An unwilling witness: why LeBron James has let me down
December 13, 2009 by admin
In a lot of ways, I want to be a LeBron James fan.
I pull for the Celtics first and foremost, but I’m a realist as well, and it’s not hard to see that, without a serious overhaul in the next year-ish, the team’s window to contend for a championship won’t extend too much further down the road (Ignore this statement if Rondo continues to develop a jumper; his ability to hit open shots or hit FTs would be a game changer). The Lakers, on the other hand, are in a position to contend for the foreseeable future. Whereas with baseball, I stop watching if the Red Sox fall out of contention, if the Celtics ceased to exist tomorrow (bite my tongue, I know), I’d probably still watch hoops on League Pass a minimum of five nights a week. Thus, I want a player in the East to cheer for in the event that the C’s sun starts to set in the not too distant future. For a period of time, I labored to convince myself LeBron James was that guy. Just yesterday, Salma Mahmoud made a very good case on this site as to why, for many people, he is every bit that electrifying, compelling player. But I can’t root for him. It’s impossible.
There’s a whole laundry list of topics related to LeBron in the public consciousness of late: I tackled LeBron’s rug-cutting escapades in another post, so let’s start with the retiring of Jordan’s number, which has also inspired a lot of headlines. This is a multifaceted form of self-importance displayed by King James: not only does he believe he has the right to suggest other players give up their numbers (had he simply relinquished his own number as a tribute, I’d have been impressed; why the need to get on a soapbox), he shows either a) a lack of respect for two of two other all-time greats, or b) a poor sense of the league’s history. The idea that wearing the Greatest of All Time’s (Russell should rank somewhere in your top 5, but there’s no question about #1, unless you relinquished the bonds of reality) number is a faux-pas, but wearing the same digits as two players in Bill Russell and Julius Erving who changed the landscape of the professional game is mind boggling. Or maybe he plans to “honor” Russ and The Doctor at some point down the road in the same dubious manner.
The teasing/pulling back from the dunk contest was just poor handling of the situation: it’s like LeBron, in showing his enthusiasm for the competition, acted emotionally for a minute (like a real person, something we rarely see from the guy), only to realize “hmmm… I have absolutely nothing to gain here, but potentially a bit to lose if I’m shown up by the Nate Robinson’s of the league.” Maybe he’s just trying to stir up some drama so that he looks charitable. Regardless, this decision is either about ego, business, or some mash-up of the two. I can’t imagine Nike would be too thrilled with their main bread-winner if he was defeated by this year’s Gerald Green (Shannon Brown!?!) in the dunk contest, therefore, he’s going to disappoint a lot of the fans whose interest he’s piqued.
I’ll compliment LeBron for one action that’s gotten some bad publicity lately, and it’s probably the thing he’s been most criticized for: walking off the court after the loss to the Magic in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals. I care about guy’s conducting themselves the right way on the court: I really do. I care about players treating each other with respect, even in the heat of battle, but I’m not sure when the post-series-ending-loss-at-home-handshake entered the lexicon of NBA sportsmanship. Come on, it’s not as though we went on an F-bomb laced tirade in his post-game presser, or used his saliva as a means by which to gain a competitive edge. He was furious with himself for losing, and left the court. With all due respect to Nick, who cited Isiah’s relationship with Magic as a evidence of LeBron’s wrongdoing, this is the same Isiah Thomas who, in the ’91 Conference Finals, led his teammates off the floor with 7.9 seconds left in a Game 4 that clinched the Pistons sweep at the hands of Jordan’s Bulls. And you know what? Regardless of his latter day sins, Isiah was a winner. The disgust and thinly veiled rage LeBron displayed in walking off the court showed the kind of killer instinct I want to see out of the face of the NBA, as opposed to all the bullshit posturing that he’s so prone to. That’s the first glimpse I’ve gotten of a guy who could be a true, cutthroat, do what it takes to win kind of alpha dog, rather than just a superstar content to get paid and get his numbers. And by the way, a certain #33 walked off the court with time remaining in the ’88 Conference Finals after losing to those same Isiah-led Pistons. We don’t come down too hard on him around these parts.
