The Best Highlight from Game 2 of the NBA Finals

Get out of here.

Dunk of the Day

That is some serious height.

Play of the Day

Humbling.

LeBron and The Law vs. Gospel

Mockingbird Blog:

Our number one job as self-interested human beings is self-justification. It was a great comfort to be able to say, when confronted with a personal failure, “Well, at least I never jilted a city, joined another superstar, and then failed time and again in clutch moments! At least I’m not a championship level loser!” Now that LeBron is no longer such a loser, we are thrashing around, flailing, for some other poor (read: wonderfully talented) athlete on whom to pin our outrageous expectations, all in the hope that they’ll fail, so that we can look better by comparison. If we worry about living up to the law of “be good,” we can least be better than someone.

Tellingly, the thing that LeBron credits with enabling his success this year is his “owning” of his failures from years past. It is when we can stop our search for someone to whom we’re superior that we can have the freedom to be ourselves…and possibly succeed.

Read the rest.

Why We Hate LeBron

Awesome.

The Onion:

No one denies that LeBron James is a phenomenal young talent who has turned in some almost supernaturally good performances, but he's still generally unloved by fans. Here's why:

• Skills second only to Kobe, touch second only to Bird, vision second only to Magic, and strength second only to Russell; therefore, pretty much a worthless second-rater
• Was supposed to be the next Jordan, but chose friendship over a monomaniacal obsession with winning bordering on mental illness
• Does this really annoying thing where he isn't always playing on Team USA and is instead playing for the Heat so then you have to root against him
• Significant percentage of sports fans are jealous of his high school diploma
• Abandoned and gave up on Cleveland, albeit decades after the rest of us did
• Makes us feel guilty for never doing anything to make Cleveland better ourselves
• Dunked over the pope at last year’s St. Peter's Basketbasilica Jamfest, even though the game was already out of hand
• Televising The Decision repelled and frightened the American public, most of whom have spent their whole lives trying to avoid making decisions
• Basically, it's easier not to really think about it

Dunk of the Day

Kevin Durant is a condor.




Can we at least cease with the "Lebron can't hit the big shot" talk? This shot was HUGE. He doesn't make this shot and they lose the game.

Lebron vs. Kevin

Rick Reilly:

We say our prayers, are kind to stray poodles and do not download annoying ring tones.
And how are we rewarded? With this delicious chunk of hoops heaven plopping into our laps: the two greatest players on Earth, LeBron James versus Kevin Durant, in an NBA Finals.

God sure must love ball.

The King versus the King-In-Waiting, the three-time MVP versus the three-time scoring champ, The One They Hate versus The One They Love, for the Championship of the World, the Keys to the NBA's Next Dynasty, and the title of Greatest Basketball Player on Planet Earth.

Loser empties ashtrays in Kabul for a year. 

The question is: Who do you like?

Read the rest.

Why We Love To Hate LeBron

Former NBA player and Penn State standout, Joe Crispin writes persuasively here.

Of course, I know there are ‘haters’ our there – folks who literally find a twisted delight in watching another fail. But that is just warped. And those folks usually are pretty negative and miserable. At the very least, they are not the kind of folks I want to watch a game with. Real joy is found when we give thanks for the gifts of another and genuinely desire good for them as they utilize their gifts for the good of all. When it comes to basketball, good basketball is good service to us all.

And this is where we come to the biggest reason why we criticize LeBron (or to be more particular, the way he plays the game). Not the only reason, but the biggest reason. Here it is:

We criticize LeBron not because we see his weaknesses clearly and judge them as we ought, but because we feel like he is holding back on us, not giving his every effort to reach his full basketball potential and, therefore, robbing us of joy.

Did you get that? Honestly, I think that’s it. Deep down, it’s the biggest reason why so many folks are critical of LeBron. Our criticism is rooted in our self-centeredness. Our concern is not really for LeBron and the way he plays the game. Our concern is for us and what we want to see.

Read the rest. It has great application for watching sports to the glory of God.

Rick Reilly Spouts Some Wisdom on Lebron

The money quote:

In playoff games, LeBron has taken 13 final shots in tight games in regulation and hit five of them to win or tie. Kobe has taken twice that and hit only seven. Can we all just take a Xanax?

Read the rest.

Under The New Technological Microscope

Shane Battier:

He sneezes and it's a trending topic on Twitter. He is a fascinating study because he's really the first and most seminal sports figure in the information age, where everything he does is reported and dissected and second-guessed many times over and he handles everything with an amazing grace and patience that I don't know if other superstars from other areas would have been able to handle.

