Category Archives: Miami Heat

Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Mike D'Antoni, NBA, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson

Showcase Showdown?


Now that football has entered hibernation period, and just before baseball begins its long warm-up to a long season, there is basketball of the college and professional variety to help us pass our weekend time.
And while the amateur ranks of college have produced a wildly entertaining and wholly unpredictable state of affairs, with the nation’s No. 1 ranked team losing each of the past five weeks, the NBA hums along toward its mid-way point with little surprise in its pecking order. As usual, you will find the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Miami Heat, and of course, traditional powers like the Los Angeles Clippers and Indiana Pacers.
Wait, what’s that you say? The Pacers and Clipper aren’t traditional powers? You wouldn’t know the Pacers had won 15 straight at home until Friday night’s loss to the plucky Toronto Raptors. Hell, you may not remember Canada still has a team. Or that the New York Knicks – yes, the Knicks – have the second best record in the Eastern Conference, or that the Chicago Bulls are hanging around and doing pretty good without former MVP Derrick Rose, still out because of his knee injury suffered last year.
You might not know the aging Spurs are 40-12, and have only lost two home games all year or that the Golden State Warriors are an emerging young team out West.
But as a casual fan coming out of a football coma wouldn’t know these things because no one is talking about them.
It’s all Los Angeles Lakers, all Dwight Howard, all Kobe Bryant and all the time.
The Lakers are a 24-28 team – good enough for 10th place in the Western Conference. They are old, injured and plagued by infighting. As I highlighted a few weeks ago, they aren’t really worth watching. Yet I couldn’t turn down the chance to watch at least a little of the ABC “Sunday Showcase” game featuring the Lakers at the Miami Heat.
For three-and-a-half quarters, the game was competitive and close. And then the Heat blew the Lakers doors off in the final six minutes before winning 107-97. Eric Spoelstra out-coached Mike D’Antoni, LeBron James continued to outplay everyone and Kobe Bryant tried to will his team back in the game, even as a five or six-point lead felt insurmountable.
You could glean several things by just watching the second half, where the Lakers couldn’t keep pace and allowed the Heat to score 29 in the final stanza. Even more telling – the Heat outscored L.A. 25-16 the final nine minutes.
First, LeBron James has no peers right now. It’s all come together and he’s at the peak of his prime. Google “LeBron James” and “shooting streak” and you’ll get a good idea of why. Efficient doesn’t even really begin to describe what James is doing, shooting 75 percent on his last 65 shots. He just broke the franchise record with five-straight 30-point games as well.
It’s a reminder of when Michael Jordan was in the midst of his reign of awesomeness: the only way James won’t win another MVP is if, much like Jordan, the voters get tired of it. No one else should win. He’s just that good.
The second thing you’d notice from yesterday’s game is just how dysfunctional the Lakers truly are. Steve Nash looks like a broken man who regrets agreeing to this trade. When they showed a close-up of his face, I pictured him with a thought bubble over his head: “I really think losing in Phoenix might be better than this.”
And for as great as Kobe is, as he himself has admitted recently, he is a difficult player to play with. He clogged up the offense good and gross down the stretch Sunday, using an array of back-to-the-basket moves, faders and leaners, appearing to me like a guy who’s legs were fading. This is understandable considering the Lakers were completing their long annual Grammy/Eastern road trip with the game in Miami.
Maybe Kobe was just tired. But he looked like a guy who was old, the one who’s shots at the end of the open gym are bouncing around the rim four or five times and falling out. And with each passing possession, his teammates are less and less interested in watching the same show. Keep in mind, Kobe’s heroics were half the reason the Lakers were even in the game midway through the fourth quarter, but the outcome was all too familiar: another loss.
We haven’t even touched on Dwight Howard (frankly because everyone else spends too much time on him). But Howard’s either not right physically, disengaged with all the drama mentally or most likely, a little bit of both. This week alone featured another round of media clips of Kobe calling out Dwight, Dwight responding and even Dwight’s dad getting involved to take a shot at Mike D’Antoni for not stopping it all.
