Lebron Fan to a Lebron Hater: Part 4

Man!! It's getting busier and busier at work, not only that, I got to take care of my wife while she's being pregnant.

For lighter news, Scottie Pippen recently took back his comments on how he stated "LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will but he keeps everybody involved." Pippen reiterated on how Jordan is the best player of all time and how the media took his comments out of context. Pippen went on to say statistics-wise Lebron could be the best, but when it comes to accolades Jordan is by far the best to ever play the game. Interesting if you ask me, however, regardless of stats, accolades, or whatever, Lebron will never be considered as the best because stats don't mean anything unless you win championships.

Little Old Don't Ya Think

2009-2010

Back to the story...

Lebron by now is going into his last year on contract with the Cavs. You can tell he was having fun, buying gifts for his teammates, posing pictures along with his teammates, and still doing his infamous chalk chuck-up. You know? Good times.

We even got to see two years of Lebron vs Kobe NIKE commercials. It first started in the 2008 season and lasted by a good two-to-three years. It was funny, and Nike used this opportunity to promote Kobe's new shoes.

But regardless of having all that fun, everyone knew there was only one thing on Lebron's mind for this season. Championship. I predicted that if Lebron did not go to AT LEAST the Finals, he'll leave town to go for another championship contender. We all knew it, Lebron wants championships and was asking his team to get better players. So in the beginning they signed Shaq (Shaquille O'neal) and during the season they traded for Antawn Jamison without having to give up their prized upcoming star J.J. Hickson. When this trade happened, I just stood up and exclaimed the Cavs are going to the Finals and they're going to battle the Lakers for the title. What's even more interesting is that before this Jamison trade, the Cavs were pursuing Amare Stoudamire and who knows what would have happened if we got to see both Lebron and Amare on the court playing for the same team. Although no knows for sure how close this deal was, at this stage we can only imagine what could have been (coulda, woulda, shoulda). Anyways, the Cavs had another stellar regular season, even finished with the best record in the NBA for the second consecutive year.

This season was about winning a championship or how Shaq would put it "Win a Ring for the King". Winning home court advantage throughout the entire postseason was a must. Shaq needed to stay healthy, Jamison needed to solve his mental lapses, shooters needed to stay consistent, and of course, LeGone needed to take this team to the promise land. Meaning Lebron needed to be that guy, that one leader, Jordaneque. Lebron won his second consecutive MVP for the regular season, and got his to the playoffs in a very good position minus the Cavs facing the Boston Celtics in the second round. So the Cavs end up beating up the young Chicago Bulls, and got ready to face the much better team, the Boston Celtics. This was the moment for Lebron to add on to his legacy. Everything he has done throughout the season wouldn't mean anything if he wasn't able to get past this Celtics team. Big Three with an up-and-coming PG Rajon Rondo vs The King and Co.

This series wasn't quite epic as you would want it to be, but you got to watch some weird basketball, and at the end of it, wonder how on earth did the Boston Celtics come out of this alive without having to really throw a desperate punch. That's right, the Celtics won this series in 6 games. When I watched this series, especially after games 4-6, it left many asking "where the F*** was the fire?" No, seriously!!! Where was it?! Games 1 and 3, the Cavs showed up, rose to the challenge and just completely dominated the older, wreary-looking Celtics. The Cavs exploited the Celtics weaknesses and easily won both games 1 and 3. However, and that is one very big HOWEVER, the Celtics showed up and came to play for the remainder of the series. For the Celtics, it was like Rocky Balboa refusing to stay down and got back up and fought throughout the match and eventually won it. I'm not going to talk about what exactly happened in games 4.. Although, I will mention that in game 4, Rondo saved the Celtics season with his dynamic and unstoppable play.

So the series goes back to Cleveland TIED at 2-2. Game 5 is a MUST WIN, NO FREAKING CHOICE, WITHOUT A DOUBT IN ANYONE'S MIND because you want to put yourself in a position to win.  And what happened? They lost. Simple as that. They just simply lost. What was the score? An embarassing 120 to 88. AT HOME!!! How do you let that happen, Lebron? I'm just tickled by his performance going 3 for 14, and not rising above the moment.

Lebron said and I quote, "I spoil a lot of people with my play. When you have a bad game here or there, you've had three bad games in a seven-year career, then it's easy to point that out. So you got to be better. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be out there and be the best player on the court, and when I'm not I feel bad for myself because I'm not going out there and doing the things I can do. But I don't hang my head low or make any excuses about anything that may be going on, because that's not the type of player or person I am."

At that time, supposedly his last game in Cleveland, and Lebron still looked nonchalant, without a care in the world that they lost, not making excuses, but stating things with no emotion attached to it. Even in the press conference (above vid) he subliminally admits he doesn't care whether they lose this game or not. Throughout the game, Lebron looked confused, he hesitated ALOT throughout the game, there was no confidence at all, and it all left you to wonder where was the Lebron we watched all year long. Where was the MVP we've been waiting for? Where was the Jordaneque performance the media depicted Lebron to have in game 5? Where was the urgency, the strive that we see in not only Jordan, but also Magic, Bird, Kobe, etc? Where?