LeBron James’ personality – or more accurately, the persona that we see in front of the camera, usually consisting of carefully worded jokes, effectively chosen cliches about his teammates – feels to me like the same kind of carefully crafted corporate product that we see from actors who go on late night shows trying to pimp their newest movie. I don’t feel for a second that I have any sense of who LeBron is, what makes him tick, or even if he’s a remotely good person. With the rise of Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, we’ve done a little bit of an about-face from the Jordan era, when the most visible star in the league was able to hide the fact that he was a) a ruthless son of a bitch and b) addicted to gambling. We’ve got unheralded access to the unfiltered thoughts of players which, while not always good for them (Michael Beasley can attest to this), is pretty constantly entertaining and occasionally insightful for us as fans. In some ways, it’s like a re-imagining of the relationship media members enjoyed with players in the 70’s, when having a steak and a beer before a night on the town was a common occurrence for beat writers and the players (and, in Tommy Heinsohn’s case, coaches) that they covered. This era is well covered in John Powers’ book The Short Season, about Havlicek’s last year in the league.
I’m not the kind of guy who likes gossiping about the personal lives of people in the public eye, but when a guy like LeBron, who so obviously loves the spotlight, goes out of his way to make statements and appearances that reveal absolutely nothing about him, I become a little bit curious, and a little big agitated. Outside of the walking off the court incident and the fact that he once smoked some weed in high school, the guy’s a blank slate. Say what you will about Kobe Bryant, but at least I feel like the guy’s a person: a shitty one, maybe. A phony one, almost certainly. But even so, he doesn’t strike me as the kind of robotic enigma that James does. Give me a flawed but seemingly genuine player like Allen Iverson any day of the week. Hell, even Stephon Marbury evoked a strange emotional cocktail of pity/disgust/hilarity.
Most importantly, LeBron’s on-court conduct related to trying to sell fouls and bitching at refs drives me nuts. I’m a Celtics season ticket-holder, so I’ve had the opportunity to see every game he’s played at the Garden during the last two and a half years. I DVR’d most of those games and watched them again at home, and was absolutely floored by how little of this stuff shows up on TV. And why should it? The NBA doesn’t want their young fans asking their dads why their hero is chasing down a referee, arms outstretched in a gesture of supplication. It makes sense, but that doesn’t make it taste any less bitter.
Let me be absolutely clear: LeBron’s a transcendent athlete, a physical specimen, and for my money, the second best player in the league. He’s going to get his calls, and probably more than his fair share, if Tim Donaghy is to be taken at face value. He doesn’t need to check his face for blood every two seconds, or slowly and dramatically peel himself off the court every time he’s knocked down. It’s infuriating, because he should be better than that. But he’s not. You can say that plenty of players do it, hometown hero Paul Pierce among them, and you’d be right. I understand it may seem hypocritical, and to a degree, it is, but LeBron is a better player than Pierce, with a decent shot to go down as one of the absolute best players who’ve ever lived, so I hold him to a higher standard than I do other NBA stars. That’s why I have the visceral reaction I do when I see him do these things: he should be better than that.
All this is a long way of saying that, while I understand why plenty of people love LBJ, I don’t. I unfairly hold him to higher standards than his contemporaries because of how well he plays the game, which is probably as much or more of a commentary on me as it is on him. His lack of any discernible personality turns me off when he’s off the court, and his tendency to complain and ham it up when he feels he’s been wronged rubs me the wrong way when he’s on it. I’ll continue to watch him grow as a player (and, hopefully, as a person): this isn’t some kind of “whoa is me, LeBron’s done me wrong!” kind of expression of outrage. I’m going to watch my fair share of Cavs games this season, and going forward if he decides to stick around there, but it’s not the wholly enjoyable kind of pastime I might like it to be.