But forgetting all that drama, the Lakers lack scorers, speed and aggression. They have no bench. There’s relatively little that’s likable about this team on our off the floor.
The Heat play, as do many of the aforementioned teams, with a sense of aggression and attitude. The Lakers have only Bryant with that mindset. Pau Gasol, currently out 6-8 weeks with a foot injury, attacks once every three weeks. Dwight Howard shows more aggression in trying to make his teammates laugh than he does on the court. Howard has one of the most forgettable 15-point, 9-rebound games I can remember. Howard ought to be getting 20 and 10, every night.
The Heat have let our out their inner beasts, the Lakers their inner child.
It’s clear the Lakers made a mistake in not bringing back Phil Jackson, who’s perhaps the best there ever was in the professional ranks at bringing massive egos like Howard and Bryant together under a common goal, while nurturing bruised ego’s like Pau Gasol’s and crazy-in-the-head egos like Metta World Peace/Ron Artest.
What does it say about Mike D’Antoni that the Knicks were a mess during his time in New York, yet a year later, they have the second best record in the Eastern Conference and seem to be playing quite well together? All you need to know about D’Antoni is what he said following the game yesterday: “We’re making strides. We can still do this. [Miami] set the bar and this is where we got to get to.”
I suppose I don’t know what I expect D’Antoni to say. I really don’t expect that truth, which would be: “We’re horrible and we really aren’t getting better. We should be left alone to become an afterthought on what has been a compelling and entertaining NBA season.”
He can’t and won’t say that, I know. But it’s outlandish to think the Lakers are making strides. Or that they are close. Not only can this team not win a championship, it shouldn’t out of sheer principle.
But sadly, this won’t go away. They are the Lakers. It’s 2013. The media cannot not hammer this story, this team, even though there is more going on in the NBA than this mess. So I beg of you, turn on NBA TV, check out some other games this week and then All-Star Weekend. You’ll find so much more going on in the NBA than what you might have seen Sunday from the team in purple and gold.
Otherwise, March Madness won’t just be reserved for the college ranks, as I’m not sure how much more of this ongoing soap opera in L.A. we can take.
It certainly was a Showcase Sunday for both James and the Heat and Kobe and the Lakers.
Yet only LeBron and Miami can feel good about what’s on display.
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David Stern, Gregg Popovich, Manu Ginobili, Miami Heat, NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker

Bad for Business


There are reminders, occasional ones, that sports are most often a business first. People pay money to a group or person to see their contracted workers perform. The group that employs the workers have agreed with a sanctioning body to sell the rights to broadcast these events on television. The network has paid a large sum of money to broadcast a set number of performances each year. In turn, the network gets to decide, based on which performers the public likes, which performances it broadcasts.
And this is roughly how we got to the San Antonio Spurs at Miami Heat game on TNT last night.
Except the Spurs weren’t all there to perform.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich sent star performers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and key reserve Danny Green home. On a commercial flight, of all horrors. For those playing at home, that’s four of the Spurs top five leading scorers. Popovich did this because he wanted his stars to rest up before Saturday’s home game against the current best team in the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies.
He did it because the Spurs have played 10 road games in November, including six straight since Nov. 21. He did it because last spring, deputy NBA commissioner Adam Silver, David Stern’s heir, said the Spurs wouldn’t be penalized for bringing Duncan, Parker and Ginobili to a road game in Utah. Though it should be noted that Silver qualified that in the shortened, condensed season, the league understood. And Popovich has done it before, dating back to 2009.
He did because he thought he could and he has before.
But it doesn’t make it right.
Look, we all get it: the Spurs are old. And if they are going to contend, they need some nights off. Some of us may like it, others may argue that players should play if healthy. But he had to send them home before everyone else? That’s the part, right there, that really twists the knife. Stern issued a statement that basically apologized to everyone and promised sanctions and punishment.
Popovich’s move, while not unprecedented, was unique. And it brought up several questions.
Why couldn’t Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Green just sat at the end of the bench all night? They are so exhausted they had to catch the next flight out? Why couldn’t Popovich have called the NBA, so they could notify TNT? How long did Popovich know he was going to do this? Was it him trying to stick it back to the league because of the scheduling quirk that’s had them on the road much of the past month?
