they are blamed for their actions. but AI ain't no role model.

lol, i love how you played this. "vick is not above the law" but "damn they just dogs...i'm just sayin". he basically played pokemon with dogs. but the real crime here isn't that he killed dogs or made them fight, its that he wasted them. koreans would have happily made some soup.

not to be discounted--cavs still have until february.

iverson as a basketball player is nowhere near done. he'll be traded somewhere and get back on his scoring frenzy. look at his numbers throughout the years. he's been in the league well over a decade and has a career avg of 27 ppg. you don't go from being the best little man the league's ever seen for 13 consecutive seasons to dropping 10 pts a game and suddenly he's washed up. iverson's a puzzle piece that dumars was just trying to jam into the system because there was no risk. 1 year and he's out.

but this "real" shit is what kills him.. iverson's his own worst enemy, and succumbs too often to his selfish agenda. he's a headcase and needs to be catered to way too much. a successful version of iverson is carmelo. he keeps it real, is more of an everyday man than any other superstar he was drafted with, has problems with staying committed, his coach and with the law.. he's young and easily influenced. but from his rookie season melo grew up and continues to show growth, but iverson never evolved.

melo wants to win, wants his team to win, wants to play basketball. iverson is basically just playing for the hook in that new drake/weezy song.

the most vital attribute shaq brings to cleveland will be his ability to create his own shot. instead of lebron tiring himself out driving and finishing/dishing every damn play, taking stepback jumpers cause no one is even remotely trying to score, now mo and west can dribble the ball up, have shaq post and feed him down low. does this make them champs? naw. unless mike brown is real smart with using shaq, i'm talking popovic using duncan type smart (sacrificing higher seeding to give his star rest to be able to fully utilize him in the postseason), they still might not beat the magic.

shaq & lebron vs. kobe & gasol would be a hell of an ad campaign though. the kobe beef, the best player alive argument and the when-will-the-media-recognize-me-and-realize-this-team-is-moot-without-me debacle all settled in one series? classic.

"we know what we have to do. i know i have to get up in the morning, and put my underwear on first and then put my pants on first. i don't need people to tell me that... yeah, thongs."

i also concur, after i read the "This post was written by:" section.

well, i meant increase the number of potential point guards that fit this mold of irrelevancy.

the only player that i would really agree with in this overrated-pointguard-position argument is steve nash, but its the most easily explainable. great pg, great team, 2 time mvp, but no ring. why? d'antoni offense (most exciting basketball to watch, and thus easily overhyped), no defense. not overrated as a player, but his value to the team was definitely considered too high. 2 time mvp my ass... and i love nash.

the point guard position is overly glorified because of the aesthetics of great passing, but definitely not overrated.

the examples you named of point guards that won and did not win championships can all be considered anomalies, just as you consider magic and isiah to be. it didn't matter who the hell ran the point on the 90s bulls, all they really needed to do was fit the build and hit a three now and then. stockton and malone had a little obstacle named michael jordan. and the rockets had 2 players that made 1 great point guard, as both cassell and smith had huge moments in the rocket's two year run.

mark jackson and kidd were phenomenal players, who ran the floor and got their teams going. but lets be honest, its a well known fact basketball is a team game. they were on good teams, but not good enough to win the larry o'brien (a la 2009 cavaliers).

sure, you don't need a good point guard to win a championship, but that's taken with a grain of salt. in the past 20 years, the teams that took a ring home without a bonafied pointguard had players named michael & kobe (moreso shaq). the 2004 pistons were the most modest team to win a trophy in this timespan, but that credit goes to chauncey as a floor general as much as it goes to the team's defense. look what he did in denver.

last is your shortlist of champs: rajon, parker, billups, williams. minus williams, those pgs were essential to the victory of the team, whether they are hall of famers or not. parker and billups won the finals MVPs. and in the 2006 finals? two words: bennet salvatore. two more: dwyane wade.

your sample size is too small.