Webster’s defines the word “apathy” as a lack of feeling or emotion. If you take the time to look it up, you may actually see a picture of Lebron James.
Well, maybe in the 2010 Cleveland edition that is.
On Thursday night, James and the Cavs were eliminated in the second round of the NBA playoffs after losing to the Boston Celtics 94-85 in Game Six. While he did have a triple double, any basketball fan could tell that during the last two games of the series, James was disconnected and didn’t care.
He is the self proclaimed “King” of basketball. But what exactly has he become the king of? He hasn’t won any rings, so he doesn’t have the jewelry. He has almost as many haters as he does fans, so he doesn’t have the court.
The King of quitting. The King of being spoiled. The King of nothing.
Say what you will about Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan’s personalities. Whether you love them or hate them, they all share one thing in common. They have heart.
James doesn’t have heart. Instead, the passion that should be driving him towards a championship is void and replaced with greed and ego.
For as much flack as he has taken over the past week for his performance in Game Five, I would bet that he hasn’t heard a word of criticism from his A-Team of yes-men. He has been ripped and shredded for not hustling down the court, not paying attention during huddles, and not caring about the fans around him that were about to burst into tears, which led to the worst home loss in Cavaliers playoff history and losing the last two games in Cleveland by over 50 points combined.
After Game Six, Lebron spoke to the media, unlike last year where his sour-ness decided to not shake hands with the Orlando Magic or address the public after losing in the Eastern Conference Finals. He said that “his team” would take care of things. He wasn’t talking about the Cavaliers. He was talking about his suck-ups. His chumps. The guys that would give up a limb just to be able to stay in his close inner circle.
To him, they are the media. They are a shield from the real world and the reality that he has been uncovered as an un-coachable phony.
Could the Cavaliers have done things differently as a team? Of course.
Mike Brown is going to be fired, and deservedly so. He has no idea how to handle an offense or make adjustments. A team that has clinched the number one seed in the East two years in a row should be the one forcing the other team to change, not the other way around.
Danny Ferry has tried hard to build a team around Lebron. For the most part he succeeded, at least on paper. However, Jordan had Pippen and Kobe has Gasol. While both “side-kicks” are/were good defenders, they can/could also score. Antwan Jameson and Shaq were good pickups, but neither one can take the pressure off James offensively. Ferry is notoriously non-aggressive and seems to take what he can get. If trading JJ Hickson would have led to the acquisition of Amare Stoudemire, who CAN score, he should have taken it. Jameson was an overpriced and over the hill consolation prize. It was about as useful as a gift certificate to Bennigan’s.
It was unfair for James to have to carry the weight of the Cavs on his shoulders, but he should not have quit. He doesn’t get paid millions of dollars from Dan Gilbert or any of his sponsors to quit.
It doesn’t matter whether he got into a fight with Brown or his teammates. It doesn’t matter if he wanted to turn Cleveland against him, making it easier to leave his home town of nearby Akron. The reasons he tanked it are irrelevant.
He stabbed Cleveland in the back and in the end he is going to have the last laugh. At 25, he’s smart enough to know that he has at least a decade of good ball left in him. That’s plenty of time to get a ring or two. That’s the most frustrating part of all of this.
As for Cleveland, whether he stays or goes doesn’t matter now, at least for the 2009-2010 season. Getting home court throughout the entire playoffs doesn’t come easy and is hard to repeat for three years in a row. And because of his apathy, he threw it all away. I could care less about how Lebron feels about not earning a championship this year, because I doubt he cares either.
So buyer beware: Lebron James is a quitter, backstabber, thief, fool, phony, pompous, asshole who doesn’t deserve anything. He deserves what every other apathetic quitter deserves; nothing. Not the food on his table, the cars in his garage, the clothes on his back, or the shoes on his feet.
Assuming that he leaves, Lebron will have cemented his place in Northeast Ohio history as the greatest failure and quitter the area has ever seen.
Then again, I bet he doesn’t even care about that.
