I know a lot of people would not expect the subject matter of my next blog to be what it is, hell neither did I. To be honest I was outlining a three part series that in all honesty would have kept me busy for the next month. And then it hit me. Well two words hit me right on the top of the head. “LeBron James! I need to write about LeBron James.” I tried to pass off the thought was one of the many distractions that happens to me as a writer when trying to write. I’ll sit down and think about every subject under the sun besides what I sat down to do. Bad habit, I know, welcome to life as a writer. The more I tried to push it out of my mind the more thoughts jumped in my head. It was like trying to kill weeds in a beautifully landscaped yard. So here we go. Enjoy the ride.
Contrary to popular belief, I_____ (insert my government name if you know me) do not hate, dislike or have a lack of respect for LeBron James the basketball player. Matter of fact I am very much so a fan of his as far as what he brings to the table, basketball wise.
I have more of a problem with his fans for which there are two types, the ones who for the most part are on the media/ESPN hyped bandwagon, which in actuality I should embrace. It makes the casual NBA observer a fan, and being that the NBA is my favorite sport that is good for the popularity of the game. Who knows maybe one day the NFL draft or college spring football won’t be the top headline during the most important stretch of the NBA season, which is March and April.
The second kind of fan is the “follow whoever is the most exciting player in the league” fan. Now I know you’re asking “well isn’t that the same thing as someone on a bandwagon?” Well reread what I said about the first type of fan, I stated that they are the casual fan. They couldn’t tell you the name of the high school LeBron went to, the college Dwayne Wade attended or know who David Stern is. This second tier for fan typically has a team resume that reads like this: Bulls, 76’ers, Magic, Heat, Cavs and Heat. If you need me to decipher that code, its means their favorite players over the years were Jordan, Iverson, McGrady, Wade and LeBron. Now I’m not saying you can’t be a fan or love to watch more than one player at a time. But to switch and pull for different teams every few years….that’s against man law in the world of sports and on serious grounds of having your man card placed on permanent suspension. I know me personally I can’t have too many conversations with musical chair fans. Consistency people, that’s all we ask for.
As in the words of the Great Ice Cube “I was taught back on my block, that you don’t ride on nobody’s jock. For anything they do, F__k him and his crew, unless you were getting paid too” lol
Now back to LeBron Ramone James. If there ever were a prototype sent from another planet that had the parts and make of the perfect basketball player, it would be LeBron James. The guy has the speed of Scottie Pippen, the court vision of Magic Johnson, drives to the basketball with brute force like Charles Barkley, rim shattering dunks like Dominique Wilkins oh and is 6’8, 260 pounds, the same size of Karl Malone.
O.K. let me put it like this, if we were playing NBA Live 95 on Sega Genesis and I created a player the same size as Karl Malone and gave him the attributes of Pippen (because MJ wasn’t on Live 95) you’d look at me like I was crazy! And that’s the kind of talent LeBron has, CRAZY. I mean the guy can do everything on the court… maybe not everything….yet; he still has to become a more consistent shooter… which he will. But if you look at his game which is light years beyond 99% of the league and then you add to the mix that he is a genuine unselfish player, I mean c’mon he’s the perfect basketball player.
I remember reading how Wilt Chamberlin was so dominate that sometimes he let up on his opponents because he himself felt it was unfair. I get the same feeling with LeBron at times. If you want to be a star player you have to be a killer, this passive aggressive mentality is unacceptable, you have to want to dominate. But… if they have too much of a dominant personality you end up with a Stephon Marbury… and really… who wants that? I’ll take LeBron’s shorting comings any day of the week over a selfish player like Marbury.
But I have to be honest, I do see some insecurity in his game at times. Well maybe not his game, his confidence. It’s like a young lion getting punked out by an antelope. The young lion hasn’t realized that lions eat antelope for a living. That’s what LeBron has to realize when it comes to those big moments, get his lion on!
Do I think James is full of himself, yes I do.
You have to be cocky to be a successful pro athlete. Hell some of my favorite athletes of all time are Kobe Bryant, Deion Sanders, Magic Johnson, Dennis Rodman, Brett Favre, Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller. Those are all some cocky sons of bitches, so clearly I don’t have a problem with that. But there is a line and a having Chosen 1 tattoo, SERIOUSLY referring to yourself in the third person (and by your nickname at that) and holding a press conference about your free agency is crossing the line.
