Leave LeBron Alone

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By Fernando Gallo

Lebron James is taking a lot of flack right now, with one Yahoo! Sports columnist even comparing him to an “immature, self-absorbed brat,” but ladies and gentlemen, how about a little perspective?

It wasn’t two weeks ago that the Orlando Magic was locked in a 2-2 tie with the Boston Celtics, with Paul Pierce refusing to let his team die without Kevin Garnett. After Game 5 of that series, I speculated that a stupid cheap shot by Dwight Howard might cost the Magic Game 6, and possibly the series. Imagine my surprise when Orlando finished off the Celtics, without Howard, and advanced to face Cleveland.

Of course, most believed the Magic would see its run end on the Midwestern plains of Ohio – the Cavaliers hadn’t lost a game through two rounds, and looked downright unstoppable. But then the Magic put a Howard-sized hand around Cleveland’s throat by going up 3-1, and delivered the knockout punch in Game 6.

Not a single one of Cleveland’s players looked like they could help the cause against Orlando, and the LeBron James show floundered. James may be the greatest player of his generation, but Jordan won nothing without Pippen, Magic always had Kareem to pass to, and Shaq, regardless of all his boasting, has never even made it to the NBA Finals without a reliable guard. James can't do it all by himself.

So forgive him if he was a little pissed off as the confetti rained down on him in Orlando. What more can the guy do? He’s a freakish talent to be sure – it’s almost as if someone took the starting five of another team and crammed them into his 6-foot, 8-inch frame. His playoff numbers were downright stupid - the guy nearly averaged a triple-double, for crying out loud. Clearly he also wants to win badly, and damned if he cares what anyone else thinks as evidenced by his willingness to wear a Yankee hat to an Indians home playoff game.

The problem is, no one on the Cavs seems to care half as much as he does. Mo Williams left his shooting touch in the second round, Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak looked like over-the-hill has-beens (which is what they probably are), and Daniel “Boobie” Gibson was relegated to the bench for reasons I still don’t understand.

Is walking off the court without so much as a nod towards the victorious Magic a little rude? Sure. Is it completely classless? I wouldn’t go that far. After all, what is the biggest complaint from many fans about today’s athletes: That they don’t care enough about winning and it’s all about them first. I find it refreshing that LeBron was furious and didn’t care about sportsmanship at that moment (and apparently still doesn’t, since he hasn’t apologized). I don't want my teams to feel fine after a loss - I want the players to be as angry and frustrated in the arena as I am on my couch.

And that Yahoo! columnist who took so many shots at LeBron? Give me a break. In his column, which I would call haughty and self-riotous, he also blasted some of LeBron's worshippers - but I wonder if he includes himself in that group, since he wrote three columns over four days last month that glorified LeBron. How quickly they have turned on you, King James.

Yesterday’s athletes didn’t have multi-million dollar contracts and endorsement deals; they played simply for the love of the game. Hall-of-Famer Rollie Fingers appeared on the Oakland A’s local TV broadcast Sunday and said the day after the A’s had their championship parade in 1972, he had started his offseason job of stocking shelves at Sears. Those are the types of players I want on my team, and LeBron is a lot closer to them than he is to real ingrates like Latrell Sprewell or Terrell Owens.

I’m sure LeBron won’t be cancelling any future puppet commercials or giving Nike back any of its money, but at least he still values winning above anything else. With that in mind, it would behoove Danny Ferry to get LeBron some help ASAP, because he won’t be any happier about losing next season, when he’s in the final year of his contract with Cleveland.