NBA: Regardless of Outcome, LeBron James Finds Himself in Lose-Lose Situation
It's hard to paint a man who willingly chose to desert his hometown fans in front of national television as a victim, but LeBron James is a victim.
He's a victim of his own hype. He's a victim of lofty expectations. He's also a victim of a vicious double standard.
Tonight, with Game 4 tied in the closing seconds of regulation, King James had the ball in his hands with a little under 14 seconds left. He dribbled around the perimeter and got to the free-throw line where he leaped for a shot. With three Celtic defenders in his way, James opted to kick out to Udonis Haslem for the final shot. Haslem's shot wasn't even close and the game went into overtime, where the Celtics pulled out a two-point victory after Dwyane Wade's three-pointer rimmed out.
If James takes the shot through heavy traffic and misses, he gets torched for taking a bad shot with the game on the line. If he passes out to a teammate as was the case this time around, he gets roasted for being gun shy.
The man can't win.
If LeBron James and the Heat get past Boston and defeat either San Antonio or Oklahoma City in the NBA Finals, critics will downplay LBJ's first championship because it was something that was destined to happen when he decided to leave Cleveland to team up with Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. After all, he's LeBron James: heir to the Michael Jordan throne. His fist should be covered in rings by now, right? If James and the Heat fail this year, it will be another summer of how the three-time MVP and his star-studded cast choked yet again.
The man can't win.
LeBron's in a situation where the only way to please the crowd is to continue to do the impossible. The only feasible scenario that would have silenced the critics with time winding down in the fourth quarter would be if James lofted a shot over three Boston defenders, watched the ball careen off the backboard and do a Dougie around the rim before falling through the net for the game winner. Even then, haters would chastise James for not calling "Bank!" before he let the ball go.
We seem to forget that with Bosh injured and Wade having an off series, James is almost single-handedly carrying this Miami team against a Celtics squad armed with an All-Star point guard and three future Hall of Famers. We seem to forget that James and company had to come back from 18 points down at the half just to be in position to win it in the end.
What will we criticize LeBron for after he's finally won a championship? Will we keep holding "The Decision" against him? Will we brush it off by saying that he couldn't have done it without Wade, even though Jordan couldn't have won without Scottie Pippen? Will we blame the dubious officiating that has plagued this postseason?
LeBron James performs every night knowing that his success is the best thing that can happen for the NBA while his failures are the best thing that can happen for people like us. Being extremely successful is boring. Let's face it, we got tired of telling Tiger Woods how great he was, so we needed him to fall off a little bit. Now, we applaud his comeback.
LeBron put himself in this situation by forming a Dream Team of sorts in Miami two summers ago. I get that part. However, weren't we the same people who said he'd never get it done in Cleveland if he didn't improve the supporting cast around him?
The man can't win.
This postseason has many great stories. There's the San Antonio Spurs running roughshod over the West in a year where preseason prognosticators thought they were too old to compete. The same can be said about the Boston Celtics, who had critics clamoring for the destruction of the Big Three in an effort to rebuild around Rajon Rondo. Then there's the Oklahoma City Thunder and the continued blossoming of Kevin Durant into the NBA's next great superstar.
All of those pale in comparison to what's going on in Miami. LeBron's quest for his first ring is like Pam Beesly's engagement to Roy on "The Office": It gets more amusing with every year that passes without closure.
Thursday night, LeBron James will take the court in what has now become a best-of-three series with the weight of the world on his shoulders and his legacy at stake. He'll put on another performance for the ages and he'll have every aspect of his game picked apart like vultures over a rotting cadaver. No matter what the man does, it will never be good enough.
The man simply can't win.