Which is all really just a round about way of saying that, since I don’t much like LeBron or, as has probably become apparent, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade is my default, non-Celtics player to root for in the Eastern Conference.
And I hate those damn puppets.
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December 13, 2009 at 8:14 am | Nick Gelso
Man, I could not have said that better! Absolutely perfect! This is a masterpiece!
December 13, 2009 at 4:14 pm | Leeroy Jenkins
I agree completely. Fantastic entry.
December 13, 2009 at 5:32 pm | J
Very, very well-written. LeBron gives me too an uncomfortable feeling, but before now, I’ve never fully understood it, or even paid attention to it. This post perfectly outlines all of my reservations.
December 14, 2009 at 1:30 pm | Kat
“WOE is me”
December 14, 2009 at 2:34 pm | Shawn McGrath
Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated.
You’re right J, there’s just something about the guy that is really unnerving. As fans, I feel like we have a tendency to overreact to or draw unfairly large conclusions about athletes based on the small slivers of info that we get about them as people. That’s normal: it’s what we do, even if it isn’t necessarily reasonable.
But with LeBron, I feel like I can’t even do that. He conjures to mind a less-serious (and, for now, certainly less polished) version of Jordan, who, unless you had read Halberstam’s Playing for Keeps or Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules, was largely defined by the personality he put forth through advertising, pressers, etc., which made the HOF speech that much more jarring.
That’s the way I think of James right now, and in spite of his on-court heroics, it makes me strangely uncomfortable.
December 14, 2009 at 3:24 pm | Peter
I think your problem is that you’re soft, and you want all of these dudes to be all touchy feel-y and kiss kiss-y. You’re worried about if a player is a good person? Why don’t you look up the LeBron James Foundation? A simple google search will prove that he gives of his time, talent and treasure, but I guess if it isn’t in your face every second it doesn’t count?
Unfortunately with the 24 hour news media and things like social networks, all athletes are not just bound to what they do on the court, the field, etc. They are celebrities. LeBron cannot help but market himself like a product, because he is. We all are.
It just seems to me that you’re coming up with all kinds of excuses as to why you can’t like him, and almost all of them are lame.
December 14, 2009 at 5:33 pm | Jason Nedrich
I live in Cleveland and have seen, conservatively 80% of LeBron’s games over his career. And I agree to a certain point about his bitching at the refs, sometimes I find myself yelling “Shut Up LeBron and get back on defense” at the T.V. However it MUST be mentioned that Lebron is a rare physical specimen that is very hard to officiate (I’m giving the refs the benefit of the doubt). Because I’ve seen him go to the basket and get plenty of contact and not get the call. It’s almost like, he’s so strong and athletic that someone needs to send him to the ground for it to be a foul. And I’ve seen that happen before without a whistle. And Lebron watching Anderson Varejao get absolutely no respect AT ALL from the refs fuels his anger too. Lebron must think they are out to get him sometimes and I can’t blame him. I wish he could control it more, but I can’t say I could if I was him.
And as a side note, I remember Bird, McHale, and your great Celtic teams. Those two never committed a foul in their life according to them.
December 14, 2009 at 6:44 pm | Nick Gelso
Jason,
I agree w ur assessment of LeBron. However, I must say he def gets his share of calls. Too many calls. I think he is soooooo spoiled by the whistles he is granted that when he suddenly doesn’t get the call he cries and carries on. Unfortunately, the refs have created this animal.
As far as the C’s team’s go, didn’t you know that they never did commit a foul? lol.
Peter, you’re silly to think that the author of this article wants to see handshakes and hugs from everyone… If you have read any of his stuff in the past, you would know that he always defends the fact that LeBron walked off on Orlando last year.
Read some of his past stuff. You may find it interesting.
December 14, 2009 at 7:46 pm | Rich Ivan
I grew up in Cleveland, a big Celtics fan without a real local team (The Royals were a bit too far away), but I must say I can remember Larry Bird doing his share of crying to the refs, too.