D-Wade and Laying Down The Pride

ESPN.com:

Competition. Always a competition. Even between these two, the most talented teammates in the NBA, it's never OK to be second best.

Frankly, that's what much of the world thought their experience as teammates would be, two players with seemingly limitless potential trying to match each other on the floor, neither one willing to accept the Scottie Pippen role. Just a couple of Jordans trying to make it work. And for the most part, throughout Year 1 together, it was exactly that. They weren't trying to one-up each other, but the Jordan approach was all they knew, so they stuck to it, even if they said it wasn't intentional.

And then, just like that, it wasn't anymore.

It was early January, just a couple of weeks into this rushed and compact NBA season, as Wade was nursing a foot injury and watching James dominate without him, that the oldest member of the Super Friends decided he didn't have to be that super -- at least not by statistical standards.

Wade knew the "let's take turns dominating" approach got them within two wins of an NBA title. But what he saw from the bench in the early part of the season, he thought, was even better.

LeBron looked like the two-time MVP he was in Cleveland. Only, frighteningly enough, even more efficient.

It was 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds against New Jersey. Then 33, 10 and five against the Spurs. And 31, eight and eight against the Lakers. And there were more just like that. If LeBron could do that while dominating the ball, Wade thought, why exactly is it necessary for him to get equal touches?

There wasn't a good answer.

So Wade gave in. He fought off his ego and decided he'd take the supporting role in this potential blockbuster flick.

Read the rest.  Sermon illustration ALERT!!

LeBron, Let Us Keep Our Illusion!

This is funny. Really funny. But... Hits home too. Check it if you are a sports fan.



(HT: Pure Church)

A Prayer in Light of LeBron James

(HT:  Mockingbird Blog)

Is The Crown Too Heavy For LeBron?

Jason Whitlock:

James is lost.

The Decision and this marvelous NBA season vaulted him to global-icon status. Thanks to America’s fascination with James, the anticipation for Game 5 felt like an NFL playoff game. King James is must-see TV.

We shouldn’t be surprised he’s having trouble handling the moment. There was no Skip Bayless sitting on TV dissecting Jordan daily. There was no Stephen A. Smith going on national radio insinuating problems in Jordan’s personal life. Jordan never tweeted or gave millions of detractors easy access to rip him.

Jordan was prepared to wear the crown by two parents and Dean Smith.

It’s a different era now. The crown is too heavy and many of the kids haven’t been given instructions on how to wear it.

Read the rest.

Again, if Miami wins, all this commentary will not mean a thing.  It they lose, it will continue until tip-off next year.

This is About LeBron

Will Leitch writes:

This is about LeBron. He is, in the words of ESPN's John Hollinger, good but not great, and the Heat need great. LeBron had a triple-double — a triple-double! — but he didn't take the game over, he didn't dominate it with his superior skills, he didn't grab the game by the skull and start doing unnatural things to it. This is what everyone wants from James. This is what is demanded of him.

He is capable of doing it; we've seen it before, in far less stressful situations than this one. But wasn't the point of going to Miami to avoid taking over games all by himself anymore? This is the curse of LeBron: When you are so much more talented than everyone else, and still you don't destroy everyone, you must be weak. You must be a loser.

Wojnarowski's terrific column lays down the stakes for Game 6 on Sunday night:

These days, he is a one-man, 24-hour news cycle. When James is done talking between games in these playoffs, half-baked reports on his personal life are flying and innocent bystanders are ducking shrapnel, forced to publicly deny cyber gossip. He's the deepest, darkest swirling vortex of insanity that modern sports has ever seen.

...

The next 72 hours promise to be the most torturous for James, because the world will keep closing on him, keep parsing and replaying and re-engaging everything about his Finals failures. He can't help himself, because so much of the way he sees himself, the way he built himself, was through the prism of this basketball "Truman Show."

Oh, and every morning-radio dope in the country is talking this morning about his girlfriend cheating on him, and how he's a choking fraud. Yeah ... you know, that doesn't sound fun to us, at all.

My thoughts:

1.  If Miami wins the next two games, all this will go away and no one will care.

2.  Technology exponentially increases the pressure of celebrity.

3.  Last night's game was one of the best basketball games I have ever seen.  The drama was so high, I couldn't imagine it being any higher, unless it was a game seven.  The Mavericks were shooting completely lights out.  A hobbit dressed as a basketball player was killing dudes from all over the place.  The Heat were passing the ball better than I have ever seen.  DWade overcomes a rough injury and plays great again.  HUGE threes in the fourth quarter.  And on top of all that you kept waiting for LeBron to do something in the 4th quarter and it never happened.  It was an amazing game to watch.

