We are all witnesses. More recently, witnesses to how watching LeBron James speak publicly is like watching Charlie Sheen address the media after a weekend yack bender in Reno. The guy just keeps putting his foot in his mouth, over and over again.
And no, this is not a sports blog or my half-ass attempt at sports reporting. It’s just something that’s been on my mind, and Sportscenter won’t shut up about it either, so I figure I might as well address this and stop avoiding writing my first post because my blog looks like crap (I promise I’ll work on it). Or it could just be that the NBA and NHL playoffs are over there is NOTHING to watch on T.V… And so begins the cable plague that are the next few months in televised sports. I don’t know about you guys, but I find there is pretty much nothing worth watching Sportscenter for anymore (sorry baseball fans, but I find watching even highlights of your sport about as stimulating as watching a 300 lb woman breastfeed at the mall food-court), other than to amuse myself with an update on the latest dumb-ass comment or Twitter feed by LeBron James.
Yes, this year’s NBA Playoffs ended this week with Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks’ game six victory over Mr. James and the Miami Heat. Thank freakin’ God. Not surprisingly however, the only thing people seem to be talking about since then is not the Mavs, the franchise’s first championship, nor their star player, Dirk Nowitzki (who arguably took them to the finals single-handedly). No, instead, surprise surprise, 90% more or less of the attention has been dedicated to LeBron. And yes, you’re probably wondering why I decided to contribute to the poor bastard’s undeserving media attention by writing my blog’s very first post about something that’s been talked about too much already… Well because I can’t stand the fuc*er and I want to to tell you why. Yes, I too jumped aboard the LeBron hate-train a while back along with the rest of self-respecting America. In fact, I bought a first-class ticket on that baby and put my feet up because I planned to be there a real long time. For my exuberant loathing of “The King” (a name he gave himself FYI) runs deep, as this post will surely display, but for reasons that differ from most other LeBron haters. Personal reasons. For I am certainly no Cleveland fan and, until recently, couldn’t have cared less about the Mavs. But I’ll get into that later…
Hate him or not though, there is no denying his raw talent as a basketball player, nor his ability to capture the media’s attention more than any other player in basketball, or perhaps any sport for that matter (shy of maybe just one horny golfer whose jungle-cat name I won’t mention). It could be argued that, even more so than his infamous departure from his former Cleveland Cavaliers team, what has brought LeBron James to so many people’s disliking has simply been his display of an utter lack of humility with the media, nor any sign of the maturity that we would come to expect out of a player that has been, for reasons beyond me, compared so often to such basketball greats as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
For someone that is constantly making statements to reporters or updating his tweets to defend his image, you’d think his personal skills would be a little more on point by now, wouldn’t you? Anybody remember ole’ Bron Bron in the Cleveland Cavaliers 2009 Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Orlando Magic? Yeah, me neither. Nobody does because he never showed up. Not to the game (where he scored 25 points after averaging 38 in the series), nor to the press conference afterwards. After the game he walked off the court in defeat without shaking any of the Magic players’ hands (classic), went into the locker room, and back onto the bus to pout with his headphones on without talking to any reporters. I could understand his frustration, being that he had little to no help in most of those games, but come on dude, man up. Then, in perhaps his most disappointing playoff performance (excluding this year of course), James was caught clocking-out a bit early against the Boston Celtics in the 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. He shot a pitiful 33.9 percent from the field, averaged only 21.3 points, and turned the ball over 19 times. Hell, let’s face it. He didn’t even look like he wanted to play in those games. You want to know what I think? I think he got fed up with all the pressure, failed yet again to show up in the clutch moments and close out a game, and most likely knew at that moment, after another weak playoff performance, that he was leaving Cleveland for South Beach that summer.
James’ credibility with the media depleted even further than his hairline that summer with his infamous one hour special called “The Decision” in which he, after about 43 obnoxious commercial breaks and dramatic background music, announced not that he was “leaving Cleveland” nor “going to to play for the Miami Heat” but instead chose to very eloquently put it as “I’m a take my talents to South Beach.” HA. Oh man, that shit never gets old, does it? Do yourself a favor, please. Watch the first 30 seconds right now of “The Decision,” and just WATCH his face right before he announces it when he says: “Oh man, this is really tough.” You buyin’ that? Really LeBron, is it tough? Then why would you say that with a complete emotionless tone and that little bearded smirk on your face as you publicly stab the entire city of Cleveland in the back, who did nothing short of worship you for 7 years, on a 1 hour special on national television? “Shut up Joey, he donated all the money to charity and that’s more respectable than you bashing him on your stupid little blog.” Yeah OK, very respectable. Wait, no it’s not. Parading a bunch of kids from Connecticut in the background of your special doesn’t cloud the fact that you are a self-absorbed deutsche trying to prevent your public image from taking a nosedive.
