Miami Heat: LeBron James Is His Own Worst Enemy, Proven in 2011 NBA Finals

Forget being the villain. LeBron James is his own worst enemy.

He has had every opportunity to deflect some of his criticism, earned or otherwise.

From "The Decision" to join his friend rather than beat him, to taking a pass (both figuratively and literally) in the fourth quarter of every game throughout the Finals, all the way through his controversial post-game press conference after losing Game 6 to the Dallas Mavericks.

We could talk about "The Decision" all year...oh wait, everyone else already has. Regardless, James' life has been a history of decisions, some of them good, but plenty of them just awful.

For starters, "The Decision" might have been the worst decision any athlete has ever made in his or her professional career. Not his decision to join the Heat, but his decision to air it on national TV, permanently scarring a sports city starved for a star, and stripped of the only one they've had recently worth tying any hope to.

Turns out he disenchanted more than just a sports franchise, but an entire nation of sports fans. Why else do you think the NBA enjoyed its best ratings in recent memory this year?

On that night, LeBron became the single most polarizing figure in the NBA. From that point on, people were tuning in either hoping to watch LeBron fail or conquer the criticism.

The one final thing I'll say about it, is that he'd better hope the Heat don't trade him. It's highly unlikely to happen (at least this year), but if it does, where will he turn? In terms of those who don't hate him, only his small inner circle would be left.

Enough has been said about "The Decision", so let's shift focus to "the Finals."

This quote from NESN.com writer Jeff Howe has been ringing in my ears since yesterday afternoon.

"It's as if he believes it's better to lose while looking lazy than to feel inferior while trying his hardest, for he must convince himself that no one can beat LeBron when LeBron is LeBron."

Stats sometimes don't tell the whole story, but they do for LeBron James.

Courtesy of ESPN's Bill Simmons' great article, LeBron's fourth quarter averages for the 2011 NBA Finals break down like this:

1ST 3 RDS … FINALS
Pts: 7.6 … 2.2
FG: 45% … 25%
3FG: 8-18 … 0-7

His dip in fourth-quarter averages is astonishing, the type of thing that makes you wonder how much of it was physical (i.e. no mid-range game, no post-up moves) and how much was mental.

The type of thing that makes you wonder if we're going to get a Law and Order style twist somewhere along the way.

I wish there were a stat for "number of times LeBron passed the ball instead of driving to the hoop" or "number of times he made a panic-stricken decision instead of making the heads-up play". Those numbers, in stark contrast, would be much higher in the Finals than in the first three rounds.

While Howe may have been speaking of LeBron on the basketball court, that quote could apply to nearly everything he does.

There are about a million better ways he could have approached that post-game press conference. The only one of any importance would have been to turn back to that age old adage: When you win, use "we". When you lose, use "I".

He's not the first one to tell his haters to kiss off. He's just the first one to do it after losing a championship that a) the Heat had no business losing, and b) that he managed "not to lose" by not trying to win.

What else could he have said? "Absolutely not. It doesn't matter what they say or think, because I am going to just get back to work, improve my game, and come back stronger next year to help this team win a title."

Yeah, that might have worked.

But there was a moment in that post-game press conference that was far more telling of LeBron as a person.

There are just too many ways to psychoanalyze that moment in which LeBron turned to Wade to answer the question of whether or not the Heat choked.

He did in that moment what he had done for the entire playoffs. He passed the ball, and ultimately the burden, to Wade.

That much is obvious. The underlying message, though, is much greater. LeBron wants to be second on the pecking order.

It's easy to hate a guy with as much of an ego, surrounded in as much controversy as LeBron. It's easier when, with all the talent in the world, he has resigned himself to being a side note.

He couldn't handle the mounting criticism as the No. 1 guy on the Cavaliers. Does that criticism somehow get easier to handle as the No. 1a guy on the Heat?

We've heard LeBron say that he joined the Heat because he felt winning a championship was something he couldn't do on his own. With every pass he made in the fourth quarter of close games, it was clear that he joined the Heat not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to do it on his own.

That, quite simply, is why everyone hates him. That is why he's his own worst enemy.