December 14, 2009 at 7:50 pm | Shawn McGrath
Jason, thanks for reading and taking the time to leave a reply. LeBron is an absolute physical specimen, and while I agree that, due to his size and ability to absorb blows, there are times when he doesn’t get calls. However, I think he gets more than his fair share: and that’s not a knock on James, as damn near every superstar in the league gets more calls than your league average player or bench player. I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for Varejao, who I consider to be a gratuitous flopper (though I love the energy he brings to the Cavs front court). Paul Pierce does his share of acting so as to draw fouls, and I’m fairly critical of him for it – unfortunately, that’s very much a part of the game. But my issue is with the degree of acting I see from LeBron on such a regular basis: given the caliber of player he is, he really doesn’t need to resort to that stuff, so when I see it, it’s a turn-off.
December 14, 2009 at 8:11 pm | Shawn McGrath
Peter, if that’s what you took away from this post, I don’t know what to tell you.
At no point did I say that LeBron wasn’t a “good person,” or bemoan a lack of “kiss kiss-y”… whatever it is that’s supposed to convey. Nor did I mention anything regarding charity contributions, a subject that’s totally unrelated to anything I touched on here.
If enjoying players whose personalities I find compelling as well as their performance on the court make me “soft,” so be it. For me, having some kind of sense of who a player is adds to the experience of watching an NBA game. Individuals who have overcome some degree of adversity are of particular interest to me when I’m looking at a given night’s League Pass schedule. Amongst my favorite non-Celtics players to watch are Ron Artest, Allen Iverson and Stephen Jackson guys who are far from the kind of squeaky clean image type players you seem to be implying that I would like. Why? Because they’re just flat out interesting.
As you say, athletes today are under a tremendous amount of scrutiny, and social networking sites offer fans like us an unprecedented amount of access to them: what is striking about LeBron is how completely he has avoided revealing anything that doesn’t come across as carefully orchestrated or, at the very least, premeditated. And that’s striking to me.
He is without question one of the best players in the league: for my money, he’s still second to Kobe if you want to win now, but is head and shoulders above anyone else when factoring in his potential ceiling as a player. He could be the nicest guy in the world. He could also be a total dick. And that’s what I think is so interesting here: nobody has a clue.
You seem to want to interpret this post as LeBron bashing: it’s not. I don’t hate the player – I don’t even dislike him. But I’m disappointed that certain aspects of his game and public persona diminish my appreciation of a guy who I should be absolutely enthralled with.
This was very obviously the voicing of one person’s opinion – mine. So while you have every right to disagree, or think my points are lame, I’m not in the habit of making “excuses” for why I feel the way I do, and don’t plan to start now.
Thanks for reading.
December 14, 2009 at 8:40 pm | Nick Gelso
Perfectly said!
December 15, 2009 at 4:30 am | Karinchik
Well, I guess the loss is yours. And I’m going to have to respectfully disagree.
I’m a die-hard Cavs fan, living in New England. I don’t miss a Cavs game (not a single one), but I watch my fair share of the Cs, too. If you are saying that Lebron doesn’t have the “personality” of, say, Kevin Garnett, well, I suppose I’d have to agree–if you define “personality” as “visible looniness.” But that’s a definition that I feel I have to challenge.
In your post you seem to be arguing that qualities like Garnett’s wackiness or Kobe Bryant’s churlishness are “real” while Lebron’s personality is “manufactured.” Did you see Spike’s Doin’ Work? You don’t think that this was manufactured? How about Kobe’s wife and daughters waiting to give him a well-rehearsed hug at every halftime during the playoffs–you don’t think the cameramen were instructed to take that footage in order to portray Kobe as a family guy? Resurrect that sullied image? Are you arguing that Lebron seems more robotic than Kobe simply because Kobe is a “bad boy”? Really? Since when does degree of personality=degree of nastiness?
