Well, the Cavaliers kick off the stretch run tonight in Toronto, and LeBron claims to be inspired by Dwyane Wade insulting his efforts.
Would be nice if one didn’t need such kicks in the arse, but if it works, we may manage to remain a fan. Optimism rules, at least until 7:00 Eastern Standard this evening.
Let’s skip a preview of tonight’s game and get to what everyone and their best friend is emailing us about, and that’s Bill Simmons’s Vegas recap, wherein he says the following about LeBron.
Sorry, this is way too long to put all on the front page – please click below to read on…
[THUMBS DOWN] To LeBron James, who coasted through the Skills Challenge on All-Star Saturday and played the All-Star Game with the uplifting, charismatic intensity of a female porn star trying to break one of those “most male partners in one afternoon” records. Could we end up putting him in the “Too Much, Too Soon” Pantheon some day? Will he become the basketball version of Eddie Murphy, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and every other celeb who became famous too quickly and eventually burned out?
Here’s what I know. I had four conversations with connected NBA people over the weekend that centered around the same themes: LeBron isn’t playing nearly as hard as he did last season; it looks like his only goal right now is to get his coach fired; he’s regressing as a basketball player (especially his passing skills and his shot selection); he made a huge mistake firing his agent and turning his career over to his buddies back home (all of whom are in over their heads); he was a much bigger problem during the Olympics than anyone realized; he doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself anymore; he has an overrated sense of his own worth and his own impact in the sports world (as witnessed by the ESPN interview last week when he answered the “What are your goals?” question with two words: “Global icon”); he’s been protected by magazine fluff pieces and buddy-buddy TV interviews for far too long; he doesn’t have the same relentless drive to keep dominating everyone like Wade and Kobe have; and basically, we’re much closer to LeBron re-enacting the career arc of Martina Hingis, Eric Lindros and Junior Griffey than anyone realizes. This will evolve into THE dominant NBA story of the next two months. You watch.
Um, why is any of this breaking news or hot-button topic type of stuff? What’s with all the declarations that these are the two most important paragraphs of the past ten years from youse all?
Anyone who’s watched Cleveland this year could tell you all the on-the-court stuff. In fact, we’ve been saying it since the start of the season. (Note the last sentence of that post, wherein we point out both the lax play of LBJ, as well as the fact that the national media must not actually be watching the games.)
As to the other stuff…um, anyone who fires a top-5 NBA agency (the Goodwin Bros.) in favor of their high school friends is probably making a mistake. We need NBA insiders to tell us that? A more rational move would’ve been to still set up LRMR, but work side-by-side with the experienced people for a few years, THEN branch off on your own.
The big shockers…Olympic hassles? (TrueHoop hit this months ago.) The media is covering for him and giving fluff interviews? NO. A THOUSAND TIMES NO. THIS CANNOT BE! We all learned this lesson years ago, we thought – we don’t really know these guys. (See: Bryant, Kobe)
As to the legacy stuff – it’s probably too soon for such declarations, and we don’t see how this becomes the prime story of the NBA season at this point. If anything, December and January would’ve been more appropriate – everyone’s looking at the Playoff positioning from here on. That said, at 22 it’s definitely time to start wondering why he’s not the best player in the NBA yet, and we obviously question his desire. But Griffey, Jr.? Please – it’s a little early for that.
Much more offensive to us are the fans who are making excuses for LeBron, typing up big speeches about saving energy for the Playoffs, etc. Crap. We offer our contributions to one such thread.
When confronted with a player not giving his best effort, I guess you either make excuses about “saving himself” or you lose some respect for said player. I fall into the latter category.
As for saving himself, if that is what he were doing (and I don’t think he is – he’s just disinterested or distracted IMO) – LeBron isn’t Shaq, ie he’s not old, nor has he earned the right to coast. (Not that anyone really earns that right – I say if you want to coast, retire. Go do something you’ll give your max effort to.)