And all this has done is put the argument of sports or business right back on the table.
It’s entertainment, to be sure. It’s basketball, for certain. But make no mistake, it’s a business. Large sums of money are changing hands. TNT was counting on huge ratings for this early season matchup. The defending champs at home against the legendary Spurs. The fans came to see Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, not Splitter, Bonner and…and…and I can’t even think of who else played for the Spurs last night.
It doesn’t matter that the game was close after the fact. Advertisers don’t pick slots on TNT on a Thursday night game for the Spurs backups against the Heat. The league and the network don’t promote it as a marquee game. Fans don’t buy tickets to see that.
Popovich may be kind to his players. He may care about their well being. He may be smart and strategic as a basketball coach. He’s just not much of a businessman. And he didn’t go about it the best way.
“Perhaps it’ll give us an opportunity to stay on the floor with Memphis on Saturday night,” Popovich said prior to the game.
It’s just so…condescending.
Here’s the thing: If the Spurs need to rest this early into the season – to the point the players are flying commercial just to get home and in bed – then maybe this team is done. Maybe these guys should just retire. If they can’t even sit on the bench for a few hours and then fly home with the team, then call a spade a spade. If every single second of rest is that vital to the Spurs long term viability as a contender, I’ll go out on a limb and say they won’t win the NBA title come June.
Most teams do this in March and April, not the week after Thanksgiving. And most teams will rest a player or two one night, then a couple others the next game. But to rest four – including a younger player like Danny Green, who’s 25 – makes this situation all the more strange.
Then Popovich said he made the decision about resting players for this game in July – you read that right, July – when the schedule came out. He said it didn’t matter the opponent or the interest level of the game.
Maybe not to Gregg Popovich, but it mattered to a whole lot of other people who paid a whole lot of money. Again, why this game? Why not any of the previous three games? The Spurs beat the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Orlando Magic over the previous four days. The Spurs won by a collective 52 points over three teams with a combined record of 9-34.
Why not rest your guys for the entire fourth quarter of each of those games, against inferior teams that you knew your reserves could handle? Why this game?
It just seems as though Popvich wanted to not give anything away to the NBA. He wanted to stick it to the league for the schedule. And he did everything he could to rub their noses in it, going to great lengths to get those four as far away from AmericanAirlines Arena as possible.
While you can’t entirely fault him for his reaction to the schedule, Popovich is employed by a franchise in the NBA that has partnerships and deals with many, many payors. And the Heat counted on them too. Like most teams, the Heat employ a ticket-pricing system that fluctuates based on the opponent. So the Spurs game costs more than a game against the Phoenix Suns or the Charlotte Bobcats.
I wonder if the Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Green were paid for Thursday’s game. DNP – Coach’s Decision? Could they refund some of that money to the fans who paid to see them?
That won’t be happening.
If Popovich is doing what’s best for the team, he could have had the fortitude to tell everyone beforehand so the rest of us didn’t waste our time and money. But instead, Pop got mad at the league for scheduling his aging team for so many road games, so he took his proverbial ball and went home, simple as that.
Maybe next time, we’ll do the same with our proverbial money and bypass Spurs games in person or on TV. 
We can’t trust that they’ll be there.

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Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Miami Heat, NBA, New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic, Stan Van Gundy

Murdering the Magic

It has been somewhat fitting that Dwight Howard has played the first eight years of his career with a team nicknamed the “Magic” because nothing could personify Howard more than that.
The word implies so many things. Magic can be enchanting and mystical. It often toes the line of believability. And ultimately, magic proves to be false and misleading.
All of these things describe Dwight Howard, because after a wild 12 hours on Thursday – and taking into account what occurred leading up to Thursday – the magic is gone. And the Magic (at least the Orlando basketball version) are dead. Symbolically, of course.
In perhaps the most odd and compelling post shoot-a-round media conference ever, we got to see the end of an athlete’s aura firsthand.
Roughly seven hours before Orlando’s game against the New York Knicks, Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy confirmed that management had told him that Howard had asked for him to be fired.
