lebron james

i can't really understand how anyone doesn't get the antipathy directed at lebron james. how could one not see his quote after the heat's unexpected failure as at worst deplorable and at least in poor taste. i wouldn't rank him down there with milosevic or qadaffi. he's just an entertainer. but in his realm he is a villain for a reason. the root cause of his vilification is his poor judgment.

to be fair i recognize that i probably would have had every bit as poor of judgment as lebron had i been given so much at such a young and tender age. (see born rich for a poignant illustration of this phenomenon.) lebron was a celebrity in the 8th grade. consequently he never even felt the need to consider how to woo the public. he did not think he needed to do that. after all, when you have millions of dollars, are in the physical prime of your life and widely accepted as an athletic marvel, and have no idea what you don't know, what else is there? no one tells lebron know. he even has a posse around him as a constant reminder of how truly wonderful and omnipotent he is.

"he is," is a perfect phrase for describing lebron. he is an amazing talent, markedly more naturally gifted than those he is currently failing by comparison to, (i.e. michael jordan, magic johnson, et. al.) he is the embodiment of youth, even relative to his basketball career. he is a major celebrity with all the accoutrement of that fabled status. he is beloved and reviled, which is exactly the opposite of the worst humans are capable of feeling for one another, not feeling at all. to this point in his career lebron james has been the jehovah of the hardwood in as much as he has been expected to exceed everything heretofore known in the basketball world. however, something odd happened along the way.

in the year he should have won a championship, in the inaugural year of the new paradigm for winning, the age of not just two "superstars," per team, but three, an idea he can easily be credited with inventing, (for lack of a better word,) lebron james failed. this should be nothing new in the world of sports. failure is germane to sport. failure is the other 29 teams. failure is the best hitter 62% of the time. failure is the boston bruins or vancouver canucks tomorrow night. failure is michael jordan with the wizards. failure is the chicago cubs. lebron was not supposed to fail. he might have won a championship a couple of years ago with cleveland but this year, with dwayne wade and chris bosh, (and a complement of solid talent betting fractions of their salaries on lebron to take them to the glorified landscape of champions,) he was supposed to win it, all the more once the heat had traversed the rigors of the eastern conference to meet the third seeded dallas mavericks in the nba finals, (with home court advantage no less.)

why did lebron fail? the reasons are myriad. first and foremost, in a word, his game. lebron's game is made for the regular season. when that horse of a man barrels down court towards the basket on a tuesday night in philly or toronto, who wants to get their body in front of him and take the contact in hopes of getting the charge call or at least thwarting the two-point effort in favor of a possible miss or two at the foul line? no one. some will. occasionally. most won't unless they see a clear advantage or they are for some reason desperate. the playoffs and certainly the finals are different.

lebron is so physically gifted to date in his nba career he has not been challenged. he is an above average shooter and he is simply a monster when attacking the basket especially on the break or in transition. relative to his size his ball-handling skills and agility are freakish. so where is lebron deficient? he not only has no idea how to beat those teams in the playoffs who are utterly committed to stopping him, he has no idea he needs to have an idea or that such an idea even exists. he is fucking clueless.

other than kareem abdul jabar's sky hook, there is and has only been one weapon ever for overcoming that level of commitment the mavericks recently displayed. the mid-range, pull-up jumper. that shot in the hands of a master in unstoppable. when you think about jordan in his early career with doug collins scoring 63 on the celtics, the basketball prowess he displayed was more than remarkable. however, it failed. jordan, like lebron and so many others, was in love with his own athleticism. at about that point in his career jordan recognized he needed to get others involved to succeed, and he needed to score easier. he couldn't make a move on two defenders, slash to the basket and creatively score a basket every time down the floor. even kobe figured this out at some point. a gifted basketball player, by the very nature of the game, has a huge advantage on the pull-up jumper and from mid-range it is the easiest pickin's there is in the nba game. in fact dirk nowitzki's range of mid-range shots are just variations on the theme. karl malone was a great player because his mid-range shot was deadly, moreso as his career progressed. the same can be said of charles barkley. in his best year, when jordan's bulls defeated his suns in the finals, his ability to score from mid-range complemented his other, power game oriented skills, to such a point he nearly led his team to a championship against all odds. scoring without expending maximum energy is the hallmark of the greats. reggie miller was great because he succeeded at the long ball like it was a mid range jumper.kevin durant is great because of his shot. all the rest, all the stuff lebron has in spades is substantial and effective, but that uncanny shot, that ability to score using less energy, is the difference maker. lebron simply hasn't had to develop it and hasn't had any idea he has a need to develop it. in fact he likely acted from instinct and the sub conscience in choosing to partner with dwayne wade. wade is his perfect complement in as much as he possesses what lebron lacks to the hilt but does not have the body to endure his own style of play night after night over 82 games per regular season plus playoffs year in and year out.