…to say today’s athletes should even need to for physical reasons, especially ones LeBron’s age, is ridiculous. These guys are better conditioned and the technologies of training and nutrition are far more advanced [than the past]. If anything, these guys should be able to play more and harder than guys in the past.
This may sound naive, but I never see a reason not to try your hardest. As a concept it’s pretty simple.
True dat! Damn, look how serious we seem. That’s crazy – like alternate reality The Cavalier.
To sum up – there’s nothing to sum up. “LeBron isn’t trying hard” is hardly some huge revelation. We’d hope that “connected NBA people” can see it, since we’ve been screaming about it for over three months now.
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Now, I will give Simmons some credit if the NBA people were literally connected … that would be sweet.
Wait, there’s an intiguing sidenote to all of this. Who were those NBA people who ratted LBJ out? Could one of them have been…STERN?! That is one of the many NBA people Bill talked to. Now that takedown of LBJ would make for a good week or so of Photoshop art*.
(* Not like I’m begging or hinting or anything).
I guess – my whole point is that none of this is any sort of great reveal. You, me, and everyone else has noticed this stuff – it’d be kind strange if the NBA hadn’t noticed, too.
FIOS I don’t say this to knock anyone else, but I look forward to your comments muchly.
Grazzi, you run a damn fine site amigo
Yeah, true. And thanks for clarifying that Fios’s coolness isn’t just because my comments are so uncool, ha. My fragile, diminuitive ego is appreciative.
I just like the idea of Stern casually tearing down all the stars in the league to Simmons, that’s all. “Amare Stoudamire? Baby. Man breaks down at the drop of a hat. Last week he cried because there wasn’t enough time to get ice cream before practice. Shaq? Cult leader. When he retires, he plans to start a commune in Guam. He’s keeping it quiet for now because he doesn’t want to hurt endorsements” etc.
I think my email was more along the lines of, “Hey look, Cav, someone ELSE is finally saying the same stuff you are!” Even if it is Hackneyed Ol’ Simmons.
I get tired of Simmons shtick: “Look at me, I’m a (highly compensated) maverick outsider(/ultimate insider), what was ESPN thinking (no risk at all, whatsoever) when they let me talk with David Stern (whose name I will drop 4,000 times in the next month)?”
True, this was all discussed long ago in many different forums and through emails. My concern as a fan of the NBA is that the player who is supposed to lead the NBA to “the next level” (whatever the hell that is) doesn’t seem to a)care and/or b)know how to get there. Someone (new coach, new veteran teammate, opponent/rival) needs to kick LeBron’s ass and let him know he’s not as ‘big’ as he thinks he is. I say this even as a Bulls fan because LeBron should be the best player of this generation and right now it doesn’t look like he’s going to get there.
I tend to be an optimist, so take this with a grain of salt . . .
When I think of (all of – not just playoffs) last year, I remember some of the same inconsistencies that we’ve seen this year – settling for jumpers, too much dribbling, etc. But, I also thing league-wide the strategy is to double him as soon as he gets the ball (ala Pistons in the playoffs last year). Last year, yes, help would come, but not 25 feet away from the basket. He (and the team) have had trouble adjusting to this and for most of the first half no one was able to widen the defense – therefore, opponents sag the middle and dare Snow to shoot 18 footers.
It is not LeBron’s style to force it. His greatest fault is probably that he thinks he’s a good jump shooter. He’s better off trying to take 2 guys to the basket rather than shooting a 20-footer, but he thinks of it the other way around. I’ve thought he was tired because the arc of his shot up until about 2 weeks before toe had been drastically flatter than last year – i.e. no legs. Hopefully, with the addition of Boobie and a productive Pavlovich, the driving lanes that have opened up over the past will remain so.
