of media push? He is not a good storyteller and was a below average guard. Only thing he had was TT on his arm
Kenny Smith tells a similar story about Hakeem Olajuwon, said on their flight home down 3-1.
LeBusDriver
Born calling Mav to save this clip for the documentary.
Shumps podcast career better than his actual career. Swear this story is retold so many times
I imagine him giving a variation of the famous Pitino speech: “Michael Jordan is not walking through that door. And if you expect him to walk through that door, he’s going to be gray and old. I’m the second best player of all time, so let’s do this.”
Why would he say that? lol
Bogut got hurt game 5 Silver stepped his nose in it And curry was playing hurt as well
The warriors getting green suspended truly left a void right down the lane, I believe Cleveland scored like 47 pts in the paint ..
Greens antics got him suspended. No one’s fault but his own
I know some athletes aren’t the brightest, but I’d hope playing out what could happen in a 7 game series is pretty common. The way Shump explains this makes it sound like it’s something special, I don’t get it.
Draymond getting suspended fucked the series so much
This is like saying “but if Kyrie didn’t get hurt” “ but if Kevin love didn’t get hurt” but but but. You play what in front of you Draymond out is no different. Dude does stupid shit.
Nah, getting injured is accidental. Draymond’s behavior was not.
I bet you hate when people hold you accountable
He played game 6 & 7, and 7 was at home. This take is a joke they were up 3-1 🤣
It’s more like if Green didn’t get suspended, he and Bogut would be there and probably take game 5. After Bogut went down, Warriors interior defense was bad. Green’s suspension was the precursor to that bad domino effect.
“I’m always closing in…to grab Steph”
Fuck you, refs
BS. LaFlop knew he could bait Draymond and get him suspended. Dubs win that series in 5 without the suspension. They got KD and two more as a consolation prize
“Don’t worry, Silvers got us”