Some of you detractors like to discredit Bron Bron’s accomplishments by saying that he plays in a weak east. You scoff at his 8 straight Finals appearances by saying it’s too easy for him. Look, I’m not trolling here. Obviously the east hasn’t been as good as the west in the last 20 years, and that dates back to failed succession plan of Jordan and his peers in the Eastern Conference. Penny Hardaway and Grant Hill were supposed to succeed Jordan in the East heading into the 2000s when those guys would’ve been further in their prime. However, injuries derailed their careers.
Meanwhile, a lot of the young guys drafted in the mid 90’s were drafted by or traded to the Western Conference and were in their primes in the 2000s such as Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and more. Jason Kidd and Paul Pierce were some of the few guys playing most of their time in the East. It also doesn’t help that Shaq took his talents to Tinsel Town after his stay in Orlando.
In any case, back to LeBron. Early in LeBron’s career, the east was pretty solid. Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison led a good Wizards team that LeBron would beat in the playoffs because of his own greatness. Arenas got his tushy hurt and brought some guns so that was over quick. Those great Detroit Pistons teams were in the East. They weren’t a joke. They beat your precious Kobe and the Lakers in 04 (Kobe shot 38 percent in that series loss but apparently Kobe was always clutch so never mind). Despite that, LeBron took it to the Pistons late in the 07 playoffs on his way to the Finals with a weaker team. Around the mid 2000s, the Pistons were good but so were the Big 3 Celtics and Dwight Howard’s Magic. They were battles with those teams and LeBron. If you at the history of the league, if you can get at least 3 teams in each conference that have a legit chance of contending, then count your blessings.
Obviously, the east wasn’t that great during the Heatles’ Big 3 era. The Nets never were a contender, Dwight Howard fizzled out, and the Knicks with Carmelo Anthony didn’t last. The Heat’s main competition were Rose’s Bulls and George’s Pacers. Remember what I said before? If you get even 2 decent contenders, consider that a blessing. We look at the fact that James is able to lockdown that small guard Rose and is a way better wing than George as a way to say the East is weak. It wasn’t great but part of that has to do with how great LeBron is. Rose getting hurt didn’t help but they weren’t going to beat LeBron’s Heat or even his Cavs as evident with the playoff losses anyway. Jimmy Butler ended going to where? The West. If the Bulls can’t beat LeBron with Butler and what’s left of Rose, then they’re not doing it with only Butler. The Pacers teams got blown up after back to back losses to LeBron. As a result, George got traded to help a team from the west. Go figure.
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The only time where you can say the East was weak was during LeBron’s first few years in the east. He single handedly dismantled an excellent Hawks team that we knew was big time. He beat up the okay Raptors and the pre-2018 Celtics. I’ll give you guys that. But I won’t give you the 2017-2018 NBA Eastern Conference. The east was good this year. The Celtics were a legit team even without Kyrie and Hayward. The emergence of Tatum and Brown and the overall improved length and athleticism made them a formidable force. Had they had their stars healthy, they would’ve been in the Finals.
The Raptors obviously were choking dogs that had no answer for LeBron. However, as a regular season team, they were legit and beat good teams from the West. Their inability to get over the LeBron hump shows more about their mental weakness and LeBron’s greatness then it does about them just not being good. The Pacers were a very good squad and took the Cavs to 7. The Sixers are a legit team on the rise that needs to gain more experience. With all of that, don’t tell me the east is weak now or moving forward. Admit it, the Celtics, Raptors, and Sixers are just as good, if not better than most of the Western Conference outside of Golden State and maybe the Rockets. This narrative that the West is way stronger than the East has been overblown in the last few years even with the surplus of players in the West.
You guys like to bring up how brutal the east was for Jordan in his career. He had to deal with the Celtics and Pistons in the 80’s, albeit no other teams were good in the east at that time. However, his competition in the 1990’s were good but slightly overrated. You honestly don’t think some of LeBron’s teams could’ve beaten those Reggie Miller Pacers teams or those “tough” Cavs teams led by Mark Price? Please. Other than Shaq and Penny’s Magic teams, the Knicks, Hornets, Heat, and other admirable 90’s eastern teams were good but overrated. They weren’t all time teams like the Warriors. And with the way LeBron is playing now, that seems to be the only type of team that beat him at this point.
