LeBron James

I knew that whatever choice "King" James made except for staying in Cleveland, he would be vilified for. I was not prepared for the vitriol I am seeing today from sports writers and fans, however.

James has proven that he is no Jordan. Hell, he's proven once and for all that he's no Kobe! For all the incredible talent LeBron has, he simply does not have the competitive fire that the great superstars have.

On top of this, James has proven repeatedly that he is immature. Gee, do you think that may come from having skipped college and the opportunity to get some good life lessons learned there? James' overall comments basically broke down to "I can't do it myself" and "I need others to pick up my slack" and "I am too immature to do it on my own." Which, frankly, a lot of us who watch the NBA already had figured out.

I've been wondering about James most specifically since he lost to Orlando and refused to shake hands and congratulate them on the victory a few seasons ago. Sure, there were inklings before that, but that moment solidified my questions about the "King." That is sportsmanship 101. No matter how high your competitive fire, you congratulate the victor. Had James been raised with humility and had he gone to college, he would have learned that lesson.

The last two post seasons has seen James literally quit on his team. I don't know any other way of saying it. If you watched the games in question, I don't know how you could come to any other conclusion. When Jordan, Bird, Thomas, Magic and other superstars have had "off" nights, they work harder for their team. They switch gears from being offensive-minded to defensive-minded. They become a facilitator but don't pass up the open shot. In those games, James just stopped playing. His defense became comical, his offense just kept getting worse, and he stopped playing team basketball.

Kobe was accused of shutting it down and not playing hard during the final season Shaq was with the Lakers in 2004. It would be difficult to argue that Kobe did it more than that one time. He got raked over the coals for it, in both national and regional sports media. Yet James has done it numerous times and has barely gotten a hand slap for his behavior. Kobe came back from that harder, leaner, hungrier to prove his critics wrong. James came back from his experience with shutting it down weaker, less willing to work, and more likely to do it again (and he did).

During the Cavs' playoff series against Orlando, James was leading the charge with dancing, high-fives, and singing on the sidelines. I told my wife that Orlando wasn't going to like that and would at least make them work for their wins from that point on... and it would be interesting to see what would happen when the Cavs didn't have so much to dance, sing, and high-five over. Sure enough, Orlando started winning and the smiles and singing and dancing went away... and so did James' game. When his team needed him to lead them, to keep them loose and hungry for a victory, he became petulant and dismissive. He argued with his coach and didn't run the plays called. He stopped playing defense and going after rebounds. And his team lost.

So, now, James has what he says he wants. His huge ego will need to shrink a bit in order to fit into the house that Wade built. He will have to see if he can get it done with one champion (Wade) and a guy who has only sniffed the playoffs twice and never won there (Bosh), because the rest of the team will be decimated in order to fit those three maximum contracts in the building. And now he will be hated by every other team in the league, but most especially by Cleveland.

Most importantly for James, though, is that he will have clutch performers around him to take up his slack when he just can't do it because his will to win is just not there.