But let’s focus on Lebron. You say you don’t know who Lebron is. Did you get a chance to see More Than a Game? The film was shot mostly before Lebron became an NBA star, so it’s hard to argue that the image portrayed there is entirely manufactured. Sure, it’s “spun.” Heck, everything is spun. But it’s pretty clear in this film who Lebron is: a loyal homeboy, blessed with once-in-a-generation skills, who rose above the adversity of a very hard young life to create a sense of family around him wherever he is/plays. His fans love him for these qualities. His teammates (past and present) love him for these qualities. His fellow NBA ballers seem to appreciate these qualities, too: in a Sports Illustrated poll of 190 NBA players, LeBron was voted as the opposing player most players would want to be their teammate (Lebron won 32% of the vote, next closest received 13%). What do they see that you don’t?
Now, maybe Lebron’s particular set of personal qualities don’t do it for you. Maybe, for you, “interesting” means a little bit crazy, or a little bit dark. But dude, be fair: just because you need a “darker” personality in order to be interested in a player doesn’t mean that Lebron should grow one for you. In the end it may not be Lebron who is limited but rather your definition of “personality.” Those of us who love Lebron see plenty of personality. We’re happy that he’s not a Bryant, Artest, Jackson, or Iverson. Do you REALLY need this kind of drama in your players in order to enjoy the game of basketball? And have you considered that the players we choose to love (and why we choose to love them) say more about us than about the players themselves?
In the end, I’m happy that the best player in the game is on my team, stunning all witnesses, defying what’s reasonable, hamming it up on the sidelines, encouraging young players–in sum, making basketball a joy to watch. That’s more than enough “personality” for me.
December 15, 2009 at 7:08 am | Nick Gelso
Karinchek,
Excellent comment.
I can’t say I agree with everything (or most of what..) you said but I can say that it was very well thought out and thought provoking. Very nice!
December 15, 2009 at 9:30 am | Shawn McGrath
Karinchik,
It’s interesting to me that you mention KG here, as he wasn’t mentioned anywhere in my post. I guess because I’m a Celtics fan, you think I’m supposed to love him unconditionally, but I don’t – I enjoy plenty of the stuff he does on the court, but his theatrics from the bench in last year’s Bulls series rubbed me the wrong way. I’m perfectly willing to point out the faults in guy’s on the team I support.
As for the comments about “needing” a darker personality to root for: that didn’t come up in my post at all either. That was said in response to Peter, a commenter above, who described my criticism of LeBron as evidence that I’m “soft,” and that I “want all of these dudes to be all touchy feel-y and kiss kiss-y.” I was simply pointing out a few guys that I enjoy following who don’t remotely fit that criteria. I go out of my way to try not to miss a game that Steve Nash or Chris Paul play in, probably my two favorite non-C’s – and I love Ray Allen. I also continued to cheer for Dikembe Mutumbo, long after he had ceased to be a star, because of the way he conducted himself outside of basketbal. All those guys are absolute class acts off the court, contributing greatly to why I enjoy them. I didn’t mention them, because it wasn’t pertinent to Peter’s criticism, which were seemingly conjured from his response to something I never wrote. I don’t need guys to be darker, or edgier: but every so often, it does help. There’s also a difference between finding the Iversons and Artests of the world to be compelling and favorites to watch, and saying that I love everything about them as players and people – I also find shows like Dexter and Mad Men incredibly compelling: that doesn’t mean Don Draper and Dexter Morgan are worthy of emulation.
I’m glad that you enjoy watching LeBron, and I can completely understand why you do. I was simply illustrating a few reasons why I don’t find myself rooting for him when he’s not playing against the Celtics – something I found interesting, given that he is every bit the spectacular player that you describe.
This will be a very interesting discussion to revisit after next year’s offseason. Whatever LBJ decides is going to cause a lot of people, wherever their location and regardless of their rooting interests, to reevaluate him.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate the well thought out response. And yes, we can agree to disagree.
