Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant Heckle LeBron James After Last-Second Pass

With the 2012 NBA All-Star Game on the line, a game that really has no meaning mind you, LeBron James opted to pass the ball away instead of taking the shot to win in the clutch.

Now his fellow peers around the league are rightfully giving him a hard time. 

With the Eastern Conference down 151-149, LeBron caught a pass from Deron Williams, and even though he was 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, LeBron made a cross-court pass that was intercepted by Blake Griffin with 1.9 seconds remaining. 

The Western Conference went on to win 152-149. 

The All-Star game is of no importance, so missing a shot in the closing seconds of the game would be no big deal. To LeBron, apparently it would have been intense because he made an errant pass instead of shooting the ball. 

Sure, he is extremely scrutinized for his on-court play, especially in the closing minutes of the game. However, at the end of the day, this is the All-Star game, and it wouldn't really have mattered whether LeBron made the shot or not. 

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Kobe Bryant was yelling at LeBron to “Shoot the [expletive] ball!” in the final seconds, and Carmelo Anthony gave him a sorry look once the Miami Heat star chucked the ball away in fear. 

Afterwards, LeBron said, "Yeah, [Kobe] was telling me to shoot it. I wish I could have that one back.”

Indeed he should wish that, because now he's likely to face more criticism and scrutiny for passing it. 

After all, big-time NBA stars don't pass with the game on the line. There's no way Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or Bill Russell give the ball up in that situation, especially with a chance to embarrass one of the top players in the league. 

With Kobe guarding him, LeBron could have easily put him in his place by driving past him or faking him out for a jump shot. However, that's not what happened, as LeBron passed the ball, making himself look scared. 

This just adds to the many bizarre things LeBron has done throughout his career. Perhaps this will linger with him and force him to try to be more clutch. But then again, on a team with Dwyane Wade, it's no surprise LeBron would would be thinking pass first, shoot later with the game on the line.