Within a few minutes of this discussion, Howard appeared – completely and utterly unaware of what Van Gundy had been sharing with the media – and put his arm around Van Gundy. To say this was awkward or surreal cannot even begin to describe it. It was painful, yet comical – like any Steve Carrell episode in “The Office.” Howard had only heard the last few words, something about Van Gundy being the coach of the team until he was told he wasn’t. Which led to this:
Howard: “Stan, we’re not worried about that, right?”
Van Gundy: “That’s just what I said. We’ve got to be worried about winning games. Are you guys done with me? You talk to him now.”
As Stan exited stage left, the media closed in on Howard.
You know that feeling when someone approaches a group and they were just gossiped about, but the person approaching is all smiles and thinks things are great and everyone in the group just sort of grins because of the comical irony of it all? That might describe it.
Or better yet – it was like Michael Corleone calling out his brother Fredo: I knew it was you – you broke my heart, Dwight.
Except Stan The Man isn’t heartbroken. Howard messed with the wrong man. Van Gundy’s been (symbolically) murdered before, when he was removed as head coach of the Miami Heat in December of 2005 by Pat Riley, with executive producer credits going to Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade.
Van Gundy disappeared after being stabbed in the back – and the front – by his mentor Riley. He humbly had to suggest he was resigning as coach of the Heat to spend more time with family, despite all evidence that Van Gundy, a basketball junkie, was just as obsessed and driven to guide O’Neal and Wade to a title for the Heat as Riley would have been.
What the whole scene Thursday told us from Van Gundy’s point of view is this: He has done this dance before. He knows how this ends. He won’t be coaching the Magic much longer. But he just doesn’t care this time. He won’t play the company line or protect his conspirators. He’s not going down alone on this one. He’ll be taking Dwight’s rep as a smiling, fun-loving, cape-wearing lovable giant with him.
Additionally, Van Gundy is ensuring that this circus ends. Howard won’t be able to get away with this again, not now. Hell, the entire NBA and basketball world knows what kind of person Howard is now.
Rumor and innuendo are like magic in and of themselves. They could be true or might not be. But once rumors are confirmed, the magic disappears and all you are left with is the cold, hard truth. Coaches have been fired because of superstar pressure on the front office before; Howard is hardly the first to try this move. It’s just that it hasn’t ever unfolded like this before – where the coach knows and tells everyone he knows.
Following Van Gundy’s departure from the media circle, a reporter immediately told Howard what Van Gundy had said. Howard looked floored, but not in an innocent way. More like, “Dear God…they know” – like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Howard asked for the reporters to cite their sources and the media kept telling Howard that Van Gundy was the source – that he’d just confirmed it. This time, Howard has been sold out by his boss and his boss’s bosses. It was a brilliant move by Van Gundy – tell the truth and then leave the scene to let Dwight flail in the wind.
Somehow, Howard looked like he wanted to lie down or needed some Pepto, despite going on for a few minutes to explain that he had not said “nothing to anybody” and adding that he’s just a player and management controls who the coach is.
As a follow-up to that magical act, Howard went out and put up a stinker against the Knicks – eight measly points and eight lackluster rebounds in 40 minutes. He only took two shots in the first half, appeared unaggressive and disinterested most of the game and did not score until the very end of the third quarter.
And thus, the old Dwight Howard, he of capes and crucifix’s, was thoroughly destroyed in 12 hours, undone by the weight of his own lies.
He’s been posing as an NBA super-duper-star. To be sure, Howard is a supremely gifted and talented individual. As a 18-year-old, before jumping to the NBA, he was the valedictorian of his class at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy and as a seemingly devout Christian, spoke of genuinely hoping that one day, the NBA logo contained a crucifix.
But eight years later, Howard is telling his boss’s bosses to terminate his direct supervisor. Now that’s not very Christian like.
He also played the Magic as a whole through the disingenuous trade demand saga of the last year, then flopped back and forth on opting-in or out of his contract at the trade deadline last month. A report last week stated that Howard finally changed his mind and opted in not because of some deep love that he’s been professing for the city and the fans, but because the Twitter backlash on the whole situation began to wear on him.