Embarrassing. I would have hated to pay for those tickets nevertheless actually being there at the game. Couldn't even keep it close. Lost by more than 30 points with a team that was on paper supposedly better than the Celtics. And what was even better? To hear Lebron being booed by his own fans all the way out to his car after the game. If you watch the vid, you can hear the tension from the crowd. The fans wanted some urgent play, some aggressiveness, and ultimately they got nothing. So to see him getting booed, Priceless ladies and gentlemen. Just utterly priceless. Because at that time I was fed up his Lebron, all throughout the year it was Lebron this, and Lebron that. The media acted as if this guy already won the championship without having to say it. There was no stopping this Cavaliers team, but after losing gmae 5 his magnitude of failure was being magnified as if he lost the series and his team. In other words, bye bye Lebron and hello somewhere else. Lebron was and still is cocky, but rightfully so because if you're that good, you have the right to be cocky. But at the same time, if you're that good, you better back it up otherwise people need to understand, that's what you call a BUST (I'll go into this in my later post titled "BUST" so please don't ridicule me on this just yet). Again, just like the previous years, this was Lebron's moment to shine, to really take his name and put it somewhere on the "legen-wait for it-DARY" map. And just like the previous years, he failed. Not just any fail, EPIC fail. You don't lost game 5, at home, to the Boston Celtics, with game 6 going back to Boston, spoon feeding the Celtics a chance to close it out. After this loss, you can right away tell who wanted it more.

If you thought game 5 was bad, game 6 was probably the "Kwame Brown's" version of game 5. It was one of those games, it was well over before the game even started. It showed, everyone knew in the Garden (Boston's stadium) that Lebron was without confidence, without urge, without focus. It was an ugly game, not quite close, not a whole lot entertaining, it was what one could call a "Boston-style" type of game. Think of it this way, there was an over-lining difference between the Celtics and the Cavs that stats wouldn't be able to tell you. Confidence; the Celtics knew they had to win game 6 at home, but even if they did lose, they had every bit of confidence to win game 7 on the road while somewhere along the road, the Cavs somehow lost all the confidence they needed to not only win this series, but also the confidence to win games.

If you were a Cavs fan, it sure was a shame to watch this series because the whole time, numerous writers across the world let alone the U.S. were talking about how the Cavs will win this series. Lebron's Redemption as it was labeled, and here in game 6, Cavs done 2-3 in the series, a must needed win, and the spotlight pointed right at Lebron for him to shine. Stage is set, lights all pointed at him, cameras focused on him, there was only one of two directions Lebron could take, the "Lebron came back to beat the Celtics in unbelievable, epic winning fashion" or the "Lebron losing, can't get it done, botched and full of utter disappointment".

Game 6, Lebron and the Cavs lost to the Celtics, 85-94, even with Lebron getting a triple-double but still committed 9 turnovers, which could have equated to a potential range of 18 points to 27 points. Got to commend the Cavs for keeping it close in the first half, but the 3rd quarter is what destroyed them at towards the end of the game. Right after the game, the focus wasn't really on Boston winning or even the next series (Finals between the Lakers and the Celtics). Instead, the media's attention quickly shifted to "Where is Lebron going next?" If this series taught the NBA anything, teams win game, teams normally win championships, and in this case, a team beat the hell out of Lebron and his team. Like I said, regardless of stats, at the end of the day, stats don't matter unless you win those games. Here's a recap video of what happened in game 6.

Sad huh? Even the commentators were pleading for LeGONE to do something, but it was quite obvious Lebron didn't think, didn't believe, didn't have any hope whatsoever this Cavs team could pull off an upset win. But what amazed me the most was how after the series, people were ready to defend Lebron once again, a full range of arguments from elbow injury (with Lebron being modest about it) to blaming others like coach Mike Brown for his lack of motivation as a coach. They were ready to come to his aid. Here's some example quotes of what the media was saying to back Lebron up:

Chris Sheridan, ESPN.com: There was too much focus on getting Shaq involved in the offense, not enough on LeBron. Was that coach Mike Brown's way of making up for the Game 4 benching of Shaq? I've never seen LeBron so uninvolved in the offense, but Boston and its D have to get some of that credit. The Celtics got the ball out of his hands and kept it out.

Kevin Arnovitz, TrueHoop: For all the talk about LeBron James, Game 5's most defining feature was a prolific display of offense by the Celtics. Their 130.3 efficiency rating was their second-best outing of the season. The C's destroyed the Cavs one-on-one, were effective in transition, got a ton of production from the reserves, crashed the boards and made only a handful of bad decisions all night. Cleveland's paralysis on the offensive end was a stark contrast to Boston's brutal efficiency. Though James' unassertiveness was most notable, neither Antawn Jamison nor Mo Williams could generate anything against the Celtics' smart defense.

Obviously there's a lot more, but we won't go into too many. My argument here is while the media does mention Lebron's ineffectiveness, they will also state some sort of excuse so that the entire blame doesn't shift solely on Lebron. What a shame. There were even rumors on how Cleveland Cavalier Delonte West was sleeping with Lebron's mother, which led to Lebron not being able to focus throughout the series. WOW!!! First off, regardless of injuries, Lebron should be go out and make the most of it. Even with his elbow injured, he can still contribute in MANY ways, and not just on scoring. He still had two good legs to run on, he still had at least one very good arm to defend with, picks, passing, rebounds, etc. Jordan had numerous injuries and yet still played and WON. Let's go back to the Be-Like-or-Better-than-Mike-or-Magic Check list, won regardless on injuries, uncheck. Couldn't win the big game when it mattered most, uncheck. Couldn't win a championship in six years, uncheck. Couldn't take his team to the promise land, uncheck. Again, another proof that should help people that this "supposed-phenom will come and take over and rule the NBA for years to come" COULDN'T get it done. Another potential Kobe vs Lebron  series gone to waste. There was only thing I could say to Cleveland, "bye bye Lebron".

There were people in the NBA who did blame Lebron 100% for losing this series. People like Skip Bayless, please watch the 2 vids to see what Skip and Rob Parker has to say about Lebron, but most people still tried to give Lebron a brake. The second vid shows Skip placing the blame on Lebron, but all in all, both vids are good to watch.

For my next blog: Part 5 of Lebron Fan to a Lebron Hater, The Decision

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