as complementary as lebron and wade are and were to one another, in the finals their team did not have the game plan to beat dallas. their aggressive rotation became an achilles heel against a patient team willing to keep passing until they beat the rotation and take only open shots, (as much as possible.) had the heat been able to shift styles back and forth between what they did and living with a basic man defense, they could have kept the mavs off balance and likely lowered their shooting percentage. it's hard to blame the heat coaching staff however-who could have imagined them losing?

so back to why lebron's comments were so inane. they were angry. as a privileged millionaire, the point of his comment was to mock the average schmuck who pays his hard earned money to lebron's brand and the nba's brand. essentially he said eff you to all of the "haters," who do not live to his standard of living, (you know, the standard where you live in a castle, have everything you want, [except a championship, the true badge of greatness,] including a posse of employees at your bidding,) who had to wake up the next day and go to the office or the yard or the truck or wherever they earned their meager, sub par living. it is not offensive that lebron lives the lifestyle he lives. it is offensive that he is so offended by the regular guy's sensibilities. lebron feels entitled to his lifestyle. his greatness is, in his estimation and therefore, he sees himself as a gift to humankind and the basketball world. (he doesn't feel lucky or fortunate at all.) he thinks he earned all that he has. in fact he deserves a great deal of credit and a portion of his success can be attributed to luck, (in short.)

lebron reminds me of mary baker eddy who believed she could live forever if she purged negative thoughts from her consciousness and psyche. as her end approached she attributed her demise to the negativity of others being projected on her. in some ways eddy was a loon. in other ways, she was a revelation. she did live a remarkably healthy life after all.

this may sound like some sort of psychobabble but humankind is connected. you can see it in riot mentality just as you can see it in cases of extreme isolation. lebron's decision showed an utter disregard for the human sensibility that is loyalty. it would have been one thing to disdain cleveland in favor of miami. that would have been digestible to the masses even though it represented a change that was essentially an nba paradigm shift. the decision however, rubbed his sense entitlement in the faces of those who valued loyalty, or who believed in working class values, values in which it would be anathema to take the easy way out (of cleveland,) instead of persevering. so the masses turned on lebron, (excepting those in miami largely, who heralded his arrival as the beginning of a season of plenty.)

in the end it was a perfect storm. lebron's inability to score easy, (essentially his inability to take two hard dribbles in a direction, stop on a dime and hurl himself into the air while steadying himself for a mid range jumper, which is essentially in itself the inability to study and/or recognize, which again is a byproduct of having so much come so easily,) manifesting at the biggest moment in a system completely unprepared for the unfathomable failure that came about and was exploited by the little basketball engine that could, (aka rick carlisle's team oriented game, that is the dallas mavericks.)

i have rooted against lebron and the heat all season but lebron's comments did not bother me. i had to get up the next day and go work at a job i don't love. i did not feel bitter or jealous that lebron got to wake up in the opulence he has grown accustomed to. i do not begrudge the man his materials. i do find it disappointing he has not become a better lebron yet and he has not used hardship to improve. (once upon a time i could not stand mike tyson but then i came to favor him. to me tyson seemed to improve himself and he gained an air of humility i found refreshing and honest.) i am open to lebron becoming a better man and a better basketball player. his cause could be helped by having more of the masses on his side, too. he could woo the general public by gaining a measure of humility and becoming somehow genuine, (as opposed to writing checks to boys and girls clubs or some corporate charity.) if i were advising lebron i would start by having him apologize for being obtuse. (first, of course, i would try to get him to genuinely see how his behavior has been wrong-headed.) next i would tell him to focus on basketball and work particularly on his mid-range jumper. by improving that one aspect of his game i see no reason, (assuming dwayne wade's health,) why the heat should not win the championship next season. planning for that outcome i would advise lebron to be ready to accept that championship gracefully, by reacting honestly to it when it comes and by heaping praise on teammates and coaches and accepting laurels by pointing to his hard work and determination. over the top praise should be scoffed at. after all one team wins a championship every year. it really is not that big of a deal.

toward the expanse

i lost a friend this week. bob was 45 and left his family way too early. from the seeking the positive, (or seeking the poignant,) department, a group of guys who regularly play basketball together will be somewhat closer and more involved.

