A very good article on lebron james written by my boy Rick Reilly. http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8011587/lebron-being-lebron This whole We Hate LeBron thing reminds me of a story. A woman is in front of an apartment house that's engulfed in flames. She's screaming, "Help! Help! My baby's in there!" A man sprints up and says, "Which floor?" "Tenth!" she screams. "In the back!" He rips off his coat and goes running in. Five minutes later, he's back, coughing, choking, and handing the woman the baby. She looks at the man with a frown and sniffs, "He had a hat." That's life for LeBron James. Anything short of an NBA title makes James a useless wad of pre-chewed pork gristle in your eyes. Whatever he does -- three MVPs in nine seasons -- it's never enough. You hate him -- still! -- for the way he botched the announcement of his free-agent move from Cleveland to Miami. Forget that hundreds of people move from Cleveland to Miami every year. Forget that dozens of NBA players change teams every year. It was only one mistake. Has he showed up in any police reports since? Has he cheated on his fiancée ? Has he left his children stranded in the pick-up circle at school? Has he refused to speak to reporters after a single game this season? Has he called out his teammates for their poor play, as Kobe Bryant did twice this postseason? Has he gotten his coach fired? Been fined for criticizing refs? Asked to be traded, released or named general manager? Has he punched anybody? Choked anybody? Screamed at any parking valets? (Mom doesn't count.) Smashed a chair? Drop-kicked any equipment? Tiger Woods does that on the front nine. OK, he's not perfect. Threw a Gatorade cup. Punched a walking stick. Carries that stupid little man purse. But if you were to fill a plane with the most spoiled superstars in the country, he'd be boarding in the D group. You despise him because he passes too much. Imagine that. You hate a modern NBA player for not being selfish. OK, I'd like to see him use his bag of hoop tricks to drive more at the end of games, too. But it's not like he hasn't done it, dozens and dozens of times, including huge fourth quarters against Boston and Chicago in last season's playoffs. You people seem to want him to take it every single time, even with Dwyane Wade as a teammate. And Chris Bosh. But it's The Big Three, isn't it? Not The Big One. And just so you know: In playoff games, LeBron has taken 13 final shots in tight games in regulation and hit five of them to win or tie. Kobe has taken twice that and hit only seven. Can we all just take a Xanax? Besides, he passes so exquisitely. His passes are clairvoyant, leading teammates to places they didn't even know they were supposed to go. They're as soft and buttery as croissants. Why wouldn't you want him passing? And why is the hoops world so hyper-critical of this one thing when he's so brilliant at every other part of the game? Defense? He's guarded every position on the Celtics -- the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. "He's guarded everybody but me," says Celtics coach Doc Rivers. Only Rajon Rondo is even close in all-around brilliance this postseason. James is second in points, fourth in steals, 10th in assists, second in minutes. He leads his team in double-doubles and the league in double standards. Wade missed an open jumper to lose Game 4 in overtime -- how come he's not "scared?" Last year, you hated him for being a shrinker. Now you hate him for not being a closer. Every game, he must CLOSE. Was Magic Johnson a closer? A few times, yes. Every freaking time? No. And by the way, most of the time James doesn't need to close because he's been so drop-your-popcorn good the entire game. Aren't we still playing the game of basketball? What happened to attacking the defense where it's softest? What's wrong with looking for the open shot? Aren't his 12 teammates getting paid, too? People -- enough. This whole "Crown or Drown" thinking on James has to stop. Grown men are actually strapping microphones to their ties and saying that if James doesn't win the title, the Heat ought to be broken up. For what? For making the Finals last year? For making (at least) the Eastern finals this year? James has been with these guys only two seasons. It took Michelangelo four years to paint the Sistine Chapel. You people would've fired him in two? But I think the reason you hate LeBron James the most is that he just doesn't seem to suffer his failures as much as you'd like him to. You want him to brood like Kobe at losses, glare like Jordan when things don't go his way, scream at teammates like Tom Brady when they're behind. That's not James. His spirit is too light. He's too much fun. He's a 6-foot-8 pixie, a 27-year-old kid who's addicted to kidding. He's a genuinely sweet person. You think of the great athletes of our generation -- Jordan, Woods, Lance Armstrong. They all had a bit of the jerk gene in them. James is missing it. He is loved by his teammates, not feared. So sue. That's probably going to work against him in the long run. It will keep him from being Jordan or Kobe or Kareem. It will keep him from being enough. But isn't that somebody you want your kids to have as their hero? Hat or no hat?
http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2012/...ned/?utm_source=dlvr.it#38;utm_medium=twitter Until today, when that very same Skeets joke ended up in a Rick Reilly piece for ESPN where the scribe is defending LeBron James. Check it out.
It really makes no sense to me at all. I know "the decision" was dumb but in terms of basketball he is the best player in the league. Yea they probably won't win a championship this season but that cannot be blamed on lebron......he is doing everything he can do. His team is garbage without Bosh and an inconsistent wade.
Lebron chokes on his home floor tonight. 0-3 under 24 seconds in the past 2 postseasons, in game tying and go ahead shots.
Good article. James shouldn't be hated at all - he really IS doing everything he can to make sure his team wins. Unfortunate for Miami that Bosh has been out so much.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pT-I8jQDQ7c?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> "We about business... it's going to be easy."
It's gonna be easy! With Me and D.Wade on the wings, hell even Pat Riley can come back! Just [have him] throw it up there! I always laugh inside when I hear Spoelstra say "No one said it was going to be easy".
For people to hold a grudge because he decided to broadcast to the world where he wanted to sign as a free agent and donate millions of dollars to the boys and girls club is childish. If you cant let that go i don't know what to tell ya.
Would you feel the same way if Dream did that? What idiot would do that to his home state???? Oh yah, the same idiot that they call King, and has no rings
when you nickname yourself the chosen one, criticism shouldn't bother you or your witnesses. And to make it seem like all you have to do to win a championship is join wade's g*ngbang, is an insult to the true legends of the game, like the dream who carried an entire city. It's an insult to those that didn't reach that summit until they were in there early 30s. It's an insult to those great players whose careers felt short due to injuries. not one, not two... maybe lebron can go chase rings in OKC four years from now.
Maybe you are too young or just have selective memory......Olajuwon demanded a trade back in 92. http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-31/sports/sp-231_1_hakeem-olajuwon
the only thing i got from that article was 1) where's the xanax? 2) LeBron likes to punch Juwan Howards walking cane ...well at least lebron knows if Juwan breaks his hip and retires they will win the championship:grin:
There are several reasons why I dislike Lebron outside of The Decision. I didn't like how he turned his Cleveland teams into girls high school softball teams with their outrageously gay choreographed dance routines. I don't like the way he acts on the court, you can tell he knows the camera is always on him and will constantly play up to it (although he has turned it down this year, his Cleveland years he was the worst. Blake Griffin is now the king at doing this). Even though he donated money to charity for The Decision, that was such a transparent cop out in order to go through with a move that was catered towards building his ego. People are going to root against a guy that had to assemble a dream team in order to proclaim he would win multiple championships despite the fact he/they haven't won anything. I respect his game and actually feel bad for him because he's playing great and they still aren't winning but I still dislike The Choken One and so do a vast majority of people.