Twitter pressure? Really? Really?
How about the pressure of, you know, performing where you should. At some point, someone needs to call out Dwight for his inability to truly dominate games as he should be? He’s averaging 20.6 points and 14.4 rebounds this season, as one of the last remaining – perhaps the only – dominant big man in basketball. He wants to replicate Shaq, but he’s not even in Shaq’s general vicinity. He can’t even buy a ticket to where Shaq’s general vicinity is.
Howard ought to be averaging 28 and 15. He could be. But he doesn’t. And he never will.
Because to Howard, it’s all about the show. Wear a cape, win a dunk contest, smile his 1,000-watt smile. Create some drama. Entertain the people. He doesn’t crave a championship; he craves attention. How else could his wish list of destinations include New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn)? The Nets are horrible.
If Howard wanted to win a title, he’d go to the Lakers or to Dallas or to the Knicks – or just stay with the Magic. But he wants to be the man in a new arena in a new city where there will be gobs of attention paid to Jay-Z’s team once it move’s this fall. At least LeBron James joined up with some good players – Howard won’t even have Deron Williams. Basketball wise it’s a worse situation than the one he’s currently in.
Speaking of LeBron, if LeBron is a such a hated villain for mishandling his exit from Cleveland with the spectacle of “The Decision” and joining a proverbial All-Star team with Bosh and Wade in Miami, then what on earth does all of this make Howard?
It has to be worse. Does it make him a hypocrite? Does it make him shallow? I think it does.
It makes him superficial and egotistical and shows he only cares about phantom recognition for what little he has truly accomplished while riding the coattails of people with the same skill set that came before him and were better. His inherent flaw and weakness is that he thinks he’s better than he is.
In other words, Stan Van Gundy was right to treat him like Fredo Corleone.
Because that is exactly who Dwight Howard is. 
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Chris Bosh, Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Michael Jordan, Michael Wilbon, NBA, NBA Finals

In The Garden of Good and Evil

A guest writer and I tackle the sordid story of the 2011 NBA Finals and LeBron James:
 
Thanks, LeBron
By Wes Carmony
America owes LeBron James a thank you card.
I wouldn’t go as far as sending a gift, but a short, punchy exclamation of appreciation at the very least. We all owe him, probably no one more than Dirk Nowitzki.
Through James’ complete lack of self awareness, his preening, his championship predictions and yes, even his brilliant play, James managed to turn the Miami Heat into the greatest wrestling heels of all time. The only thing missing was LeBron distracting Joey Crawford while Dwayne Wade struck Dirk with a metal folding chair.
The man who has managed to become the most polarizing athlete of our generation turned one of the most beloved NBA superstars in the game (Wade) and an unassuming, soft spoken All-Atar (Chris Bosh) into super-villain running mates.
“The James Gang”, were led (though often times from the back) by the most physically gifted basketball player since Wilt Chamberlain. The Heat transformed the 2011 NBA Finals from a mere sporting event into a referendum on good versus evil, team versus individuals, instant gratification versus the sustained effort.
I am not a Mavericks fan; truth be told I don’t particularly care for anyone on their team.
Jason “Jet” Terry annoys me, JJ Berea reminds me of a Y-Leaguer who plays way too hard and fouls all the time. Dirk is soft, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd are washed up and possibly decomposing. Their coach, Rick Carlisle, is a retread; their owner, Mark Cuban, a loudmouth. The Mavericks are not particularly fun to watch, and I predicted they’d be ousted in the first round of this year’s playoffs.
Yet I watched every minute of every game of these NBA Finals. Down the stretch of every fourth quarter I sat on the edge of my seat, heart pounding, pleading for the lanky German to toss in another twisting, fall away 18-footer. 
Thanks LeBron. Without you these finals would’ve been an afterthought.
As much as I rooted for you to fail before you got to these Finals, I see now how wrong I was. You wanted to be a global icon, a brand, something bigger than the game. Well, you are all of those things. You are perhaps the single biggest villain in the history of team sports. Well done.
As an avid NBA consumer this past decade, I’ve watched Dirk Nowitzki and thought the same thing everyone else thought: he’s soft, shrinks in big moments, probably a good player, but not an all time great. 
