2011 NBA Finals: If LeBron James Were an Animal, What Would He Be?

The animal kingdom is filled with animals that at first sight would garner the comparison to the most physically gifted player in the NBA. With his quickness maybe a gazelle is a good analogy. He is also as some say strong as an ox, similar in stature to Karl Malone. Maybe the Lion is the most fitting comparison, after all he is the King right?

Well, maybe not since the title was not bestowed on him as some kind of heir, rather it was self-proclaimed. King James has the resemblance of some of these majestic animals and more, yet at times he appears to have more in common with one in specific.

I was never on the LeBron bandwagon before he signed with the Miami Heat. I am a Miami guy, born and raised, and stick with my teams through thick and thin. Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, Udonis Haslem are the guys who I tend to side with. Stand-up guys, whether they win or lose, play hard and with heart!

Ever since "The Decision" LeBron James can't seem to get out of his own way. He counted off the championships he was going to win while Magic, Jordan, Russell and other greats had others count them after they had won them. I fell for it though, when I was able to see James play for the Miami Heat up close. I became another victim of that basketball specimen.

I have a story to tell that parallels my LeBron experience from the perspective of an animal that draws eerily similar comparisons to King James. It was my first morning home after a long trip, and I was looking forward to sleeping in.

To my dismay, I was awakened at 5:30 in the morning by an unfamiliar and annoying sound. It was hideous and did not let me fall sleep. As the sun rose, the culprit was revealed. 

A breathtaking male peacock had taken residence in the tree in the vacant lot next to my house. He was a sight to behold with his brilliant blue breast and long, colorful tail feathers.

Over the next few days he strutted around the neighborhood with an air of arrogance. He was beautiful and he knew it. Initially I admired the creature, but with each successive morning he began to crow earlier and earlier and started to wear on me. Additionally, in the hours that I was not home, he had been exploring my porch and treating it like a bathroom! Once beautiful in my eyes, he had now become a nuisance!

This is how I started feeling about LeBron the more I saw him play this season, yet even more so every time he opens his mouth. As much as the Heat has benefited in some ways from his arrival, I was never a fan of how he left Cleveland. I don't blame him with not telling Dan Gilbert and the team of his decision in advance.

How many times have players learned of being traded by picking up a newspaper, seeing a headline on ESPN or getting a call from family or friends? He did not "owe" Gilbert anything, heck he played out two contracts and never demanded to be traded like other athletes that get half of the criticism he has gotten.

Cleveland and its fans, however, deserved better than what they got before he brought his talents to South Beach. Those fans supported him night in and night out, he was a local product from nearby Akron.

Then he said this about Kevin Love and Minnesota: “Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the (league)...I’m not saying let’s take...Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I’m not stupid, it would be great for the league.”

How about referring to his old teammates in Cleveland, some he still considers friends to this day: "I understand what this league is all about. I wanted to team up with some guys that would never die down in the moment." The feeling is probably not reciprocal at this point.

He also said in an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien that race played a role in the criticism he received for going to Miami, in addition to making those foolish war analogies that athletes make from time to time. I don't have enough time in one article to go through every single one he has ever made—not in his career, mind you, just since he joined the Heat.

He has mounted his best gem at the top of that totem pole of ignorant things said by the "King." During the press conference after losing to Dallas in the 2011 NBA Finals, James told the media that the people will have the same lives they had before they woke up that day, and that all of their personal problems that were in there lives before will still be there. He then told the room full of reporters that he was happy with his life, and he will live his life how he wants to.

Now that the Finals are over and LeBron was 10 points per game less effective than he was in the regular season and was physically and mentally not even close to being as sharp as he was in previous series, I am not pleased with what I saw.

I didn't see the passion, resolve, and determination as always demonstrated and preached from Riley on down to Spoelstra, Mourning, Wade and Haslem, as well as other members of the Miami Heat organization.

LeBron is too concerned with what is being said, when he what he should be concerned with is what is coming out of his mouth. More on point with his lackluster play in what was supposed to be his defining moment, as said by, you guessed it, Lecoq himself.

Why Lecoq, you may ask? If the king of the jungle is the lion, well that doesn't fit LeBron right now does it? The peacock, however, is spot on!

The other day I heard a cardinal singing. He was small in stature and I could not see him. Although beautiful red, it isn't the kind of “eye candy” that a peacock is, but the sound it makes is beautiful to my ears. I also heard a little sparrow in my yard. Tiny and plain brown, it wasn’t much to look at either but it's chirping had a sweetness to it.

Fitting that Terry and Barea outplayed LeBron in the last two games when, according to LeBron, it was, "Now or never."

Like the sparrow and and cardinal, they may not look as good on the outside but boy is their music sounding sweeter these days than Lecoq's. I know, I know why Lecoq isn't that French for rooster? Indeed it is, but then again doesn't he say things that have no rhyme or reason? At least my nickname has rhyme!