Category Archives: Talking About Hoops

Let’s Talk About LeBron

Filed Under: Comparing Players / Teams, NBA by KraverWP — 2 Comments
11/28/2010

Somehow, we’re a few weeks into the season, and I haven’t yet dedicated a single posting to The Decision LeBron made to take his talents to South Beach.  Lots of people have had lots to say about The Decision, and I’m not going to repeat things I’ve heard elsewhere.

To me, there are two critical points to make.

1.  As I’ve blogged before, I don’t have anything against LeBron.  I mean, I tend not to hang around with guys who call themselves The King.  And I have trouble identifying with guys who tattoo “Chosen One” on their backs. (If I tattooed “Chosen One” on my back and walked around South Beach, it would seem extremely strange.  People would be asking “Chosen to do what?  Be first on line at Burger King?”)  But I don’t have a problem with LeBron personally.

My problem with him, as I’ve touched on in multiple postings (in addition to the above posting, here, here, and here, to name a few), is that he got anointed The Next Big Thing without earning it, and that he got the benefit of the doubt for reasons I couldn’t understand — actually, no… he didn’t even need the benefit of the doubt, because nobody even doubted him.  The amount of LeBrown-nosing that went on was unbelievable to me.

All of that said, I don’t blame LeBron for lacking humility.  I recognize that he’s lived an unusual life, with people telling him he was The King around the time most kids are dealing with pimples and peach-fuzz, and only saying it more often as he got older.

Here’s the thing, though… If you’re going to call yourself The King, and tattoo Chosen One on your back, and fancy yourself as Heir Jordan… then own it.  Put your teammates on your back. Demand the ball in the clutch.  Stay with the team that drafted you, or join one in need of a savior.

And, you know what else?  If you don’t want to be The King, and you don’t want to chase Jordan’s legacy, that’s also fine.  But, if that’s how you feel, then own that, too.  Look into the camera, and say “The fire doesn’t burn inside of me like it burned inside of Michael and burns inside of Kobe.  I’m more Robin than Batman.”  Had he done that, I would have been a bit disappointed, but I wouldn’t have held it against him.  Honestly, I think I’d have a bunch of respect for him if he had the guts to do that.  I mean, I don’t have the single-minded determination it takes to be the Greatest Of All Time in my profession, so I wouldn’t have a problem with LeBron if he acknowledged that he doesn’t, either.

Of course, he took neither of these paths.  Frankly, I’m not sure what path he’s traveling down.  When LeBron announced that he’d be Dwyane Wade’s sidekick taking his talents to South Beach, I was confused, and I’ve been confused since.

Basically, it seems to me like he has a personality disorder.  I mean, this is a guy who calls himself The King, and has a tattoo that says Chosen One.  (Have I mentioned that already?) This is a guy who arranged for an hour-long tv show just to cover his announcement about where he’d be taking his talent.  Obviously, this is a guy who’s interested in The Big Stage, and who likes the spotlight.

Yet, despite all of that, when it came time for his announcement, he announced that he was going to THE ONLY TEAM WHERE HE WOULD NOT CLEARLY BE THE TOP DOG. It’s crazy, right?  He couldn’t play with Kobe or Durant, so The Chosen One chose to play with the ONLY OTHER GUY IN THE LEAGUE whose skills compare to his own.  Weird, if you ask me.

2.  The Chosen One seems to be at least somewhat surprised at the anger that his Decision generated, and lots of ink has been spilled about how unpopular he has become and why.  Among the other things that The King doesn’t understand is this… sports fans are not always rational.  Sometimes we cheer for a guy just because he’s on our team, and boo a guy just because he isn’t.  The King was, to a large degree, immune from that simple fact for the first 7 years of his career.

He entered the league as a phenomenon, and people weren’t all that interested in booing the 18-year-old who was destined to be The Greatest Ever.  Then, by the time that wore off, lots of fans across the league wanted him on their own team.  So, when he went to places were he would otherwise be booed, he was cheered instead.  (As I blogged about here.)

Well, even Kings can’t fight gravity forever.  LeBron’s “popularity” in cities like New York, LA, and Chicago, was built on the mirage that he was going to be one of theirs.  And it was built in Cleveland on the mirage that he already was.  Once he took his talents to South Beach, that all came crashing down.