Not anymore. 
Some would say winning an NBA title regardless of the opponent would erase all of those stigmas, I call BS. Dirk presided over two of the larger post season collapses I’ve ever witnessed. Being eliminated in the first round by the 8th seeded Warriors a few years back, just days after receiving what should have been Kobe Bryant’s MVP trophy for one, completely derailing in the 2006 Finals against the Heat for another.
I suspect we won’t be hearing about those failures anytime soon. Dirk’s legacy is forever changed, partially through his own brilliance on the court, but even more so by the man he denied a title.
A Mavs victory over the Chicago Bulls wouldn’t have sparked the same rhetoric, the same reverence, or the same cache Dirk now enjoys.
Dirk owes LeBron the biggest thank you of all.
Without LeBron, Dirk is just another aging superstar capturing an elusive ring on the back nine of his career, a nice story to be sure, but one we’ve seen before.
Without LeBron, the story could just as easily have been about the Los Angeles Lakers collapsing in the second round, Derrick Rose’s growth as a player, or even the Mavs winning their first ever championship.
Instead the story is about one man standing against all that is wrong in the (sports) world, hard work and substance overcoming glamour and preening, good triumphing over evil.
Dirk isn’t just an NBA champion, he’s a hero to all of us who wanted the “good guys” to win one. 
Admittedly it sounds a little clichéd, a little fantastic – after all it’s just a sporting event. But my goose bumps and racing heart would argue otherwise.  I watched a player I never particularly cared for hoist the championship trophy last night and felt tears well up in my eyes. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one. 
In the aftermath of the collapse, James sat at the podium and responded to a question about the effect of all of America rooting against him. He said (in true heel fashion) that essentially we would all have to go back to our little lives, our same problems tomorrow, but that he’d still be LeBron James. And he’s right, but I have to be honest, my little life is a little brighter today because of his failure.
Thanks LeBron, we all owe you one. 
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The Hypocritical Oath
By Brian Moore
Our own hypocrisy has led to this moment – one where LeBron James is evil incarnate, some combination of The Emperor from “Star Wars”, Mr. Potter from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Gordon Gekko from “Wall Street”.
Oh, sure, James has blood on his hands for his own wrecked image. The prediction of six or seven titles did not help. The preening and mockery of the “Welcome Party” last summer did not make us all warm and fuzzy. And “taking my talents to South Beach” became an epic punch line within days. As did giving money to the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich, Connecticut.
He’s not innocent in all this. James wanted to be the man with his words and actions.
We are all witnesses to so many different things. Poor shooting. An ego run amok. Possible shrinkage in tight games in the fourth quarter. But also witnesses to our own hypocrisy.
I certainly can’t defend James on the shooting, the non-aggressive play, the shying away in big moments. I cannot defend the preening, the ego, the narcissism. I can’t and I won’t.
But I can’t defend our sick obsession with James, either. We kill James – and I mean shred him – for doing things others have done and continue to do. The only difference is they get a pass.
James got killed for walking off the court a few years ago and not shaking hands with the opponents following the end of a playoff series. Um, didn’t Dirk bolt off the floor with seconds remaining last night? He ran off the floor so fast, I thought he was heading to the restroom due to something he ate. Oh, that’s different because Dirk has been cast as the hero and the hero can’t do something in poor sportsmanship when he just won the title. Give him a pass.
Right this way, Dirk. Sorry LeBron, your hairline is receding at 26. You’ll be blasted for that in a column tomorrow. Plus, I didn’t like your tie.
That is not meant to be a defense for James’ actions – just pointing out the double standard.
These NBA Finals were a referendum on good versus evil? Please – it was a referendum on basketball.
I can poke holes in James’ game – the lack of aggressiveness in Games 4 and 5, the disappearing act in Game 3. But anyone notice Dallas shot something like 98.2 percent from the 3-point line? Anyone notice scrubs like Brian Cardinal and Ian Mahinmi contributing jumpers, charges and threes? JJ Barea playing out of his mind?
This all factors into the equation – or at least it should.
