LeBron James on Kendrick Perkins: LBJ Shows How Little He's Grown

It seems LeBron James is still grappling with that uncanny and debilitating foot-to-mouth reflex that takes over whenever he's asked his opinion.

Just recently, he tweeted his thoughts on Blake Griffin's monster dunk for the ages on Kendrick Perkins.

Why? Because so did everybody in the world.

Aside from subtly reminding us that he still had the next best dunk (in his less-than-humble opinion), he pretty much just said the exact same thing, in largely the exact same words, as everybody else.

This, of course, didn't stop Perkins from taking umbrage.

Apparently, he feels it's unbecoming of a player of LeBron's caliber to make passing comments on these kinds of relatively trivial happenings...not even on a medium expressly designed for making passing comments on trivial happenings.

LeBron had no choice but to comment when asked about Perkins' tirade, and his objection is understandable...Why have a Twitter account if people are going to begrudge him his right to state the obvious? The idea that he should apologize for his tweet didn't even deserve the dignity of a reply.

Even an anti-fan such as myself can't help but take LeBron's side in this mini-standoff; it's just painfully obvious Perk was out of line with his comment. Unfortunately, LeBron would go on to theorize on the motives at work:

"I'm an easy target; if someone wants to get a point across -- just throw LeBron's name in there..."

Okay...not a crazy thought per se, but you can feel him start to wobble on the tracks as you read on.

"...You could be watching cartoons with your kids and you don't like it, you say 'Blame it on LeBron.' If you go to the grocery store and they don't have the milk that you like, you just say 'It's LeBron's fault.' "

Oh.

Really, LeBron? We've reached "weight of the world" proportions, have we? You're being unfairly held responsible for the sum of all ills, are you?

After my brain crashed and rebooted from its futile attempt to compute what LeBron had just said, it occurred to me that happy people don't generally say these kinds of things unprompted.

James, it seems, still suffers from Darth Vader complex...and he can still be counted on to passive-aggressively bemoan his imagined persecution every now and then. One of the trappings of being LeBron, apparently, is being the world's biggest victim. 

Obviously, the lingering dislike for James is no secret, and there's nothing wrong with commenting on it, but for two things.

First of all, this was so far from the likeliest reason for Perkins' reaction, it came off as a very contrived comment to make.

Secondly, if you absolutely must go that route, there's a difference between saying "I think the ill-will towards me is a bit much" and essentially saying the world blames you for everything.

I'm reminded of the movie Blades of Glory when pampered figure skater Fairchild Von Waldenberg lamented "Why? Why is God singling us out for the greatest suffering mankind has ever known?"

The only thing I've ever heard LeBron blamed for—i.e. sucking at catastrophically inopportune times— took place on a basketball court...Grocery stores? Children's TV? Luckily, he knew enough to stop talking—or the reporter knew enough to stop taping—before he got to AIDS and 9/11.

Perhaps this was LeBron's way to avoid admitting that Perkins' reaction may have had something to do with simple fact he probably doesn't care for the "king" all that much. If this happens to be the case, it was a good idea—you never fan the flames—executed poorly as usual.

In this writer's humble opinion, it still speaks to the fact that his go-to move under pressure is the martyr card.

Why are we (i.e. me) even talking about this? Is one more botched LeBron comment worth writing, and reading an article about?

Only insofar as LeBron's alleged exorcism of his demons was, when the season was just starting. If it was worth your time to read about how he's shedding the villain role, he's enjoying basketball again and thus forth, it should be worth your time to read that he's clearly not out of the woods yet.

Color this writer unsurprised; true or false, what else would you expect him and his supporters to say?

As the new season began, the last memory people had of NBA basketball was LeBron's inelegantly scathing words to his perceived persecutors, so his state of mind going back in was a valid topic of discussion.

Who in their right mind would come out and tell everybody he was still bitter and still wanted nothing more than to tell off the world? It's just a complete and total faux-pas; even a PR team as incompetent as LeBron's could tell you that.

The predictability of LeBron's "A-OK" statements stripped them of a fair chunk of weight to begin with; why then be shocked or in denial if they turn out to be false (for now)?

It's always good to keep things in perspective. Then again, some people only want to read straight-A report cards. It's easier to assume that everything LeBron tells us is platinum fact, despite what we know about basic PR strategy. 

Perhaps we're just a point in society where we've been trained to tune out bad news as a coping mechanism, reducing our collective ability to face the unpleasantness of reality...like some kind of culturally-transmitted denial.

I blame LeBron.

UPDATE: Note to all subsequent commenters; please note that at no point did I question LeBron's tweet, nor his right to voice his opinion—in fact, I spent a couple paragraphs defending them—so perhaps you'd like to reconsider wasting yours and my time arguing a point I never made... Don't make the same mistake so many have made already.

On the other hand, if you disagree with my assessment of LeBron's self-pitying attitude, your thoughts are more than welcome.