Not to be outdone with his media professionalism, LeBron, a few days later at Miami’s welcoming party along side Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, could be found very “humbly” rising up onto a pedestal of smoke and fireballs, and then continued to strut around flexing his biceps to thousands of screaming Miami fans. Tool.
After this very admirable display of class and pyrotechnics, the Miami heat found themselves under more scrutiny than any other NBA team I have ever witnessed in my life. Regardless of the pressure, and what seemed like endless criticism from the media, the Heat found themselves in the 2011 NBA Finals after just one season with their new roster. A feat that can only be admired, regardless of whatever the hell I say about them. Yet, James managed to no-show yet again when it counted most, the fourth quarter, and his frustration and obnoxious behavior with the media painfully continued when he and Dwayne Wade mocked Dirk Nowitzki with their little fake cough routine after Game 4 (which Dirk dominated even with the flu, and LeBron played nothing short of turd). Okay, I will be the first to admit that this little incident was blown so out of proportion by the media, it should no longer be mentioned by anybody. But that’s just my point. Everything these guys do is going to be blown up, and they know this. For Wade and James to do something so ignorant when they knew the cameras were rolling, especially after having gotten completely outplayed by a sick Nowitzki in the previous game, just goes to show what a lack of respect they have for the game and for one of the games most respectable players. And when you screw up, be a man and own it. Don’t be a little pompous child about it and hide from your mistakes like Wade did when questioned about it in the post-game press conference. “I don’t think Dirk’s the only person in the world who can have a cough…” Oh please. Were you coughing Dwayne/LeBron? I think you boys were choking if you ask me.
After losing the the finals with another series-low performance, LeBron kept his trend of high media etiquette rolling with a response to a question about all of the people routing for him to fail: “They got to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had today. And I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live.” How admirable. I think this one says it all really. I don’t know how you guys read into this, and yes he did (in a desperate attempt to save his image a few days later) come on TV later that week and say that he did not mean this as meaning “he was better than anybody.” Come on man. Of course that’s what you meant. I basically took this as him saying, “Well they can hate on me all they want but they are still going to wake up poor, inadequate nobodies whose idea of fun is going out for Thursday half-off appetizers at Chili’s… And I am still going to wake up tomorrow in my Miami mansion, on my Indian silk sheets, and drink protein shakes out of a diamond encrusted goblet that says ‘The King’ on it…. But I don’t think I’m better than anybody though.” Maybe I’m reading into it a little too much, but you get what I’m saying. Besides, Chili’s has great appetizers, dick. Who does this guy think he is taking shots at NBA fans now? The people that gave him his career in the first place. I don’t think anybody could have said it better than the great Stephen Colbert when he commented on LeBron’s post-game modesty, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you disparage the pathetic lives of the little people who make it possible for you to have a career bouncing an inflatable ball.” HA.
So I guess my point in of all this ranting and raving about LeBron James’ character, or lack there of, is that if he ever hopes to be compared to the greats again, he has to learn how to tone down the arrogance and image building, and focus on his GAME. Maybe if you weren’t on T.V. or Twitter every other day taking shots at the city that basically made you what you are today, or tweeting about how “The Greater Man upstairs says its not my time for a championship,” as an explanation as to why you didn’t show up for your team in the Finals. Really? I really would like to think that God has a more conspicuous agenda that includes worrying about more important things than you and your championship jewelry. The guy just has no humility and I can’t stand it. It might also have a little bit to do with the fact that he tried to pick up my girlfriend at a poker/house party in Cleveland back in 2010 in true LeBron fashion. No it’s true. Wait till’ you hear how he did it too. She told me after calling her over to the poker table, he then continued to brush one of his fat money stacks that he was playing POKER with, on the ground, as he then smiled and asked her to pick it up for him. He then went on to ask her for her number because he said he thought they “should be acquaintances.” Real classy.
For real though, all BS aside, the guy needs to do some serious soul searching if he ever hopes to be great, because I think that those South Beach “talents” will only take him so far. I mean if you are going to go out of your way to make statements, tweets, or however you choose to attract more attention to yourself, just please think for one freaking second about what you’re saying and how your words might be interpreted. Study the greats Bron Bron: Jordan, Magic, Bird – they were more than just great players. They never let their image come before their team nor their desire to win. You should take note.
Please, as with any of my posts, I invite and encourage any and all of your thoughts/comments on this, and would love to hear your point of view on the topic, if you have one. If you agree, disagree, or I if I just hurt your feelings because you dropped $60 on that Miami Heat jersey earlier this year when you jumped aboard that band wagon and you just want to give me a piece of your mind… I would love to hear from you. And be gentle, it’s my first post.
Joey Barone 