i don't know when was bob's last sunday playing basketball up at the local middle school. i know i had not seen him in what had to be six or eight weeks. i have been playing basketball up at this school with a group of probably 30 regulars of whom about half show up on any given sunday for several years. the age range is about 25-55 and i can think of at least one player on the outside of both those numbers.

so on sunday i was late getting to the court because i got in that trap of thinking maybe this is the time roddick beats federer. when i arrived i warmed up on an adjacent court to where a group was playing three on three. when they finished and adjourned to a patch of shade astride the court, i moved to the main court to continue my pre-game shooting regimen.

as the players trickled back to begin anew, bob started walking away towards his car. "damn," i thought. i miss bob and have not seen him in a while. at the risk of sounding trite, bob was the nicest guy of all the regulars. he was affable, amiable, and easy to get along with though not necessarily easy to know. he mixed his basketball with a light-hearted banter of regular conversation and guy jokes.

bob must have been 6'4" so he was never missed. in my mind he was wearing alight blue t-shirt when he walked away though i do not even know if that is true. maybe i am just painting him in the color of sky because he was a soft touch amidst a bunch of creatures who fart and talk about it and make 10.3 gay jokes per hour and occasionally make a crass reference to some aspect of women's anatomy. (yes, i am guilty of this juvenile behavior, too.)

bob was as cool as light blue though. he came out and typically stayed to the end. he played hard and had fun at the same time. he had guys up to his house in the hills to play poker and attended when it was at someone else's house as well.

so when he reached half court of the other court between the court we played on and the gate out of the playground, i yelled out, "see ya bob!" bob pushed his hand into the sky and yelled back, "see ya," without turning for a peak. i came to discover bob had just told someone in the shade that he was feeling kind of sluggish, as explanation for his premature departure.

the next morning i got to work at 7am and got a phone call from one of my buddies who said bob had passed away after leaving the hoops action on sunday.

"what?" "do you mean he is in a coma?"

no. he's dead.

what?!

bob had gone home and began vomiting, my friend revealed. he had taken a cold shower and vomited some more then told his wife they should go to the hospital. on the way to the hospital bob had stopped breathing.

i later found out they had worked on bob in the emergency room for about 45 minutes. i still have no idea what the killer was.

my friend asked me to call another friend, which i did.

"what?! "are you serious?! "from what," my friend barked in a mix of anger and disbelief? "bob died," he said to his wife. bob's son had just finished the fifth grade, where my friend was his teacher all year and his wife had a group of his peers in the next classroom.

at the end of the day's hoops on sunday, there had been a schism. one group of guys agreed to come out and play on wednesday evening. another guy who could not play on wednesday lobbied for tuesday and seemed to generate some interest. as word went around about bob's demise many of the regular sunday morning hoopsters agreed to show up on tuesday night to play some ball and honor bob.

i think i counted 13 guys who showed up that evening. two guys came in street clothes who could not play but wanted to be there. this group usually just plays basketball and that is it. when the games are over they go their separate ways, back to their families and their jobs. on tuesday night they brought beer. when darkness fell they stayed and cracked open the cold ones. they conjured bob in all his incarnations. they wondered aloud about the future for his family. they invented possibilities for what had smitten bob.

after dark in the deep blues of night these weekend basketball warriors put the jokes and machismo aside. they discussed ideas, from the meaning of life and the meaning of mortality to how the fathers among us just have to, at all costs, work to be active, involved and memorable in the lives of our children.

at 45 and leaving behind his wife, high-school aged daughter and sixth grade son, (among others i am sure,) bob went to his reward way too soon. it is heartbreaking that this tragedy has occurred. it is heartbreaking in our basketball community and to others every day, everywhere, who endure. it is the melancholy of life. it is the south pole of emotion and that which every other feeling is measured and contrasted by. kahlil gibran said joy and pain were opposite sides of the same stone and we could only know the two in equal, (though opposite,) measures, even if we do tend to get them in disproportionate amounts. this is the pain.

bob's death will color our competitive basketball struggles evermore. our appreciation of being able to play with these guys, these salt granules of the earth, will be heightened by this depth we find ourselves mired in today. the amount of joy we gain from the camaraderie and the workout and the routine, the little lessons we learn from the winning and losing, the active friendships that will bloom into fullness, these things have new boundaries now. its like bob's final contribution to our sunday morning basketball ritual.

and this is where i do say something trite because i am a part of all i have known and i think when we break out the ball even this sunday, three hours before bob's memorial service, we'll honor bob by remembering him and by carrying a bit of him with us and by stretching tired limbs and pushing ourselves to play and compete.

rest in peace bob.