The Sad Saga of LeBron James

LeBron James is many things to many different people. To the hardcore fan he’s one of the most talented basketball players ever, with unlimited potential and an ever-evolving legacy. To the casual observer of sports he stands for everything we despise about the young, self-entitled, mega-rich athlete. To others it’s a sad reminder of what basketball stars used to be and what they are today. LeBron James is many things, and polarizing is certainly one of them.

I don’t mean to get all philosophical and shit, but humanity has always had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. We’re a curious group of organisms…we won’t stop until we know everything about everything. Why else would we send a metal box carrying loads of combustible fuel and several of our own kind rocketing miles and miles upward to a region of the universe in which we could not survive without the assistance provided by a 280 pound plastic suit and a constant supply of oxygen? We have an insatiable curiosity that has both fueled our success as a species and led to where we are in the 21st century.

So it’s no surprise we strive endlessly to understand the modern athlete…and no one captures our attention quite like LeBron James. I’m maybe the 847th person to write a LeBron column after game four and I won’t be the last. So before we really get into it, what is it about “the king” that grabs us and won’t let go?

He’s certainly not the aloof and weirdly relatable Larry Bird nor the incredibly articulate and considerate Julius Erving. In fact, since the decision, he’s not that likeable at all. It’s what he could be…it’s the inescapable feeling you get when watching James that you’re seeing someone who is doing things that few have done before. It’s that feeling you get when you know you’re witnessing history. I call it the sixth sense of sports. Three years ago, along with millions of others across America and Europe and everywhere else in the world I wasted a Saturday full of possibilities in front of a television screen, watching two dudes I’d never met hit a little green ball back and forth; back and forth. It was Roger Federer—indisputably one of the greatest tennis players ever—playing a relatively unknown (to the tennis novices among us) named Rafael Nadal, who was giving a legend everything he could handle. Nadal won what many consider the greatest tennis match ever played, and certainly the longest. Watching that match aroused my sixth sense, told me that what I was witnessing would be talked about for decades.

I get that same feeling whenever LeBron James touches a basketball and sets foot to court.

I remember my sixth sense kicking into gear watching other athletes I’ve followed through the years—Michael Phelps, Roger Federer, Peyton Manning, and Tiger Woods to name a few. They all have one thing in common: when they fail to meet expectations it leaves us in the same mood as a disappointed parent when little Johnny brings home his report card and fails to earn those top marks his family knows he is capable of. In this situation LeBron is that flunking child and we are the disheartened parents.

And LeBron James has left us with that feeling one to many times. Is it selfish of us? Of course. Is it right that we sit behind our computer screens and type word after word after word dissecting exactly why a human being none of us know on a personal level does what he does? Probably not. But for whatever reason athletes have always been more than mere people—we treat them like they’re gods. LeBron is no different, and as those NBA commercials kindly point out, “expect greatness”. All the time, I guess. We see what LeBron is capable of, thus we expect LeBron at the peak of his powers every single night.

It’s amazing how we mythologize famous athletes through the years. Listening to some, you would think Michael Jordan never turned the ball over or Larry Bird never missed a shot. James suffers from that; he suffers from his own greatness. In this age of over-analysis we stack players up with their forefathers and pick apart their legacy before their career is even half over. It’s like saying Barack Obama is the greatest president ever—or the worst depending on your political ideology—before he’s even finished his first term in office. You just can’t do it; you need many years to put his work into perspective and to witness the fruits of his labor.

LeBron, in many ways bears the brunt of more criticism than any one athlete has ever taken (excluding those that committed crimes of course) simply because when he isn’t INCREDIBLE we all act like whiny little turds; like we were robbed. So it’s no surprise the sports world went berserk after LeBron’s 8-7-9 game four. We couldn’t believe it, all of us knowing full well the sort of stuff he is capable of…like his 48 point beauty he put up against the Pistons five years ago or even the all-around brilliant defensive and offensive series he just put together against the Chicago Bulls. When he doesn’t do that we act like we were FREAKIN’ betrayed. And in a way we’re right, because that sixth sense I get when I know I’m witnessing something amazing? I got it Tuesday night, but for all the wrong reasons.

I won’t pretend to know what happened to LBJ two nights ago, because frankly no one has any idea. LeBron himself might not know. It may have been some external factor, or it may not have been. But no doubt, it was disturbing. He posted the lowest usage rate of his career: a paltry 17.9 percent—meaning he used only 17.9 percent of Miami Heat plays. Incredibly, the league average is 20 percent (100 divided by 5 is 20, get it?) so for LeBron to be so uninvolved in the Heat’s offense speaks to something beyond just a bad day in the office. Maybe he just didn’t have it offensively (obviously) so he deferred to his teammates too often and decided not to force anything?

That’s the strange part; we’re crucifying James because he played “passively” and didn’t dominate like he’s capable of. But what if he forced it? What if he took 25 shots and missed 16, just like Michael Jordan did 19 years ago in a crucial round two playoff game against the Knicks?

It’s starting to seem like—the further we get into LeBron’s career—that the man simply can’t win. And I'm not talking about basketball games.

We’re back to the original issue here, if LeBron gives us anything less than his best game we feel cheated and betrayed. Anything less than perfect is terrible. There are no B+, B-, or C+ games for James, only A+ or F-. Only sweet success or utter failure.

LeBron has had some of his worst games on the brightest stages, but I don’t buy the “choking” theory or the idea that he shrinks during the biggest moments. Are we so quick to forget the series that JUST happened? Are we so quick to forget how James dominated on both ends with freakish defense on MVP Derrick Rose and incredible offense when it was “closing time”? Remember how Dwyane Wade struggled the whole series and managed only 18 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists a game and committed 20 turnovers? Weren’t we talking about the greatness of LeBron back then (a whole two weeks ago) and the meekness of Dwyane Wade? And now, not even 20 days later all that stuff has been relegated to the back of our minds to make room for the new narrative of the hour: the shrinking of LeBron James.

For being such an advanced society, our memories sure are short.

LeBron may explode in game four and once again turn the narrative upside down or he may play as meekly as he did in game four. Or, probably the most likely, he’ll have a ho-hum 27-8-8 game, and just like always, we won’t appreciate it for what it is.

Because that’s the curse of being LeBron James, and the folly of modern media. Whatever it is he does I’ll be there; sitting on my couch prepared to witness something incredible. I just hope my sixth sense doesn’t fail me again…

The NBA…where over-analysis happens.