The Finals
Sports have never been a focal point for the League, so I’ll put this one below the fold . . .
What’s up with LeBron James? Amateur psychology is the last resort of lazy sportswriters, but a few of his recent playoff games beg some serious questions about the guy’s state of mind. I don’t care if he’s scoring less than Wade. I don’t care if he’s looking to pass instead of shoot. I don’t care if his best plays come on the defensive end and don’t make ‘Sportscenter’. But eight points? When you’re being guarded by the likes of DeShawn Stevenson and Jason Kidd? What gives?
Up until last year, I thought James was unfairly maligned for coming up short in the playoffs. The Cavs were routinely overmatched. His 2007 Eastern Conference Finals performance against the Pistons is legendary. Against Orlando in 2009, LeBron was averaging absolutely ridiculous numbers despite insurmountable odds.
But last year, Boston’s six game playoff victory took me by surprise. James came up short against a team he had shown he could dominate in the same series. Maybe it was an isolated lapse. Maybe it was pure pique. Maybe he just didn’t care about a franchise he knew he was going to leave no matter what.
But LeBron’s in Miami now. He doesn’t have to carry the scoring load every night. A repeat – or even a half-hearted imitation – of his defense-oriented game three effort would have been more than enough to beat a flux-ridden Dirk and the Mavericks, effectively wrapping up the series. So what gives? Why is the most physically-gifted basketball player in the league checking out?
It’s entirely possible I’m overreacting to one bad game. But that had to be one of the most baffling playoff performances I’ve ever witnessed.
Here’s what I tweeted earlier:
“Great for LBJ to have a dual role [scorer or facilitator] on this dream team — until he doesn’t know who or what to be or do & neutralizes himself. Not Jordanian.”
Perhaps that should have been “Jordanesque.” In any case, MJ absolutely was both those things, and more. His greatness, though, lay in the way his instinct told him what mix of each of the parts of his game he need to put on the floor minute-by-minute. James, by contrast, seems to have internalized the formal division between his two roles that the media seem to have reduced their analysis of him to, and it’s paralyzed him. That’s my take, anyway. In LBJ’s defense one can point to his, well, defense, which is certainly on the level of Jordan’s. Not quite enough to rest a comparison on, though, is it?Report
And another thing. For all the hype over LeBron’s move to Miami, at this point Chris Bosh looks like a bigger deal to me. If Chicago had gotten him (in lieu of Boozer of course), I think it’s fair to say they’d be looking at multiple championships.Report
LeBron is not MJ. To his credit, he isn’t trying to be MJ anymore. Your problem here is, he isn’t Magic, either. Lebron is Lebron, and his book is still partly unwritten.
In fact, Jason Kidd’s book isn’t done yet, either. A little less hype for that one but still plenty to talk about, including that game.Report
Kidd has been playing out of his mind. I really enjoy watching the Mavs’ veterans put on a ball movement clinic.Report
Let’s bracket the Jordan discussion. They’re different players, and comparing career arcs won’t make much sense until LeBron is finished, anyway. I’m just wondering why LeBron couldn’t muster even a mediocre effort against some overwhelmingly favorable matchups. It’s truly baffling.Report
I’ll give it a shot:
LeBron is a great player. But he is not the (yet) the player that he was marketed as (by ESPN especially) since before he was even in the League.
And I don’t mean that as a knock on the guy – he is fabulously talented. But I think his lack of constant superhero performance only feels odd if you granted him that champion superhero status to begin with.
He seems a nice kid and I’d like to see him get a ring, but every year we hear the same thing: now that he has Shaq/Wade/Antione Jamison/Mo Williams, its a question of how many rings will he win in a row. Maybe we should wait to see if he wins one first.Report
I’m not getting the “next Jordan” thing. We’ve already seen the next Jordan, it’s Kobe. I’m not a huge fan of Kobe even, but I watched Jordan in is prime and he’s got nothin’ on Kobe for me.Report
I didn’t hear the piece itself, but during the Michael Kay show (ESPNRadio New York), Kay referred to an earlier segment with Stephen A. Smith in which Smith intimated but couldn’t confirm that there was something personal going on with LeBron. Take that for what it’s worth. A similar rumor plagued the Boston series last year, when it supposedly came out that a teammate (Delonte West) had been sleeping with LeBron’s mom. I could certainly see such a revelation making a guy shaky on the court or, more likely, just not care about killing himself for a “team” like that.
Anyway, more to the point, I think you underestimate Stevenson’s defensive abilities. Stevenson does three things well: shoot wide open 3’s; play defense; scare the everliving bejesus out of white people (face tattoos will do that). He is a strong, rangey, physical on-the-ball defender so LeBron doesn’t have an “overwhelmingly favorable matchup” there. He certainly does against kid, but I’m not surprised that LeBron has had some fits with DeShawn. Now, I don’t think that explains just how poorly LeBron played, but we should give credit where credit is due.
More to the point, maybe LeBron does lack the “killer instinct” or “it” or whatever psychological intangible it is that limits his potential. So what. He has never represented himself in such a way that he purported to have that “gene”. We projected it on to him because that is what we want of him. He might just be a super-athletic freak who loves to play basketball but isn’t one to kill himself to be the GOAT. Can we really fault him for that? How many of us kill ourselves to be the best at our jobs? I sure don’t. And I love what I do and take pride in my work. But I don’t kill myself over it and agonize over every mistake. And I do mail some lessons/days (I’m a teacher) in from time to time. It happens. He’s human. He might not be what we want him to be. But that is our fault; not his. If he is meeting his own goals and expectations, I see no reason to judge his character. We can judge his play, his successes, etc, etc, etc. But so often these conversations venture into character judgments/assassinations, which takes us down another road fraught with heteronormative thinking (e.g., questioning his ‘manhood’), I’d really just rather not go down that way.Report
This is an odd angle, but I think JJ Barea is a huge story in the finals, even though I never heard of him till the playoffs.
He handles really well and makes great decisions, but he can’t finish a shot to save his life. If he had any luck at all from the field, he’d have ~15 ppg and Dallas would have waltzed away in games 3 and 4.Report
Agreed! I can’t help thinking Barea would be one of the best point guards in the league if he was 6’3. Although he may not have developed his ball-handling skills if he didn’t have to compensate for a tremendous size disadvantage . . .Report