LeBron James is a “game-time decision” tonight when his Cavs take on the Suns, but his two-week absence from the court — at eight games, the longest of his career — could continue for at least another game. James told Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Joe Vardon today that his prolonged stretch on the sidelines was “the most difficult thing I’ve been through.” While it’s totally grandiose of us to cry foul, since no one is a better judge of LeBron than himself, here are five things we think were more difficult for LeBron than his current eight-game stretch watching his team from the sidelines.
While James says his absence was the most difficult thing he’s been through, he looked pretty exultant on the sidelines last night when his Ohio State Buckeyes won the National Championship:
And on the private jet heading home opposite the lovably bloated Damon Jones.
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So without further ado, here come five instances, in no particular order, where we think LeBron had it tougher than he has over the last two weeks:
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Tie: The hype surrounding his first NBA game and Crampgate™
Crampgate happened in Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals, but it also struck late in the 2012 NBA Finals when the Heat wrapped up a five-game win over the Thunder. So obviously the 2014 iteration was worse with Twitter in full force, Mamba having his say and even Gatorade (stupidly) getting in on the schadenfreude.
But the hype before James made his debut on the NBA hardwood on October 29, 2003 in a 14-point loss to the Kings can best be summed up by this excellent “what if” Nike commercial that aired before the game was even played:
That is a lot riding on the shoulders of a teenager — even one built like ‘Bron.
Click to see the next four moments…
The infamous loss to the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki was perhaps the lowest LeBron ever got. The Big 3 era ended in a major disappointment and the LeBron ain’t clutch crowd reached a crescendo as LeBron took a sabbatical from the world for a while to recover for his first title push the next season.
LeBron James takes a pretty terrible Cavs team — with a more svelte Damon Jones — on his back past the defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons and into the Finals. The Eastern Conference Finals performance was also his top moment as an NBA player. That’s where Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan, not to mention an NBA Finals MVP performance from Tony Parker, destroyed ‘Bron’s first go-around at the ring:
The Spurs beat the Cavs four games to one, but it easily could have been a sweep like 2007. San Antonio had the largest margin of victory EVER in NBA Finals history and Kawhi Leonard out-played James on his way to a Finals MVP. This also doubles as LeBron’s last series in a Heat uniform and just the second playoff loss he suffered in four years with Miami.
“The [original] Decision”
The apex of LeBron Haterade. The moment when his contemporary fans burned jerseys, the owner wrote a pretty nasty letter and seemingly the entire world turned on LeBron for leaving his hometown team in such dramatic fashion in front of a live national TV audience. If it were us in LeBron’s big sneakers, this would have been the lowest point of not just our career, but our life, too.
So, um, we think LeBron has been through more difficult moments than the last two weeks, but no one knows the truth more than LeBron. We’ll just have to take his word for it.
What did we miss?
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