LeBron James: Not Yet a Prime Time Player

At least not as “prime time” as his reputation would suggest.

LeBron James is like the great film actor who can't make it on the Broadway stage.

So it was that on the big stage of this year's NBA Finals, he and his team failed again. With failure being the right word. The Dallas Mavericks pulled down the curtain on James' team. Now, for LeBron, it's going to seem like an interminably long time before he gets a chance at his next big act.

“King James” has had several chances to garner a title. He has no crowns.

LeBron can't hang in the NBA Finals neighborhood. New and old NBA bullies annually evict him. They show him he does not belong. The Dallas Mavericks (not the Lakers, Celtics, or Spurs) of all teams—a squad not even on the NBA elite teams map, prior to this year (their 2006 flirtation with the NBA Finals until now seemed like a fluke)—has now defeated another LeBron James-led contender. 

Though the Finals itself was riveting, LeBron's play throughout was less than enthralling. Less than what is expected from a big-time NBA actor—or superstar. At varying times, LeBron played tentatively, clumsily, and fearfully.

Notice how the word “less” seems linked with LeBron.

After losing to Dallas in six games, LeBron was left to invoke a deity. So that immediately after his defeat, James told his Twitter followers: “The Greater Man upstairs know [sic] when it's my time. Right now isn't the time.” This is LeBron not taking responsibility. This is LeBron in avoidance mode. This is LeBron trying to excuse all of the distasteful bravado we saw at the beginning of “Decision” time.

To boot, doesn't LeBron realize that we've often already heard that “the Lord may work in mysterious ways?” Can he spare us religious cliches? Such talk is really self-abdicating, anyway.

As the Miami Heat fell apart in Game 6—an absolutely shabby performance on its home floor—it was clear that LeBron was not yet comfortable in his new Miami duds. In the final moments he cast somber glances at teammates and barked sullen last-ditch instructions at them.

This begs the question: When will LeBron be comfortable in an NBA situation? As No. 1 in Cleveland, he wasn't comfortable. When he has a No. 1A sidekick in Miami in Dwayne Wade, he still doesn't appear comfortable. Who knows?

The Miami Heat as a team exhibited no urgency: In the last three minutes of Game 6, they guarded more poorly than they had in the preceding 45 minutes. The Heat defense fizzled out. Jason Terry went wild on them. What's worse: Terry practically told them he was going to do it, and told Miami they weren't.

Then there was the Miami Heat offense: desperation three-pointers by James and Wade in the waning moments when there was ample time for better shots, Mario Chalmers kicking the ball out of bounds, Dwayne Wayne dribbling the ball off of his foot and LeBron James awkwardly stepping out of bounds giving an opportunity away. 

As the Mavericks' lead grew more and more comfortable, the Heat fell into a greater and greater progressive funk. A true superstar pressure player might have reversed such a funk. LeBron couldn't handle this responsibility.

In the final game, LeBron had six turnovers, including the aforementioned, unforgettable, and clumsy “step-out-of-bounds” at exactly the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter. James had ample space to make a play, but his balance and basketball sense faltered. Miami trailed by only eight at the time.

This LeBron James mistake symbolized Miami's frustration. And LeBron's own. As James fumbled for the ball and his balance, a young woman in the bar from which I watched yelled “Butterfingers!" As a confessed LeBron supporter, this young woman was nonplussed at his incompetence. Previously, at several points during the game, this same young woman had implored, “C'mon LeBron.” Poor woman. She would get no satisfactory response from her hero LeBron or his teammates.

Yet no one really is going to feel sorry for the Heat or LeBron. If anything, Miami is being laughed at, jeered and put down in numerous ways. If anything, Miami is being laughed at, jeered, and put down in numerous ways. The “Big Three” boasted too much at the beginning. Ironically, in the end, as they got done in by the Mavericks, Miami was boasted upon by the Dallas team. 

Given the loss scenario and the emptiness following expectation, what is LeBron to do now? If his friendship with Dwayne Wade is real, that will help. However, LeBron James must go back to the drawing board. Get in touch with reality. Do some serious soul-searching.

Perhaps LeBron will understand now that his skill set is insufficient. His commonplace dashes to the basket were blocked by ready Dallas defenders. The mid-range lane was pretty much closed off to him. He didn't free himself enough for three-pointers.

The game of LeBron James throughout the championship series seemed stiff and disjointed.

So a “get-better” card to LeBron might include advice on developing some spin moves down low, increasing his shot dexterity 20 feet and in and just acquiring a more killer offensive mentality. In other words, actually mold yourself into the unstoppable force you claim to be. 

LeBron's true dominance occurred in his high school days, when he was free and easy on a basketball court. In the present, James puts too much pressure on himself. He needs to go back to being free and easy. Stop talking so much and do it: mentally eliminate all of the demons. Get rid of the stiffness in his game.

If he is truly to become one of the top 10 players of all time—which he is not now—James must erase the superficial ego damage now haunting him by summoning the courage of character we have not seen him display.

Dallas beat you LeBron. If you don't watch out, if you don't follow a revised basketball prescription, the Atlanta Hawks may even take you out next year, and your Miami Heat won't even escape the Eastern Conference.