Category Archives: LeBron James

Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, Charles Barkley, Chicago Bulls, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Michael Jordan, NBA, New York Knicks, Ray Allen

We’re Not So Different, After All

Roughly 20 years ago, the NBA revolved around just a handful of teams: The Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons, the Los Angeles Lakers and occasionally, the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and the Portland Trailblazers.
These teams featured rosters filled with two or three All-Stars and future Hall of Famers.
And no one had a problem with it.
In fact, it’s revered as the Golden Age of the NBA.
So why is it any different now? Why are we so bitter about superstars teaming up? Is it because we forgot the past?
That trend of stars playing with stars began again in earnest nearly four years ago, when the Boston Celtics acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007 to team with Paul Pierce. It continued with LeBron James and Chris Bosh signing with the Miami Heat last summer.
Then, there was the now infamous toast at Carmelo Anthony’s wedding last summer – you know, the one where Chris Paul, Amare Stoudamire and Anthony toasted to playing together in New York for the Knicks.
The latest is the trade of Anthony to the Knicks from the Denver Nuggets, after Anthony basically told Denver to trade him because they would face long odds of resigning him. The Nuggets, for their part, were terrified of being LeBron’d – since James left the Cleveland Cavaliers during free agency, they didn’t get anything back. (Sorry, I don’t acknowledge the ridiculous compensation pick they were awarded by the league as compensation for losing James.)
In a way, Anthony did the Nuggets a favor. Instead of just signing with the Knicks this summer (well, presumably, since there’s a pesky little collective bargaining issue looming), Anthony gave the Nuggets ample opportunity to trade him and get value in return. And they did – four of the Knicks starters, three draft picks and $3 million.
It’s honorable of us as fans to long for a mystical time when professional athletes sought their own path.
It’s human nature for us to say that we wouldn’t go about it like LeBron did, televising “The Decision” and ripping the hearts out of Cavs fans.
And we can speculate freely that we would want to win a title “on our own” without help because we’re really not in that position.
What’s comical is former NBA stars pretending history isn’t repeating itself. Last summer, it seemed like everyone on the 90s All-Stars had a quote about it. His Airness, Michael Jordan, said he’d never do what LeBron did. Same for Charles Barkley.
Funny, as I recall, Jordan played with Scottie Pippen – and only won titles with Scottie Pippen. LeBron didn’t have anyone who could even resemble Scottie Pippen’s skill set in seven years in Cleveland.
Funny, as I recall, Barkley forced his way out of Philadelphia to Phoenix, where he played with Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle to have a better chance at a championship. Then, in the later stages of his career, The Round Mound of Rebound played with Clyde Drexler, Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston, trying to get a ring.
Um, fellas…I don’t see the difference between you, James, Bosh and Anthony in that regard.
What’s different about how the Celtics came together with Allen and Garnett joining Pierce, versus James and Bosh joining Dwayne Wade in Miami? Their age? 
Maybe we just felt bad for Garnett for wasting his prime toiling away in Minnesota. Ray Allen is Jesus Shuttlesworth, a pure shooter, and seemingly a nice guy, so we gave them a pass.

But what’s different about it, really? Bosh certainly isn’t Garnett’s talent, but he toiled away in Toronto for seven years. James saved Cleveland basketball for seven years, took them to the Finals and won MVPs with the likes of Boobie Gibson as a running mate. 