While I’m on the whole decision thing I’ll touch on that. Do I think he should have stayed in Cleveland, I don’t know. In a three year span the Cavs went to the finals and posted back to back 60 win years, that’s amazing considering it was Cleveland.
I know he and Wade said that Boston coming together influenced them into joining forces and forming a super team. Boston’s super team is a little different. In Boston you had three aging superstars who were not going to get it done by themselves. Boston had three players who at the most were 75% of the player they were in their prime and you can argue KG was about 60% of what he was. The Celtics had a three year widow to capitalize on that move, and it panned out.
I believe if LeBron stayed in Cleveland and this year played out like it did, LeBron would still be in the position he is in right now, on a team in the Eastern Conference finals having gone through Boston. One could argue he had the same chances if not better chances of beating the Bulls with that Cavs team than with the Heat. The Cavs were built around his game, and each role player knew their position and played it well. They had size to close down the paint, speed to keep up with the Bulls shooters and years of experience playing together. If LeBron would have brought a championship back to Cleveland, it would be one of the greatest sports stories of all time, I truly believe that. I’m not saying he should have gone or stayed, but it would have been really interesting if he had. Every great player has a team or two they have to go through before they break through. He got past the Piston hurdle and the Boston one was next. But we live in a microwave society where we want everything now.
Over his career I’ve had a number of conversations with people who were trying to write him off for play off failures, after being fans of his. “He really isn’t that dude”. I would have to take off my hater hat and be real with them. “Man, chill he’s only 23….” (Or whatever year he was when ever he said it). “He’ll figure it out”. “Most professional athletes don’t figure it out until their late twenties, he will be no different.”
But I have to say that teaming up with Wade, who I believe is a fantastic player, was kind of weak in my opinion. No one can win a championship on their own, we all know that. But two of the best players at their positions, in their prime teaming up…hey, it is what it is. You can say what you want about past Laker teams but they drafted a lot of their star players. When one would get older, they they’d add a piece. West got Wilt and Kareem got Magic. They took a risk drafting Kobe and it panned out for Shaq and the organization.
But when I really sit and think about the Heat situation I really think it boiled down dealing with pressure. I don’t think LeBron wanted to deal with the pressure of being the “man” anymore. He wanted someone he could lean on. Wade was a perfect fit, he’d been there before and when the going gets rough, he’ll be able to take some of the pressure off of LeBron. That’s why LeBron and Wade do their press conferences together win or lose. I’m not mad at that. It was LeBron’s way of being humble as to say “look, I myself don’t believe I can handle being on this stage alone, I need some guidance”. He can’t admit that kind of stuff publically or everyone would trash him. Now that I think about it the chosen 1 tattoo, the talking in 3rd person, the over the top cocky comments screams of a super insecure person who’s trying to convince people that he is secure in himself. He’s human.
The further these play offs have gone the more confidence we see in LeBron. It’s like taking the training wheels off your kid’s bike and holding that seat while they try to ride. At some point you let go of the seat and the kid doesn’t know they’re riding on their own. That’s how he looks right now. And I as a basketball fan enjoy watching it.
When it’s all said and done I think he will be the best small forward of all time, if he continues to grow. Do I think he’ll be better than MJ, Kareem or Magic when it comes to the best player of all time? No. In my opinion that ended when he left Cleveland for Miami. He has the chance to be a top five player off all time talent wise that’s for sure.
Well I started writing this about three or four weeks ago and now the Heat are in the finals verse Dallas. The Heat’s defense is some of the best defense I’ve seen in a while. I’m not going to start talking about the Heat, this is a LeBron blog.
Oh, O.K. I will say this to the Heat “fans”: When they win a championship or more like a couple, I don’t want to hear fair weather Miami fans rejoicing like they went through the trenches with this team. It’s not hard pulling for the best team or thing, ever. Pulling for the Heat is like pulling for the only Ferrari in drag race full of Buicks and then jumping around for joy when it wins. It’s like a grown man playing dodge ball with 4th graders and getting excited when you peg one of those kids in the head. It’s like playing with the Dream Team on that EAsports game Team USA Basketball, and getting happy when you beat Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_USA_Basketball It’s like….. O.K. you get the point. Your joy and trash talk will not be heard or respected. That is all on that rant.
Well I had fun writing this one, took a while but oh well. It’s not easy to fit blogging in with writing other stuff. Hope you enjoyed it and oh… Go LAKERS!! LOL. (You knew I wouldn’t talk about LeBron this much without some kind of Laker reference)
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