Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Was this a hoax?
What were the Celtics doing during the regular season? A 4 seed should not be giving the best team in the NBA (by record) a lesson in smart play. Boston finished the season 50-32. That's good enough for 6th through 8th in the Western Conference. They have just dominated Cleveland at home for the second time in this series to gain a 3-2 lead. Is this a LeBron collapse? His injury surely has been played up enough. The truth seems to be somewhere along the lines of Boston wants it more and Mike Brown cannot coach.
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What a crazy series.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure LeBron is going to ever win a title. If he leaves Cleveland, which of those teams that has the cap space to sign him is actually going to be a championship contender? None. Probably not even in the next five years.
ReplyDeleteSo at that point, LeBron will have been in the league 12 years without a title. Kobe Bryant got his first non-Shaq title in his 13th season. But that was his fourth overall, and I think it's a little more obvious today that Kobe was not exactly second fiddle on that 3peat Lakers team.
While LeBron may be the single most talented player in the NBA today, I think it is a mistake to label him the "best". That honor goes strictly to Kobe Bryant, who is supremely talented, mentally and physically tough, extremely focused and a champion four times over.
And I'm sorry, but you can't blame LeBron's supporting cast again. You can't talk about how great this Cavs team is as they get the best record in the league for the second year in a row and don't make it to the Finals (let alone win the championship) for the second year in a row. They did not have what it takes to win in the playoffs, but that is not all the fault of the supporting cast. Further, a true championship caliber superstar would put all the blame on himself, where it belongs. He is the one who has the ability to get it done, and he didn't. That is his own shortcoming, not his team's. The lack of ownership over his failures by LeBron and the media apologists really frustrate me. Nobody made excuses for Kobe when they lost a 3-1 lead to Phoenix in 2006 or when they missed the playoffs in 2005. He was blamed for "running Shaq out of town" and he is begrudgingly acknowledged only after a fourth ring. It's a ridiculous double standard.
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ReplyDeleteThe dichotomy of the behaviors of LeBron and Kobe in dealing with their respective injuries speaks volumes to the differences between them, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhile LeBron milks the elbow injury, going as far as to shoot a free throw with his left hand, Kobe learns how to shoot the basketball with different fingers because his main fingers are broken. In LeBron's defense, when was interviewed by TNT after winning MVP, he said he wouldn't use it as an excuse because it's not an excuse. But now it is being used as an excuse (maybe not by him, but definitely by some of the media).
Great players and champions don't make excuses, they go out and win despite circumstances going against them. That is a lesson LeBron can surely learn from a guy like Kobe Bryant.
...but LBJ doesn't use it as an excuse, anyways. During his game 5 stinker, the brace was off. And I don't think an injury makes one lose focus and drift into the corner expecting a pass.
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