Please forgive me in advance, on a rare occasion, I really feel the need to talk about something other than west coast college basketball. Not to worry, it will not happen that often.
But today, I wish to talk about everyone's favorite subject LeBron James.
For the record, I have never wavered, though I seldom root for individual players or teams I am rooting for the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship as game six approaches tonight.
Portland, Oregon is my home town and Erik Spoelstra is from Portland, so loyalty is important in my life and I am cheering for the hometown guy. I would root for Erik Spoelstra if he were coaching the Sacramento State Hornets or if he were coaching the Golden State Warriors, a job I am sure he might have been offered at one point in the past couple of years and as great a basketball fans as the Warriors have, I personally wish he would have taken. Portland has few hometown national sports figures, so when the hometown guys get in the spotlight, they have my support.
Everyone loves to hate the Heat, the players for sure have brought a lot of it on themselves, most of that stuff I tend to look past, as it makes for great media stories but in the big scheme of things it really means nothing, but with all that said, it was hard to overlook the latest antic of LeBron James.
I have now watched the video seven times of himself and Dwyane Wade coming out for practice in game five of this series and obviously mocking Dallas super state Dirk Nowitzki, pretending to cough and hack, in reference to Nowitzki's sinus infection prior to game four.
After being ripped apart by everyone for the incident, Wade now says he actually was coughing, I tend to take people at their word. James wishes to move on, but it really is hard to move on.
The talk about you don't do that to opponents, cause it fires them up, is actually nonsense. If professional basketball players are not fired up on their own, they will have short careers. But what you don't do LeBron James is make fun of people that are sick, have a disease or long term health issues, PERIOD.
Hubie Brown is the best professional basketball analyst on the planet, he should be working the finals instead of Van Gundy and Jackson, who besides an occasional laugh, really offer zero to the telecast. Brown says it is not right for anyone to try to get into the head of LeBron James.
What Brown does not realize is, it is hard not to think about , what the heck is this guy thinking? Just when you think LeBron might be taking a step forward in the maturity factor, he takes two steps backwards.
I would have to think that after the Nowitzki incident, not only Erik Spoelstra was in his face, but also Pat Riley had a few things to say. Repeating here, it has nothing to do with firing up your opponent, it has to do with human dignity, it is that simple.
For anyone who knows anything about the game, LeBron James is without question one of the top seven professional basketball players of all time, but at present he fits also into the top seven of all time immaturity.
LeBron, I speak for many. We are sick of your showboating on the court, we are sick of incidents like mocking Dirk Nowitzki and it is time to grow up.
Image and legacy count in life, maybe in sports more than anything else, professionally. I am not giving up on LeBron James, I just want him to become the same type of person he is as a basketball player both on and off the court. He still has time and only time will tell. LeBron, at present, you are not funny, you are almost at times sad.
LeBron, whether you win or lose the NBA championship, take it with class and dignity. You will not regret it.
emails crawscorner@gmail.com
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