LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers via free agency to team up with his buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat has dominated media, sports and blog coverage for nearly every instant since he chose South Beach.
The announcement itself was a big event, full of cameras, unnecessarily fabricated suspense and plenty of detractors. I’m not here to get too deep into my own arguments for against the move, because there have been more than enough decent points made on each side. I just want to reiterate what I’ve seen a few sane people state; lay off of LeBron James.
All the backlash has made me seriously wonder if I live amongst a society of perfect, eternally humble individuals above any criticism or reproach. James has been ridiculously vilified by far too many, and it needs to stop.
I’ll have to borrow the (paraphrased) words of respected street philosopher Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson for this one; “You shouldn’t throw stones if you live in a glass house, and if you got a glass jaw, you should watch your mouth.”
The pairing of LeBron, Wade and Bosh has many crying foul.
I bring this up because of the sheer hypocrisy I saw spewing out from some of the loudest anti-James critics. Take the ton of Lakers/Kobe fans rejoicing at the opportunity to badmouth the man they are so insecure about. They seemed overwhelmed with joy at the chance to label LeBron more Scottie Pippen than Michael Jordan. The comparison, while meant to be an insult, doesn’t pack much of a punch.
Pippen is one of the top 50 players of all time, a sure Hall of Fame player and six-time NBA champion. He was a vital cog on each of the Bulls champions and well worthy of a great legacy. That’s not the problem, it’s all the unintentional irony involved when Lakers fans diss him for something Kobe has been most like during his career; a great scorer closer to Scottie than Jordan.
Three of his five championships came with his as the secondary offensive weapon, a compliment to the behemoth known as Shaquille O’ Neal in his prime. The three NBA Finals MVP trophies Shaq has proved it. And let’s be honest about this most recent championship.
Kobe looked a lot more like Larry Hughes than Pippen or Jordan, putting up a 6/24 night that wrapped up a 41 percent Finals performance. He was given his second Finals MVP more on reputation and scoring average than actual game-winning (Jordan) heroics. As they so often say though, a win is a win and rings are rings. I agree, which is why any rings LeBron wins, with or without Wade, are to be admired.
Superstars joining forces or going to better teams is not a new phenomenon.
Spare me the crocodile tears and two-faced cries about lack of competitiveness and fairness when you’re the team that stole Shaq from Orlando in his prime, cheated earned your way to Pau Gasol and regularly took advantage of deep pockets and sweetheart deals to fill out rosters. If that lopsided Memphis trade doesn’t happen, Kobe would’ve bolted faster than LeBron.
Let’s not forget the failed experiment with Gary Payton and Karl Malone either, which I guarantee would have been heralded had it worked.
To see fans cry out against LeBron not being able to win in Cleveland, with a team built on draft picks and loyalty is nonsense. The Lakers won all their titles through free agency, snagging superstars, shady trades for all-stars and handpicking the best available talent. The Boston Celtics put together a new Big Three and did the same, so cut the “superstars should play against each other, not together” crap. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. That’s exactly what Miami has done, only this time it was on a larger, more unbelievable scale.
Free agency is a chance for players to go wherever they like, no matter how big their stardom. So calm all the tampering talks or the borderline racist rants against LeBron leaving, because he was free to do so.
Like it or not, this is how the NBA is today, and the Heat were not the first to do it, they were just willing to take the biggest gamble. Don’t blame them for coming up with the winning numbers.
- Will.
The Sports Snob will be published once a week here on YouBeenBlinded.com. Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com
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