You Don't Have to Respect Him ... Just His Play

Sometimes, when it comes to analyzing sports, we can be too critical.  Our hatred for a player or a team clouds our rationality, and we let our emotions get the best of us and get in the way of the truth.  For example, ever since LeBron James moved to Miami, his every move has been overly scrutinized and sometimes unfairly criticized.  That's not to say that he didn't bring it on himself; there was "The Decision" and the welcome party at American Airlines Arena, at which LeBron somewhat kiddingly, yet immodestly set the goal for the number of titles that the Heat trio would win at eight.  Both of these acts, in addition to other factors, made him one of the most reviled athletes in professional sports.  Since then, LeBron has proven flat out that he is the best player in basketball, yet many critics have not conceded this fact.  Critics point to his lack of clutch play, and in a world where we have a 24 hour news cycle, criticisms get repeated, more and more people jump on the critical bandwagon and before you know it, what was formerly opinion, becomes known as fact.  Editorials point to the couple of missed shots at the end of games instead of the amazing '07 performance against Detroit in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals in Game 5, in which he scored his team's last 25 and 29 of the team's last 30 points, or the fact that he even made it to the '07 Finals with a bunch of nobodies on his team, something that Kobe Bryant has never been able to accomplish, as he has always been surrounded by great players in his runs to the Finals.  We also tend to forget performances like the one from Game 4 of the Eastern Semis of this year in which LeBron scored 40 points, grabbed 18 boards and came one assist shy of a triple double.  Then we conveniently look over the fact that in the playoffs, supposedly non-clutch LeBron has taken 13 final shots to tie or take the lead and made five of them.   Compare that to the stats of a "clutch" player like Kobe, who has taken 27 of the same type of shots and only made 7 of them, and things start to look a little different.  I'm not forgetting that Kobe's won more titles, but he's done so with more talent and support than LeBron has ever had (in case you've forgotten, last year was only the "Big Three's" first year together and guys like Anderson Varejao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas aren't exactly comparable to the Shaquille O'Neals and Pau Gasols of the world).  We forget all of these things because it's easy to forget, because these monster games come all the time from LeBron and we would rather recognize his shortcomings because we hate him, instead of realizing his successes.

There's something LeBron haters need to realize: as much as you don't want to or like to believe it, LeBron James has been playing out of his mind well these playoffs.  He's averaged 30.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists, shot 50.8% from the field, and in the series against the Celtics played defense against every position from point guard to center.  He passes the ball beautifully, yet makes sure that he saves enough shots for himself, he is a monster on the glass, and his defensive prowess is impeccable.  I get that the Finals still lay ahead and that if LeBron doesn't show up, then most of what he did throughout these playoffs can be rightfully forgotten.  But looking at his stats and overall play during these playoffs so far, it's easy to see he's not getting enough credit, as people hope for his doom in the upcoming Finals rather than realize his success so far.

Hey, if there's one guy that doesn't want LeBron to win a title, it's me.  I thought it was a more-than-cowardly move to go to the Heat instead of seeking out great competition, something that neither Jordan nor Bird nor Magic nor any of the other true greats ever would have done, and something I will never be able to forgive him as a basketball player for.  Still, I never let that hatred cloud my judgment of his game.  The way we view his off-the-court decisions should not affect the way we view his on-the-court decisions.  LeBron has done everything he can to help his team win during these playoffs, and it's about time people really started to take notice, and if he does win the Finals this year, give credit where credit is due.