NBA Playoffs 2010: The Myth That is Killer Instinct

Killer instinct.

It’s a phrase beloved by the sports media.

“Player X may be more talented, but Player Y has that killer instinct which makes him a better player.”

But what exactly is a killer instinct?

It certainly doesn’t preclude murder. Otherwise, Kobe Bryant would be a wanted man for many homicides.

(Please insert your favorite Kobe/rape trial joke here).

I like to think of it as being in the same category as “upside,” “heart,” and “intangibles"—fancy terms that can’t be measured. Therefore, they have to mean something and be talked about to death by the talking heads on ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, etc.

Many claim having a killer instinct precludes clutchness. I’m not sold on this one. Karl Malone had it, and no one in their right mind would consider him clutch. Similar with Kevin Garnett. While Robert Horry, on the other hand, was ultra-clutch, I wouldn’t say he had a killer instinct.

Others claim it’s about being an angry, snarling dude who’s ready to rip his teammate's heads off after a missed shot—not true. Tim Duncan clearly has a killer instinct, yet he also seems like a nice enough guy.

Since the Eastern Conference Semifinals, all the talk has been about whether LeBron James possesses such a killer instinct. The general consensus has been that, based on the Cavaliers and specifically his own performances from Games 5 and 6, he does not.

Before the series, I would have argued that he had. Now? I’m not so sure.

This conclusion inevitably leads to the statement that, “Oh, LeBron isn’t going to win a title unless he has a guy on his team who has it.”

Unfortunately, there are only five guys in the NBA right now who I think possess such an instinct. Kobe, Garnett, Duncan, Paul Pierce, and Dwyane Wade.

LeBron is not going to be playing with the first four next year unless he takes the MLE. Wade is the only realistic possibility, and that brings up its own share of chemistry issues—who is the alpha dog? Who is the primary ball-handler? Who gets the ball in the clutch? You see where this is going?

Therefore, that leads into another question. Can one develop a killer instinct?

The general consensus seems to be quite mixed on this issue, however I personally lean firmly on the yes side of the ledger.

Kobe, for instance, famously put up a string of air balls in the 1999 playoffs. This failure combined with his desire for greatness and work ethic drove him to develop his inner Mamba into the Kobe we know and love/hate today.

One of the things I have mentioned about LeBron before, is that up to this point, I don’t think he’s ever had anything to truly drive him. Ever since his early high school days, he’s been touted as the next Jordan. He got a friggin’ Nike deal worth God knows how much in his senior year. He was drafted No.1 and has pretty much been a media darling since that day.

Up until now, the media have even glossed over his failures. He lost in 2007 because the team around him was terrible. In 2008, the Celtics were too fired up and too good for his teammates—the Big Three beats the Big One. In 2009, Orlando was a matchup nightmare.

This time, however, the media aren’t being as kind to him. The 2010 failure belongs to LeBron.

Could this finally be what drives LeBron to develop that killer instinct that separates the truly great from the merely very good?

Watch this space.