Well, the 2010/2011 NBA season is over and there better not be a lockout next season after these phenomenal final games. David stern and everyone else, better get that CBA done before June 30th, because it’ll be a damn shame to have a shortened season.
WE WERE WITNESSES. We all witnessed the self-proclaimed (crown-less) King LeBron James choke, shrink and flat out disappear on the biggest stage of the NBA. He’s been called everything from The Frozen One /The Forsaken One to ChoKING /ShrinKING , all these names are well deserved.
EVERYONE, yes everyone (including me) counted Dallas out, we all thought they would exit in the first round. Then they held on to beat the trailblazers. Then we were all like, well there’s no way they’re gonna make it past the Lakers, then (to my delight) they dispatched the Lakers with broom-like fashion like the “non muthaf-ing factors” that they were, and then went on to eliminate the Thunder and finally emerged as the Western Conference champions.
In 6 games, The Dallas Mavericks dispatched the flashy, over the top Miami heat in convincing fashion. It wasn’t so much that Miami lost the finals, it was more of a ‘Mavericks beat the hell outta the Heat’ type game. Was it the best series??? Well it was right up there with the ’70 Knicks/Lakers finals (blame ESPN classic for my knowledge of this game).
For the record, I am not a Miami hater! Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am a lifetime San Antonio Spurs Fan and a perennial LAKER HATER. The Lakers’ showboating irritates me, and I think that’s also part of the reason why this season, I just couldn’t root for the Miami Heat. “It's something about that team that annoys me”, echoing Charles Barkley’s sentiments.
From the moment Lebron decided to take his talents to South Beach and join his super-friends, everything changed. It wasn’t so much that LeBron left Cleveland, it’s the moronic fashion with which he left. Dumping his former team on national TV was mean-spirited. I mean Amare Stoudemire left Phoenix, Carmelo Anthony left the nuggets, in the middle of the season no-less, but you don’t see them being maligned in the media and across the basketball world. The difference is that Carmelo and Amare didn’t turn their free agency into a one hour prime-time sitcom on ESPN. They left with class. And then making it worse, upon their arrival in Miami, LeBron and his cohorts threw a free-agency championship carnival that rivaled Rio and Trinidad combined, where they boldly proclaimed “Not five, not six, not seven …!” Well, apparently not one either, at least not yet
In my opinion, “The Decision” was the most loathsome self serving PR stunt in the history of basketball, if not the entire sports world. LeBron has an ego the size of the Atlantic, and that ego seems to increase just as fast as his hairline decreases. But still, people don’t hate LeBron because “The Decision” was a bad idea, we hate LeBron because he didn’t and still doesn’t realize that The Decision was a bad idea. He doesn't realize what Michael Jordan figured out a long time ago: that most his financial success and popularity came from how he conducted himself as a basketball player. Even after Michael had his 6th ring, everyone was rooting for him to get more rings. Michael Jordan understood the concept of self awareness. In-game Michael was VERY different from post-game Michael. Despite his flashy plays, Michael Jordan remained humble off the court. Same can be said about Shaquille O’Neal. Larger than life player on the court, but off the court he was a comic/clown who never took himself too seriously and embodied that persona very well.
LeBron has his head rammed so far up his ass that he forgets that there is no “I” in team. If the Heat had won this title, it would have felt like he took a shortcut and cheated the system. The reason everyone was rooting for Dirk and the Mavs was because the Mavs had earned their stripes. A bunch of NBA veterans chasing a championship. They had worked hard and played hard through the years and their perseverance paid off. They didn’t just come together last summer and decide that quickest and easiest way to win and NBA championship was to play together. LeBron James has made no secret of the fact that all he wants is a championship and he wants it like yesterday.
You see, there is a reason why 'accomplishment' comes before 'coronation' in the dictionary. Lebron put the cart in front of the horse, He bought into his own hype. He gave himself the crown before he even dreamt of becoming King. He was packaged and sold as the greatest ever, the second coming of Jordan, and people act like he’s a gift from the basketball gods or something. Don’t get me wrong, LeBron is an amazing ATHLETE, he has highlight reels for days, but that’s all it is… Highlight reels. I am a huge fan of the game of basketball, and I know being a great basketball player takes a lot more than highlight reels. Jordan, Dr J, Magic, Bird, Barkley, Ewing etc, they were a lot more than highlight reels. They had that “IT” factor. As I said earlier, I am a Laker hater, but I am not a Kobe hater, Kobe is an Amazing basketball player, he has the “IT” factor and no one –not even a Laker hater like me – can deny that.
LeBron never takes responsibility for his actions he didn’t in Cleveland and he hasn’t in Miami… minutes after the loss, he took to his pulpit that is twitter to preach these words “The Greater Man upstairs know when it's my time. Right now isn't the time.” In my opinion, this is just a cop out. He’s pretending like he played such a great game, but God or whatever higher power he believes in did not want him to win tonight, and that’s the only reason why he lost. James said after this Finals loss that he doesn't care or listen to what everybody has to say about him or his game. I am not buying that for one second, because this is the same guy who tweeted last year "Don't think for one [minute] that I haven't been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!" So it's kinda late for him to say he doesn't care.
LeBron's comments during the post game interview did NOTHING for his image, well actually, that’s not true, his comments actually made things worse. He pretty much said, I am a spoiled, arrogant rich athlete and you’re not.
“All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point.”
…. However true that maybe, it’s the disposable income of these ‘poor’ people that pays his hefty salary. Are people gonna forgive LeBron? Well Americans are ‘short sighted’, they forgave Ron Artest, instigator of the worst brawl in NBA history, who incidentally just won the league's Citizenship Award, and we’ve kinda also forgiven Michael Vick who committed the greatest kind of sin according to American ethos .. He killed dogs *insert eyeroll here*. Whatever the case may be, I believe if LeBron wants to be ‘forgiven’, all he has to do is repair his image, it’s up to him, ultimately, it’s his ‘Decision’.
