I'd Like to Call My Next Witness to the Stand...Lebron James

Well...

It's nearly impossible to cover the multitude of storylines involved with LeBron's second round performance, impending free agency, legacy, attitude, etc., but let's just amuse ourselves and try.

Let's paint the picture.

Bret sits down in his chair, wearing his witness shirt, ready to watch, at the very least, a competitive contest in a pivotal Game Five. I KNEW LeBron would not let us down.

Fast-forward two-and-a-half hours later, and Bret has punched a hole through an innocent pizza box and has begun the process of drowning his sorrows in Yuengling. It was pathetic, but often times sports fans are.

I had to write about this. From the moment that Game Five ended, I felt an itch that needed to be scratched.

I think part of it was that I had no idea how I felt, that I was just too shocked and speechless about what I had just watched, that writing it out would be the only way to get to the bottom of it.

I'm glad I held off awhile. Had I written this at 10:30 on Tuesday night, I would be thoroughly embarrassed this morning at the emotionally fueled blah blah rant.

Because I would have wrote The King's eulogy. The thing of it is, it would have got lost in the pile of thousands.

It's been over a day since "The LeBacle", and I feel much more confident in sharing my true feelings.

Let's start out with the overall approach that I am taking toward all of this.

I will neither defend LeBron nor crucify him. That's all I've seen the past 24 hours.

I believe that in order to be an intelligent sports fan you must be both knowledgeable and even keeled. Fans are too quick to tell you the way it is in this twitter age.

Our views of players and teams often change, and not only through the years, but from week to week. It might serve us well to wait before we speak.

All this being said, LeBron sucked. You couldn't even begin to understand unless you watched. It wasn't the stats that caused such a stir (though 3-15 shooting is about as bad as it gets), it was his effort.

He looked like he was as interested in basketball as I am in NASCAR. It was inexcusable. Factor in that I said the same thing after Game Two, and it was really really inexcusable.

Try telling LeBron it was inexcusable.

The only thing that was as enraging as his on court performance, was his off court performance.

When LeBron was called to the podium as a witness to a 30-point epic fail, his testimony was that he spoiled us with his greatness.

He told us he's only had three bad games in seven years. I'll take the over on three LeBron, you've had three this series.

After watching the game, I was mad. After watching the postgame, I was flat out confused.

Something is wrong with LeBron James. That much I know.

WHAT is wrong with him? That is something I couldn't tell you. Everybody else will, however.

The theories are endless.

From "He's decided to tank so he can leave Cleveland" to "His elbow is worse than we thought", the speculation has reached an absurd level.

Even MSNBC and CNN took the time to weigh in, as the fallout had left the realm of sports news and became world news.

There are enough conspiracy theories to put Area 51 and the moon landing to shame.

And while we can guess, we will likely never know the whole story. All we have is the information that James and the Cavaliers will allow us to have, and that is probably less than half of the story.

It is important to remember that LeBron is a person. Yes, as unlikely as it seems after watching his first seven seasons, he is a human, he was born on Earth.

He was not forged from steel and fast-twitch muscle fibers and rocketed in from Krypton. He breathes, eats, sleeps, poops, and wait for it...makes mistakes.

Now, this is still no excuse. If it was, death row inmates could simply say "Hey, I'm human" and we would be forced to let them walk. LeBron must be held accountable, and if he dreams of ever being near the player Jordan was, he must atone for Game Five.

The problem I see is not only with LeBron, but with us as fans.

How many times must we walk down this road? How many times will we create a comic book character out of these athletes?

Whether it be Ben's bar exploits, Jordan's gambling, or Tiger's sexting , we are constantly let down.

We need to start putting these guys on the same level as ourselves and not the pedestals of Zeus, Jesus, and Chuck Norris. In the moment though we tell ourselves that Jordan and other greats would never have a game like this at this level.

Really? Do you want to stick to that? I'll give you a minute to decide...... okay, ready?

Annnhhhhh wrong!

Jordan in Game Three of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the Knicks went 3 for 18 from the field.

And I never see clips of Nick Anderson ripping the ball off of him in the waning seconds of a tight playoff game between the Magic and Bulls.

Time does amazing things to our memories.

What I will say for Jordan is that I never saw him play as passive and nonchalant as James did, that is what is hurting LeBron's legacy, albeit a 25-year-old's legacy.

Yes, 25-years-old. I'm 22. That's scary to think about. I have three years to accomplish all of my goals and await judgement.

Of course you don't need me to tell you how ridiculous and untrue that is.

It's just a sample of our unrealistic expectations. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY in the history of all sports has ever had the expectations LeBron does.

And the truth is, he has probably met them better than anybody else ever has.

We forget that he scored his team's last 30 points a few years back to single handedly beat a Pistons team much better than his own, or that he AVERAGED 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in last year's Magic series.

None of that matters after Tuesday night, and as unfair as that is, it's the truth.

We can't forgive a lack of effort.

Forget just basketball, it's inexcusable in almost every aspect of life. And LeBron must make up for it or his legacy will take a hit in mine and a lot of other people's eyes.

Because this time it's not just his haters that are questioning, it's his loyalists.

But there's something funny about all of this —there's still a freaking Game Six!!

I can forgive you if you forgot or wasn't aware, because anybody who listened to ESPN the last couple of days probably was under the impression the series was over.

That's why I was hesitant to write this following the game on Tuesday. I don't want to flip-flop back and forth on LeBron's greatness. It's lame and easy.

If he goes off for 60 points in Game Six, and somehow comes back to win this series (which I doubt anybody actually believes is impossible), everybody will jump back on "The King" bandwagon.

So, I'll wait and watch and make an informed decision.

To me, everybody who has spewed unfiltered hate towards LeBron is lame. The biggest reason being they actually believe that they are 100 percent sure LeBron will never be Jordan.

I respect people THINKING he'll never be the greatest, but not KNOWING it.

It's too early. They're annoying because they think they are actually different from the supporters, the "Witnesses".

The truth is the two groups are almost identical.

As easy as it is to be part of the bandwagon when he's winning 60 games and averaging a near triple double en route to his second MVP, it's just as easy (if not easier) to come out at this the most convenient of times, and tell us he sucks, you told us so, you always knew, etc.

We've heard all of the criticism and jokes, LeBrick, LeChoke, and my personal favorite LeBron Ames cause he's got no J.

They're boring and predictable (aside from the last one).

I'll admit maybe the "Witness" campaign seems a bit premature, and that we should wait until he proves it until we join in.

But it's fun and catchy and hey, at least we're putting ourselves out there and risking being wrong in the belief that we're right. There's not a lot of risk in sitting back quietly as he's dominating, and waiting until he fails to make yourself heard.

The "Witness" thing may be dumb, but so is the campaign everybody has joined since Tuesday —the "Judge" campaign.

Maybe you could have Nike print you out a bunch and wear them around, "Judge" and "Accuse" above a little Nike swoosh.

For now I say we each take our shirts off and put on a new one, the "Watch" campaign. Let's just wait and watch, then continue the debate another day.

I have a lot more to say about LeBron, and maybe someday I'll say more.

For now, I'll close with what I opened with. I'm calling LeBron James to the stand. This time we ask you to "Witness."

Witness our frustration.

Witness the game tape and admit you sucked.

Witness how much we support you.

Witness how you're letting us down.

Witness how fickle the praise is.

Witness how soon everybody could be calling Durant the next Jordan and you the next Malone.

Witness your arrogance. Witness that some of us are still behind you.

You may step down.