How can we hate a guy like James, who spent seven years making his teammates better, because he basically wanted better teammates? Why does he have to make them so much better, year after year? Why not go play with better teammates and focus on other aspects of the game?
Perhaps the focus of our rage is or should have been on the character they showed in the process. Which, as I have written before, I completely agree with.
You can handle yourself better, LBJ.
You too, Melo.
You can show respect for the fans that turned out in droves, bought your jersey and were witnesses.
That aside, we’re all hypocrites.
Can any of you honestly say, with a straight face, you wouldn’t want to work with your friends? That you wouldn’t want to work in Miami, New York or Los Angeles?
That’s what this all comes down to. Do professional athletes get paid more than you do in your 9-5? Is the job more fun than TPS reports and Excel spreadsheets? More attention and glamor in the NBA than in Human Resources or Finance?
Undoubtedly, yes to all those questions.
I would work with five or six of my closest friends in a heartbeat if the situation presented itself, period. Add in that we have some of the best skill sets for our respective positions, it increases our chance of success.
And if someone told me we could do that in Florida or California instead of Cleveland, Minneapolis or Indianapolis, I wouldn’t even hesitate.
We forget that these people are human.
That doesn’t mean you have to agree or sympathize – or like it.
But tell me you can see the reasons why.
Let’s look at it this way: Since 1984, only seven different teams have won an NBA championship (Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat). Of those, only the 2004 Pistons didn’t have a superstar – just a bunch of really good players with different skill sets that complimented each other.
Many of those teams featured multiple All-Stars or superstars.
Combine that with how fans and media increasingly weight championships and multiple championships into an athlete’s legacy, guys know they have to team up with someone to win a title. It’s either that, or pushing management to get better talent around them.
Jordan did it.
Barkley did it.
Kobe Bryant tried to get traded just three years ago because of it. The Lakers promptly brought in Pau Gasol and have been to the NBA Finals three years running, winning the last two titles.
As fans, we say we want athletes to do it alone, but when have we ever willingly done it ourselves?
If you play open gym, pick-up basketball or a Y-League, do you pick the four worst guys or the four best?
If you coach a Little League team, do you take the best player and then surround him with lesser players intentionally, just to see if he can carry you, because that’s all you need?
If you work on a project team, do you want team members that have made mistakes and are apathetic about their jobs, or do you want someone in each position – all the way down to who answers the phones – who’s done it before, won awards and is recognized as one of the best?
How about if you were in a legal dispute? Do you want one good lawyer, or would you prefer a team of them?
It’s obvious we’re asking professional athletes to make decisions in the exact opposite manner we would.
Now, would I televise my decision to join a project finance team? Probably not. Nor would I say that I was taking my talents to Company X.
It may be that what we’re really frustrated about is the ego, the fame, the glory and the poor manner in which these athletes conduct themselves. They have so much that we want, that we believe we would do anything for – the talent or the opportunity, that we can’t believe they act this way. We’re allowed and entitled to be disgusted by it, to despise them for it in some ways.
Let’s just not be hypocrites, too.
Standard
Dwayne Wade, Eric Spoelstra, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen

The Heat’s Dis-Factor

Discombobulated. Disjointed. Disgusting.
Those are just a few of the words that were thrown around last night by NBA pundits and analysts after the LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat’s “Big Three,” lost their opener against the Boston Celtics, 88-80, on Tuesday night.
And anytime you’re “dis-“ anything, it’s not good. In fact, with all the dis-ing of the Heat, I have expected the old “Oregon Trail” game to pop up and alert us of someone succumbing to dysentery on the wagon trail.
Let’s not overreact here. It was one game. The trio played a grand total of three minutes together in preseason. As Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra said, it’s going to take time to work out the kinks.
“In practice, it looked a lot different than this,” Spoelstra said. “There is going to be a process with this. There’s a lot of expectations and a lot of pressure out there, but we have our own timetable, and we knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”
Hold that thought. We’ll come back to it.
James noted that it was like they were trying to be too unselfish, which was a concern last July when “The Decision” was announced – who’s going to defer, who’s the alpha dog, what are their roles?  For one night, there was no alpha dog, just an ugly display of three guys who used to be “The Man” on their respective teams trying to figure out their spots, find their rhythm and when they should attack or defer.
Before we write it off as a massive failure, as some are trying to do, let’s give it time. For example, James did take over the game for a stretch in the third quarter with both Paul Pierce (who was hurt momentarily, as he always is in a nationally televised game) and Wade out. He ended with 31 points. During that time, it was obvious – at least to me – that he was playing the Scottie Pippen role perfectly.
If that came off as an backhanded compliment, well, it was.
Pippen used to do that perfectly. Defer to Jordan, create for Jordan, himself and others, then when Jordan was resting, take over for stretches. That’s James true calling now. Play the point-forward, create, slash, post-up. In fact, he’s better, talent-wise, in that role than Pippen. Essentially, however, that’s what James is going to have to be to make it work in Miami.
People forget how good Pippen was. During the year Jordan was out in 1993-94, Pippen was an MVP candidate that led the Bulls to a 30-5 record at the All-Star break. He averaged 22 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals per game. He was the All-Star MVP and though everyone remembers him that season for the freak-out during the Eastern Conference semifinals, when Pippen refused to play when Phil Jackson drew up a play for Toni Kukoc for the game winner, Pippen was basically what LeBron James was in Cleveland.
(Side note: Jackson doesn’t get enough blame for that issue. Pippen waited for years to be “The Man” and all that came with it, including plays for game winners in the playoffs draw up for him. Jackson slapped him in the face with the Kukoc play. Did Pippen overreact? Absolutely. Did Kukoc hit the shot, making Pippen look enough more foolish? Of course. But Jackson’s gotten a pass on the way he handled the situation for way too long.)
So we get it. It’s a work in progress. It will take time. As Wade said post-game, “Sorry if everyone thought we were going 82-0. It wasn’t going to happen.” His sarcasm aside, Wade is right.
Then why are people so…annoyed?
Perhaps it’s because we expected more from James. We are all witnesses, right? He’s the Chosen One. The King. And he chose to play with the best instead of beat the best. James is entitled to do what he wants, listen to whomever he wants and play wherever he wants. It’s his life, not ours.
Yet when you take on the role of Chosen One and tell people you’ve spoiled them with your play, you’re going to get backlash. When you host a special called “The Decision” and spurn Cleveland for the beaches and bright lights of Miami, you’re making those people recall all the hurt and pain of losing big games and championship and years of futility. To make matters worse, it was a stone’s throw from your hometown of Akron.
Is it partly our fault? Fine, we’ll take some of the blame for it. We want athletes to act a certain way and do certain things and they don’t, so we get mad and turn on them. We can say that we would have done differently, but maybe that’s just because none of us have the option, so it’s easy to say how professional and classy we would have been.
I can tell you right now, without hesitation, if three or four of my friends and I played in the NBA and had a chance to join the same team, I would do it in a second. I play in a Y-League each winter with five good friends, who all played college ball, and we never had the opportunity to play real games together, due to the high schools or colleges we went to or our ages. It’s small potatoes compared to this, but we’ve won by 30 or more every time we step on the court. It’s really not fair, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Though the talent difference and situation are not relatable, the feeling completely is. When you break it down like that, I’m not only a witness, but probably a hypocrite. We want to see Magic vs. Bird, Jordan vs. Magic, etc. We don’t want James and Wade against Kobe. It just doesn’t seem like a real slugfest, superstar vs. superstar, so therefore we feel cheated. And that makes us not like James very much right now.
That’s silly, I admit. The man can do what he wants. And our selfish reasons for wanting true greatness and the next Jordan are a part of this animosity and venom we have for James.
But there’s another part, the part where James isn’t helping himself. The latest Nike ad, for example. Is it cool? Oh yeah – a minute and a half of pure retaliation to all the haters. Eating a donut, winking and saying, “Hi Chuck” – and obvious nod to Charles Barkley, who called “The Decision” a punk move. It’s basically a sarcastic “What Should I Have Done Differently?” to the masses and for a little while, you kind of feel sorry for what James has gone through.
Then you remember: he brought this on himself. Though the whole process, the recruitment, the comments, “The Decision” and even what could be termed “The Unveiling,” when Wade, James and Bosh all donned Heat uniforms, posed, high-fived Miami fans and did a little press junket in July – James has gulped up and enjoyed nearly everything until “The Backlash.”
James has selfish reasons too. And he’s allowed. Just remember, the more he plays into it and continues to even respond, the longer it will take for people to get over it and just watch this team mesh in a possibly better overall version of Jordan, Pippen and Rodman. It won’t be easy, as Spoelstra said. It shouldn’t be easy, championships are supposed to be hard. And that was our original problem with James taking the easy way out.
We wanted to witness the struggle and the resolve to win a title as an alpha dog. But that’s our problem. 
James’ and his cohorts problem will be to not play this up as something larger or more challenging than it is. They can’t make this seem like some great struggle to gel together, find their roles and win. It may take some time, but it shouldn’t take until February. We’ll deal with this “poor us, we have to learn to play together” attitude, but only for a short time. The Heat really should be good and fun to watch. Watching James become the greatest distributor and creator in a hybrid Pippen/Magic Johnson role should be fun. The joy is in watching that transition.
If we can’t enjoy watching all of that happen with James and the Heat and all we’re waiting for is a train wreck because we want to witness the downfall, well, at that point, there’s another “dis-“ word in mind.
Disinterested.
Standard