There's never been an athlete, in any sport, like LeBron James. At 6'9" and 280 pounds, he's so fast, strong and agile that I'd believe you if you told me he was some mad-scientist's creation of pumping a human full of pterodactyl blood. With that kind of foundation, seeing the game as clearly as he does should be illegal. Being taller than most of the leagues other ball handlers gives him additional passing lanes, but he's got a remarkably high basketball IQ, great anticipation and superb court-vision too.
To even the playing field, the basketball Gods created LeBron during the thirstiest era in sports-media history. A time when dozens of networks committed to round the clock coverage
His career has also coincided with the start ups of Facebook and Twitter, where clowning people is somewhat of a sport in itself. The social media era has made it easy and fun to run hate-trains and for the past 22 months, LeBron has been getting pounded.
His career has also coincided with the start ups of Facebook and Twitter, where clowning people is somewhat of a sport in itself. The social media era has made it easy and fun to run hate-trains and for the past 22 months, LeBron has been getting pounded.
In July of 2010, fans in New York, Chicago and Cleveland, salty that their team didn't get the best player in the NBA,started the Hate-on-LeBron movement and it took off like KONY 2012. He went from being the 3rd most popular athlete in the world to the most hated in less than a month, surpassing guys that abused women, animals and drugs because he chose to work in Miami.
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| LeBron shows Tyson Chandler who the real DPOY was |
People typically say that they turned on him because of the way he handled his free agency, when ESPN made his press conference into a program they called The Decision, but that's ridiculous to me. What he did is no different than National Signing Day—when we celebrate High School kids cutting class to hold press conferences announcing where they've decided to play football at the following year—other than the fact that James raised over $3 million for the Boys and Girls Club in doing so. What a jerk!
I'll never completely understand how LeBron became the most hated guy in sports. He wasn't the first star to switch teams—Shaq left Orlando in1996, he wasn't the first to do so that summer—Amare Stoudamire left Phoenix and Chris Bosh left Toronto, he wasn't even the first to leave Cleveland—Carlos Boozer lied to a blind man to get out of his contract in 2004 (That seems far more egregious to me).
He was, however, the first to have the entire sports world turn on him for doing so. Because of that, it almost makes sense that he's the first superstar I can remember being visibly shaken by a backlash of hate and criticism. You don't see it often (if ever) in professional sports, but the critics have affected him. There are times late in games, and in interviews, where LeBron seems to become somewhat paralyzed with a fear of what people's reactions to him are going to be. Those moments of insecurity are like blood in a pool full of sharks. It becomes a feeding frenzy, the Bron-bashers love it.
With the help of Skip Bayless, the leader of simple minded idiots, LeBron's rep has become that he's anti-clutch. I realize that we live in a society that can't remember what happened earlier this year much less what happened in past seasons, but to say that James lacks the "clutch gene" you have to conveniently forget every moment of his illustrious career other than last year's Finals.
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| LeBron shoots over Pau Gasol and Matt Barnes |
James has had more clutch moments than casual fans seem to remember. He's taken over playoff games and series before—what he did in game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals (scoring 29 of his teams final 30 points in a double-overtime win) and in game 4 against Indy last Sunday (40 points,18 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 blocks and 2 Steals) were two of the greatest playoff performances in history—he's hit game winners in the playoffs, and yes, he also displayed Costanza-Esq shrinkage in last year's NBA Finals. There's no excuse for his lack of aggressiveness against Dallas last June. His usage rate in game 5 was the lowest of his playoff career. But,"That was an occurrence, not a trend." Grantland's Dave Jacoby points out, "It has not reoccurred. That would only be a concern if it reoccurred this year."
LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world, there's no one on the planet who does more for his team. Against the Pacers in round 2he led the Heat in points, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals. That's absolutely absurd! But all people seem to care about is whether or not he hits buzzer-beaters.By those standards Robert Horry is one of the 3 best players of all time, as much as I love Big Shot Rob, that would just be silly. It's like people don't watch the first 45 minutes of games. (Do you fools watch basketball or do you just skim through it?)
Here's the thing though, you can't completely dominate 90% of a game and then fail in the final minutes due to lack of ability; it's a mental block. That's why I warn the Bron-Bashers to be careful what you ask for.
If you continue to be ridiculous and relentless without merit in your criticism, eventually, he's going to stop caring what people think.
If you continue to be ridiculous and relentless without merit in your criticism, eventually, he's going to stop caring what people think.
LeBron didn't get it when fans started booing him in every road game since the beginning of last season. He didn't get it when everyone overlooked his dominance against the 76ers, Celtics and Bulls in last year’s playoffs and only focused on his Finals no-show. He didn't get it when, win or lose, he got pounded every time he didn't take the game winning shot over the past two seasons (even in the All-Star game). After getting hammered for passing out of a double-team to a wide open Udonis Haslem during the final seconds of a game against Utah in February (a game he took over in the 4th quarter by the way), LeBron finally started to realize something; he can't win until he wins. And maybe even if he wins he won't win. Maybe he'll win 3 rings and people will still hate him. Either way, there's not a thing he can do right now that people won't find a negative in. If LeBron walked on water his critics would say it was because he was afraid to get wet.
I'm not sure if he has truly accepted the "F anyone who's not with me!" mentality yet—he's saying all the right things about only his family and teammates mattering but sometimes those things take time to sink in—but when LeBron finally does accept that the critics don't matter, stops playing the "what if" games in his head and fully commits to giving no fucks, watch out. He might just win "not 1, not 2, not 3..." in a row.
Can you imagine if one of the NBA's leading scorers, best facilitators, best rebounders and the best defender in the league starts closing games like Mariano Rivera? Skip's head might explode. At least we can only hope!
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Lebron's a ringless king. Long live the frozen one!
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