But we choose to only see LeBron James vs. Dirk Nowitzki. Or James vs. the Mavericks. Or James vs. the fourth quarter. Or James vs. Wade. If it’s truly a referendum on team vs. individuals, why are we doing this?
I’ve been saying this repeatedly: James is not in the same category as the greatest players of all-time. He’s a special hybrid of Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson, perhaps the most talented athlete we’ve ever had in the NBA. He does not have the mental make-up of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant or Larry Bird.
If you move past the emotional, which is difficult for most, just realize what he is: Scottie Pippen upgraded with a dash of Magic. Now, take out the part of the driven, motivated, blood thirsty reputation. He doesn’t have it. He is what he is.
If he was like Jordan, and punched teammates in the face – well, we’d rip him for that, too. At 26, James has his legacy discussed and valued like a piece of stock on Wall Street.
Granted, he doesn’t help himself often, by you know, speaking. But this isn’t just a LeBron problem – it’s a we problem.
The media picked up on the reaction to “The Decision” and spun it the best way possible to reach the crowd. We’re a blood thirsty bunch, real sharks in the water – always looking for an enemy. If we smell something foul, we make it putrid and vomit inducing.
Our collective hatred of the Heat and dislike for James has made us sound like the people shouting for Barabbas. Dirk Nowitzki should thank James. Dirk’s career, however spotty in the past, is now made because he slayed the dragon. But was it really a dragon?
We’re forgetting why James went to Miami. By joining the Heat, he openly admitted he was not good enough to do it on his own. James wanted and needed help. He waved the white flag and joined another star’s team.
We should acknowledge every team needs multiple stars, we just didn’t like the way LeBron did it. That’s what this is all about: we don’t like how LeBron James handled himself, now and in the past. That’s totally fine. We are allowed to dislike how people handle themselves.
James and the Heat are hated – but they’ve sold the most the most jerseys in the NBA this season.
People say, “I can’t root for a team that came together like that – a bunch of superstars playing on the same team!” Weird, we all were pretty big fans of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, aka, “The Dream Team”. Oh, that’s different though, because we’re the United States and it was to beat all those dirty foreigners, right?
I hear Jordan would have never left the Bulls to play with another superstar. He didn’t need to – the team drafted a top 50 player (Pippen, who who was an MVP candidate and led the Bulls to 55 wins in 1994, during Jordan’s first retirement). Charles Barkley practically burned down the city of Philadelphia trying to escape the 76ers in the early 90s, until he was traded to Phoenix, where a much better team awaited him. Then, in the late 90s, he joined Hakeem Olajuwon, Pippen and Clyde Drexler in Houston. Magic Johnson came to a team with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then they drafted James Worthy. Bird had McHale and Parrish, as well as Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge.
When you are desperate to win multiple championships – which is what you have to do now in the post-Jordan era – all bets are off the table. I hope we go after Carmelo Anthony, once the New York Knicks add Chris Paul in a couple years. And we’ve never really had a problem with Boston putting three stars together.
So it has to be about the whole marketing of “The Decision.”
By my friend’s own admission, if the Mavericks would have beaten the Chicago Bulls, it would not have meant as much. Doesn’t that tell us something?
Aren’t we a little too wrapped up in this? We should see ourselves for who we are, too.
Dante Stallworth ran over someone with his car and killed the man a few years back. He served about 30 days in jail and is playing football.
And this is where our outcry, venom and moral outrage lies? With LeBron James and the Miami Heat? You know what will be funny? When time passes and everything comes full circle.
People will stop paying attention and it will die down. Comedians like Jon Stewart will start cracking jokes about how ironic it was we took this whole thing so personally and seriously. “60 Minutes” will do some piece called “The Lonely Life of LeBron James” or he’ll save some cat from a tree and James and the Heat will become sympathetic figures at some point. James will have some good games, remind people of a better version of Scottie Pippen, Wade will led them and the Heat will win a title or three.
And the media will shower LeBron and the Heat with praise, call him unselfish and one of the top 10 players all-time.
We’re all witnesses, all right.
To the biggest hypocrisy I’ve ever seen. 

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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.
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