Was “The Decision" a terrible idea and in very poor taste? Absolutely.
However, it is important to make a distinction
between “The Decision” and the decision. As stated above, Lebron NEEDED to
leave Cleveland. Forget “what he owed the fans” and the organization. He owed
Dan Gilbert, an incredibly shitty owner and douchebag, and that terrible front
office nothing. He made a choice in the best interest of his career. Lebron,
much more Magic Johnson than he has ever been Michael Jordan, wanted to be in a
situation with high quality teammates that he could make better. Did you watch
that game last night? When people will speak of the Heat’s hot streak from the
3-point line, I really hope they will give Lebron most of that credit. When the
Thunder tried to double him, he found the open man every single time. Lebron’s
ability to distribute and hit guys with perfect passes might be his best
basketball skill. He can score 30 any night he wants, but doing so would limit
his potential as a player.
People always talk about how Lebron needs to be more like
Jordan. He needs to take over games late and run up his scoring numbers. Well,
there are many ways to take over a game, and I’d rather have a guy who can
score AND be one of the game’s best passers any day over a guy who plays hero
ball. Phil Jackson recently said he wished he could have gotten Kobe to play more
like Lebron, and thinks anybody who says the opposite is dead wrong.
Interesting that one of the best basketball minds of the past 20+ years states
what should be so blatantly obvious to any basketball fan.
The biggest issue is the myth of Michael Jordan. People have
selective memories when thinking of Jordan, often citing the end of game shots
he hit during his many playoff runs to win the “big one.” They rarely talk
about all the shots he passed up to the likes of Steve Kerr, John Paxton and
Toni Kukoc to win games. We have made Jordan this untouchable, mythical
creature who imposed his will on every game, never had a bad one and scored
every point his team ever scored. It’s just simply not true. Jordan did not
start winning championships until he started trusting his teammates and
becoming a more complete player, something Lebron has been his entire career. As
a basketball fan, I can’t believe how some people fail to appreciate all the
amazing things he can do. With a now dominate low post game, the only weakness
he has is his mildly inconsistent outside shooting. It is unbelievable all the things
the Heat asked him to do in this playoff run. Take the tipoff when Bosh was
hurt, bring up the ball when Mario Chalmers was getting a breather, guard Paul
Peirce, oh wait now Keving Garnett, Oh, Rondo is going off? Guard him. Now you
gotta man up Kevin Durant. But now Westbrook is going off, so you can start
guarding him. Go down low and play like a 4. Average almost a triple double. He
did everything short of ascending into heaven after the final whistle blew last
night. As someone who loves playing and watching basketball, it is just truly
amazing all the things he can do.
Lebron developed the stigma of choker because of the last
series of his last two playoff runs. People said he couldn’t win the big one
and crumbled under pressure in clutch end of game situations. Those critics
also had selective memories, forgetting Lebron’s dominate game 6 against
the Pistons in 2007, where he scored something like the teams last 27 points (I
don’t feel like looking this up), or the dominate series he had in last year’s
Eastern Conference Finals against the Bulls. He had two bad series, both coming
when he was caring too much about off court issues(where he was going to go asa
free agent, then what everyone thought about him during last years finals) and
all of a sudden the dude was a joke in the big game. He came back refocused on
what mattered and got back to playing as the most gifted basketball player who
has ever lived.
I think that Lebron will go on to win at least 2 more
championships and maybe more. He finally won the big one, and he is too good
and too smart not to do it again. He did it his way, and he will keep doing
that. There will continue to be people wanting to take away from Lebron, saying
he needed Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to win a championship (everybody needs
somebody), he only has one (That’ll change soon enough), that he should have
stayed in Cleveland (why?), and whatever else they can think of to take away
from him.
He will never be Jordan, people will say. No he won’t. He
will be Lebron James.
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