All that being said, he should be playing better. The league has caught up to him a little. Is it because of malaise? Perhaps. But based on his track record so far, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt . . . for now.
lebron needs a better coach and better teammates. put him on the celtics and he would rock! i’m talking about the 86 celtics of course.
teehee
Bill Simmons cracks me up. But I’ve just learned something by reading his last 2 sentences. If I follow his model, I can say the obvious months later or steal any other blogger’s good ideas as if they are my own (if only Scoop Jackson had read this before he wrote the Orange Roundie column). Here’s how it works … THE MAVS HAVE A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER. THIS WILL EVOLVE INTO “THE” DOMINANT NBA STORY OF THE NEXT 2 MONTHS. YOU WATCH … BRITNEY SPEARS HAS PROBLEMS. THIS WILL EVOLVE INTO A NATIONAL STORY SOON. YOU WATCH … THE SUN IS HOT. PEOPLE WILL SOON REALIZE THIS. YOU WATCH.
Shouldn’t you be glad Simmons wrote that & hope that it does become the major story for the next months?
Ofcourse it isn’t NEWS, but this small piece from an article that had very little to do with LeBron in the first place has already garnered more attention than months of blogging has. If an athlete can’t raise the bar for himself, it’s time we do. We deserve to see phenomenal talents at least try to be as good as they can possibly become.
Simmons once wrote a whole column about how Luke Walton would become the steal of his draft.
Let me go contrarian for a few moments.
LBJ has had nothing but success since coming into the league.
Last year the Cavs over-achieved, camethisclose to beating Detroit. And LBJ thinks they can put it on cruise control for the regular season and turn it up a notch in the post season. If he does, and the Cavs do well, then he’s going to do the exact same thing next year. If the Cavs lose in the first round (or lose to Detroit again), then he’ll either learn from this experience or crumble like a cookie. We don’t know if LBJ has the killer instinct to make his game better in the off-season. And we won’t know because he hasn’t met failure yet.
That’s Wade’s advantage, he got close with Marquette but didn’t win it all, has a bunch of old guys who got close but never won it all and has Shaq who did win it all but wants somebody else to do all the hard work.
The Cavs are putting a lot of responsibility on LeBron’s shoulders, they need to either get a natural leader in there to take over. Or put him with a veteran who wants to win a championship and will physically kick LeBron’s ass to do it (I’m looking at you Charles Oakley).
OH WOW did you guys see duane wade leave the game in a wheelchair… it was the funniest thing ive ever seen! next thing you know pat riley will have “hip problems” next week…. man the drama queen strikes again…. prepare for him to be in dallas via wheelchair tomorrow at 6pm onloy to shoot 0293923 FTs
This is why it’s bad to rely on one guy to win you ball games. Over time that guy becomes resentful to the fact that he has to carry others in order to actually win.
That’s why he’s best suited to play for a team like the Heat, Bucks, Jailblazers, Wizards, etc… teams that already have good guys that are true #2 guys and not #1 guys. He’s a borderline #1 guy in the fact that he needs a #2 in order to be that “Dwyane Wade” caliber guy. he has talent, no question about that… he needs a “Pippen” type guy (and I don’t mean 41 year old SF), I mean he needs a guy to be drafted or picked up that can pick up the slack when his game is “off”. He needs a Richard Hamilton or a Rasheed Wallace or a Chauncey Billups or a Tayshaun Prince (even though they play the same position).
Well, it’s nice to see Bill Simmons reads Perkisabeast.com…
I think the problem is the NBA and a lot of people are trying to make him the NBA’s golden child. If he really is the greatest, then just let it happen naturally.
Regarding his effort, you also have to look at whether he is injured or not in a given game. I tend to feel he does take it easy at times, if you look at how dominating he can be when he really goes after it (like game 5 versus the Pistons). I do hate the tendency for guys like Shaq to openly take it easy, it is really disrespectful to the game and makes it boring. If guys aren’t going to play hard what’s the point of watching? Should we just all wait until the playoffs to watch then? Give me a guy like Garnett any day.
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