December 15, 2009 at 10:04 am | luvmypistons
As a NONlebron fan myself, I couldn’t have said it better. Funny, I also feel that the walkoff is the one thing we could credit him for. To me, that just showed how strong his passion to win was. As much as I don’t like him, they made way to big a deal out of that.
December 15, 2009 at 10:51 am | MD
I think you’ve nailed what a lot of people do not like about LeBron. When you are that good (no doubting his talent) and you still whine to get the calls there will always be a certain percentage of NBA fans that detest you…and when your image and personality is as cardboard as his is, there will be a certain amount of phoniness that touches everything a fan sees.
You definitely nailed that aspect and while I agree with the idea he should transcend the act and pleading with the refs, I also recognize it’s become part of the game. Certainly in ways that were never intended, but where there is a clear influence on the calling of games from not only the players, but the league office and media, I understand why he does it and while I do not like it can understand the rationale.
In this regard, Jordan worked the ref angles as much as he could, and on a certain level you have to acknowledge they are going to seek every possible way to win and this is one avenue to get an edge. Kobe does it and probably does it better than anyone in the league. We see LeBron do it. I hate it because he’s the enemy, but I respect that he’s trying to use every tool available to get a win. Is it selfish? Maybe, but if the player wins his team wins so it could be viewed as a positive competitive element.
He has a lot of work to do though. He’s no MJ and definitely no Russell, and the idea he wants to switch up numbers and order people around to do so offends the history of greatness these two players brought the NBA.
On this topic all I say is: LeBron James, WHO is that and what have YOU done?
December 18, 2009 at 6:16 am | Larry Tee
Hi i saw this posted on bleacher report and figured id leave my comment here as well so the original author could see it. Now dont judge me too harshly, im not a very good writer so i simply leave very long comments on other people’s articles
My belief is that basketball fans have a strange astoundingly high standard to which they hold the players. Ray Lewis was indicted for murder and didnt even miss a game, Merriman got caught doing steroids and still got to play in the pro-bowl etc. Basketball is just different, this high standard is not inherently a bad thing of course, but some fans go to far. To say that being angry after a playoff loss (i know you support him on that); dancing on the court when you are dominating a team, or trying to get the calls from refs that will help you win the game, is somehow unreasonable is ludicrous to me. He and Muhammad Ali and every other storied competitor in sports history is the same way.
Is all this behavior LeBron gets in trouble for good? no. However, to deny it from people that we expect to reach such great heights is unreasonable. It defies the nature of competition, not only that but its my belief it is impossible to be that good at anything in this world without being so competitive that you dance, or steal a fry, or allow yourself to be called “King” outside of the bedroom. But this is what we as sports fans ask human beings to do. “Work your whole life to achieve something that less than .5% of people could even imagine attempting. After all that, let us in to every aspect of your personal life and make sure you dont acknowledge that your special because we value modesty, Mr. King”
Lets face it you cannot have a good athlete without the arrogance, i dare you to go back and watch any athlete of any sport do a press conference and tell me that even though they are saying all the right things, you cant see at least a little smugness in their face. Look at Peyton Manning, who is america’s love child for football in terms of image; after a win he talks about the team doing well and gives kudos to his recievers but that smirk shows you what hes thinking: “GEEZ i’m a baaaaad man! I taught you [expletive deleted] to come into MY house and try and play ball with MY team.” Hiding it doesn’t keep it from being true, the kids who look up to these guys realize this, there is no benefit to making them actors as well.
Michael Jordon was still so angry about being benched in highschool for a upperclassman he actually flew said upperclassman to his HOF speech and remarked to his old coach “I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.” Of course this is the “class act” that would stick his tongue out at opponents before he was finished dunking on them. My point is that in order to make a sports hero we have to make an attention-addicted, whiny, self-centered, villain incapable of seeing themselves for who they really are. Only the gods we make them out to be. Does this mean you should switch your stance and like him? Of course not, i just don’t know who could give fans (including me) everything they want.
The length of my response shows how good an article this was.