Now, it’s funny to me when people say they can’t understand why so many people hate LeBron all of a sudden.  Here’s why: It’s sports, dude.  It’s sports.

More on LeBron to come over the next few days.  I hope you’ll check back, and offer your comments!

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1 Comment:

  • Andrew
    November 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    Nice article. I think it all comes down to RESPECT. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isiah all realized you EARN it through you individual talents and more importantly from the elevating the skills of those around you. LeBron thinks you get RESPECT from promoting yourself and exploiting state tax laws to circumvent salary cap rules. Did the U.S. win any accolades when they allowed professionals to play in the Olympics? The only thing they did was “raise the bar” so high that anything but a Gold Medal is a failure. The same holds true for LeBron and Co.

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    Let's Talk About LeBron | Hoopservations…

    Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……

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Assume Your Positions

Filed Under: '10 - '11 Season, Evolution of the Game, GM Consultant, Positions, Talking About Hoops by KraverWP — 1 Comment
11/13/2010

There are a couple of developing storylines in the NBA, like the Hornets being awesome and the Heat being mediocre, that I’ll be hoopserving about over the next few weeks.  Before getting into the specifics, it’s necessary to set the table with a general discussion about the 5 positions on a basketball team.

Basketball is different from other sports, like baseball and football, where distinct positions have clearly defined roles, and correspond to specific places on the field.  In baseball, for example, the first baseman stands in a different place than the second baseman, who stands in a different place than the center fielder, etc.  In football, the offensive linemen block the opposing defenders, the wide receivers run routes to get open, and the quarterback puts his hands on the center’s gluteus muscles at the beginning of most plays.  There is some room for flexibility — think infield shifts in baseball and the Wildcat offense in football — but not much; if a WR lined up for a play with his hands on a teammate’s gluteus muscles, well… let’s just say that it would throw the other team for a loop.

Our game, basketball, is different.  On any given possession, guys are moving around, regularly occupying multiple spots on the court.  People often talk about 5 distinct positions on a basketball team, but those positions are not nearly as distinct as they are in other sports.

Partially because of this flexibility, teams started taking liberties with the positions, almost disregarding them in some instances.  Now we have “combo guards” like Tyreke Evans.  We have teams that try to play without a center.  The Raptors, for example, start a “center” who averages more 3-point-attempts than blocks per game.  (There’s probably some kind of joke to make about the fact that HIS NAME IS ANDREA, but nothing is coming to me at the moment.)  And, as I’ve already blogged, I have no idea what the difference is between a shooting guard and a small forward in today’s game.

I’m no traditionalist, but this movement away from traditional positions strikes me as a problem.  The positions exist for a reason; there are different roles on a basketball team that need to be filled.  Basketball teams need a guy to control the tempo, pressure the ball on D, and break the opponent’s D down with dribble penetration — typically, the PG.  They need a spot-up shooter, to take advantage when defenders go help out on the ball — typically, the SG.  They need a guy to create his own shots from the wing — typically, the SF.  And, they need two guys responsible for the paint; posting up on offense, rebounding and intimidating on defense — typically, the PF and C.

Theoretically, the roles are not specific to any position.  Teams can rely on a “point forward” to create shots for teammates (think Anthony Mason, when the Knicks were good in the ’90’s).  They can rely on a small forward to rebound and block shots (think Shawn Marion from his days on the Suns).  But these attempts generally fall short.  The positions are not completely interchangeable.

To be sure, it’s true that some teams have won without some of the roles being filled. Jordan’s Bulls, Shaq’s Lakers, and Kobe’s Lakers generally won without getting major minutes from an excellent, traditional point guard.  This doesn’t prove that it’s a good idea to play with glaring voids, as much as it proves that, when you have Jordan playing with Pippen, Shaq playing with Kobe, or Kobe playing with Pao, you’ve bought yourself some flexibility to depart from the typical template.

So… that’s a very long-winded way of saying that the impressive play of the Hornets, who have the game’s best true PG (CP3), a center who rebounds and blocks shots (Okafor), a low-post scorer (West), and guys who fill in around them, is not so surprising.  Nor is the disappointing play of the Heat, who have a subpar PG and no interior presence.  More on that to come.

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