Not so random thought of the day (UPDATED)

After viewing that shameless spectacle on ESPN Thursday night, one overriding thought dominated our conscious: We look forward to the Lakers kicking Miami's ass next spring in the NBA Finals... should that glorified all-star team LeBron is now part of even make it out of the East.

Some more smack for your reading pleasure via Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times:

That was why this show was so wrong. It wasn't about a lack of journalistic ethics, but human ethics. James used his awesome power not to inform or entertain, but to belittle. After his announcement, there appeared video of Cleveland fans screaming at a bar television, then burning a James shirt in the street. Maybe this would have happened if James had been a little more discerning, but I doubt it. Cleveland had been nationally embarrassed, and reacted in the small way that James made it feel.

I thought he would never arrange the show if he wasn't going to Cleveland. I thought wrong. It turns out, when it comes to LeBron James, I thought wrong about a lot of things.

I thought he was a leader. But by going to a team that already has an established superstar who has already won one NBA title, he showed he is a follower. He doesn't want the ball in the final minute. He doesn't want the pressure in the final month. The way he crumbled against Boston in this year's postseason was not a blip. The King doesn't have the stomach to be the Man.

Precisely. By going to Miami, James finally made the public admission that he and many of us knew all along: he is not the alpha dog that his brand and marketing machine wanted us to believe.


Exit question: How does D-Wade's second fiddle taste, LeBron?


(UPDATE #1):



We've had several people over the last few days volunteer that while they really didn't like the Lakers, they would be more than willing to root for them next spring should they meet the Heat in the Finals.

Plenty of room on that bandwagon, folks!


Follower update: Conservative Generation is in the house!

Sports make people write the darndest things

Remember that fellow in the 23 uniform that hit that buzzer-defying jumper a couple of Fridays ago? These people certainly do.

Something has certainly been missing from his resume and perhaps even his mindset, but this shot could be the turning point for James. He will now have the confidence of knowing that he can do it and should make him even more dangerous in late game situations from now on. James looks as if he is developing the ability the legends have of willing their teams to victory and not accepting failure in the process from themselves or anybody else....

Most importantly is the city. A city that has had no succes to speak of. A city that has long been plagued by anti-heroes and its teams' failures experienced somethind different. They can now go into the future knowing that nothing is impossible and that they will always have a chance to win with James on the team. They have finally had their faith rewarded and that by itself will change a city that for too long experienced only the feelings of failure. After that shot failure seems a distant prospect, because Cleveland fans know that James will do everything in his power to carry this team across the finish line with a championship the perfect ending.

Deadspin has a compendium, here, of some of the most over-wrought and tortured prose imaginable all in honor of some dude who isn’t even competing for an NBA title this year. Just think of what they might have been saying if he hadn’t rolled over in the 4th quarter of the Eastern Conference-deciding Game 6 against the Orlando Magic on Saturday?

But that was so last Sunday

Now that Mother’s Day is all wrapped-up, its time to get back to telling Mom to mind her own darn business.

After receiving a hard foul from Boston’s Paul Pierce in last night’s game in Cleveland, LeBron James seems to have some assertive advice for the woman in the white top and blue jeans who also happens to be his Mom.




Our lip-reading skills are a little rusty but he appears to be saying, "Mother, would you kindly return your back side to its previously seated position"... in a more vernacular grammatical structure, of course.
Yep. Confirmed.