4.  When the best athletes in the world lay it all on the line it is almost magical to watch.  Points to a great God who enables such athletic prowess.

5.  The Mavs will not shot 68% from the 3 point line in the final two games.  That was an amazing shooting display that won't happen in the Heat barn.

6.  If you love sports at all then you would be insane to miss game six (Sunday Night) and maybe game seven (Tuesday night).

(HT:  JT)

A Baby With a Razor Blade - The State of the NBA

I hear over and over again from people that they can't stand watching the NBA and have a far greater affection for the game of college basketball.  In some sense I agree.  I usually don't watch much until the playoffs.

Many people complain that these guys are lazy, over-paid, undisciplined, possess inflated egos, don't care about team, only play one-on-one, don't know how to play defense and act like self-indulgent children away from the court.  These are certainly generalizations but what this points to is that they feel as though the game is more "pure" in the college ranks and the NBA game is more polluted.

Jason Whitlock (one of my favorite sports writers) just started a new podcast and his guest in the newest edition is Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights) in which they discuss Buzz's most recent column concerning the state of the NBA.  They discuss these issues.  It is a quite fascinating discussion of our professional sports culture in America and it's not a pretty picture.

I lay most of the blame on the enablers.  Us.  We love to worship our idols and our idols have to get paid.  When you give a 21-year-old kid millions of dollars and his pick of any number of millions of women with which to have sex on demand, what do you think is going to be the by product?  Do you think a 21-year-old kid with unlimited fame, fortune, and sex drive is going to be told what to do by a coach or think about anything other than himself? He makes WAY more than the coach!  Everyone knows that the people are not in the seats to see Coach A sit on the sideline.  

It's like giving a baby a razor blade.  He is completely unequipped to know how to use it without hurting himself.  In professional sports, we love to hand out razor blades to babies.  The razor blade is shiny and endlessly interesting to look at, but the baby will always end up getting real bloody.

Is it any wonder that a guy like LeBron James has no one to tell him the truth?  Why would he listen?  He doesn't have to!  He's got more power, money, and physical talent than anyone else he knows.  In the most literal sense possible, he is King James.  It doesn't help either that many of the young men in the NBA did not group up with any sort of positive male role model other than the hip-hop culture that trumpets the objectification of women, the allure of money, and the glory of the self-promoting man.

But this issue runs deeper.  It runs right to my doorstep.

I don't like to be told what to do either.  I don't like to be a team player.  My heart gravitates towards selfishness and I could just as easily be drunk on power and self-worship.  Do I surround myself with "yes" men?  Am I listening to a higher authority or do I bow down and worship the autonomous self?  The finger that points to the dysfunctional culture of professional sports and the NBA in particular needs to have it pointed back at itself.

I need to repent too.

Seen The New LeBron James Ad?

(RSS might have to click through to view)



Jason Whitlock reflects on the commercial.

The Lebacle

Bill Simmons in reference to the recent Lebacle:

Sports are supposed to be fun, and eventually, this will become fun -- for everyone but people in Cleveland -- because we finally have a Yankees of basketball. But I will never, ever, not in a million years, understand why it had to play out that way. If LeBron James is the future of sports, then I shudder for the future.

Read the rest.

State of LeBron: Live at 9, from his ego

Adrian Wojnarowski:

Team LeBron is having the time of its life, but has no idea the repercussions of what it’s done here. All that comes to James now is the biggest burden to win a championship that sports has ever seen. They aren’t making James a bigger star with this big-top, but a bigger target. All those teams that marched into the presentations and listened to some of the foolish and naive questions asked of them believed these kids had no idea what they were doing, or what they had gotten themselves into. They’re all feeling more validated every day. From beginning to end, this process has been a farce.

His conclusion:

Whatever happens, James and the television network will hide behind some money going to the Boys & Girls Clubs. But this isn’t about kids and sports, and it sure isn’t about the credibility that comes with winning championships. Something’s changed here, and LeBron James has gone a long way to devaluing winning and losing in the NBA. David Stern has long pushed the individual over team, marketed showy over substance, and LeBron James represents the manifestation of it all.

Greatest talent to ever walk into this league, the self-proclaimed King, and now everyone gets a front-row, primetime seat for how it means to live without self-awareness, without restraint. The vacuous star for our vacuous times, live on Thursday night and fitting himself for a ring as the undisputed Champion of Me. All about ‘Bron and all about nothing.

Read the rest.