Remember about oh…four years ago? Obama wasn’t president yet. Tiger was still ballin’. And LeBron was in Cleveland. Not only that, he was on his way to the NBA Finals, had destroyed Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals, and for three consecutive years had stepped his game up in the playoffs. We all thought it was the beginning of his legacy. He was the guy you feared in the fourth quarter. He was universally adored.
Remember back to the summer. The Decision. Good became evil. The loved became the hated.
Remember back even three weeks ago. The Celtics were still alive. Osama had just been killed. And LeBron was the finisher. He finally overcame Boston, and then he went out and eviscerated the league MVP so badly in the Eastern Conference Finals that it looked like a complete mismatch, worse than the Admiral vs. the Dream.
The questions about LeBron James always felt more like hate than anything else. Either they were unfair (no rings), untrue (his past clutch play) or just stupidity. Now? People talked about his tweets (“Now or Never”) proving he was ready once again; They seemed more desperate than anything, a way to convince himself that he was ready.
Last night, everything was set up for him: he was coming off a bad game, now with a Game 5 on the road, NBA Finals, D-Wade hurt, all of the attention focused on him, a bunch of teammates who needed someone to reassure them rather than fade in with them.
Nothing.
Questions are always uncertain. But now, they’ve been asked and he’s failed to answer them often enough that they’re legitimate.
Putting everything aside, talk about your opinion of LeBron James. Has it changed? Did you think he was going to take over the basketball world? Did you always think he was better off as a guy who could be an all-around player but needed to have someone else finish the job for him? Are you mad at him? Confused? Disappointed? Happy?
Is he being treated unfairly? Is it something LeBron is doing in the Finals or is it just a bad matchup? How did he go from being BY FAR the best player in the game in the Eastern Conference Playoffs to this? And what will happen when this series heads back to Miami?
Preach!
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