LeBron James Comes Up Short
Do I have this right? After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic on Saturday night, LeBron James exited the arena without congratulating — or even acknowledging — his opponents. He dressed quickly and headed to the team bus, refusing to take questions from reporters or participate in the postgame news conference.
Questionable move that smells of bad sportsmanship, but sometimes great athletes do things in the heat of passion that don’t make sense to those of us who haven’t been there. Sometimes it’s understandable.
Bu then the next day he dons a Yankees hat, declares himself a “winner,” and delivers this bewildering absurdity:
“It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m a competitor. That’s what I do. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.” (link)
My man just lost all credibility.
Winning is not a matter of entitlement. Not shaking the hand of your conquering opponent is the very definition of being a poor sport, and it’s astounding that James failed to recognize this even after the benefit of time to size things up.
Every great player is passionate, and every great player nurses a massive ego. True greatness, though, is defined as much by how an athlete acts in defeat as by how he or she acts in victory. True greats act like they’ve not only been there before, but expect to be back again. LeBron James has a long way to go.
Until then, let’s not speak of him in the same breath as Jordan or Magic Johnson. He hasn’t earned it.
I’ve been called a hater for expressing my general disdain for LeBron in the past, but I feel vindicated after hearing this tale. Dude’s a classless front-runner, and honestly, an excellent argument for why athletes shouldn’t be drafted directly from high school.
I have to agree. I’m extremely disappointed with this and it immediately makes me lose respect for him. It also doesn’t bode well for his future. He’s only going to attract negative press and controversy with things like this – people will now be looking for it and before you know, his reputation is ruined. And the fact that he doesn’t really understand what he did is even more worrisome. It’s borderline delusional.
Dick move for sure. You can argue that he’s the face of the NBA, and for him to show up the Eastern Champs is a dick move. Show some class and get the sand out of your vag. I don’t know if he did this when the Cavs lost to the Spurs, but he should be on PR damage control right now.
you can’t have LOSER without
LebROn jamES
but cleveland deserves it so whatever
Probably the most effective way to sum it up.
Off topic: Pumped for LATE NIGHT baseball! And, tomorrow, SHUNNED CANADIAN VS. BALTIMORE. Mostly, I’m just excited for some Bedardisms. We can only hope he opens his mouth to the media. It’s high entertainment.
We want LeBron to be Jordon so bad. Maybe it will happen, but it hasn’t yet.
@dan the man – That post reeks of Wayward O.
@Greg – Wayward O is like Captain Morgan. We’ve all got a little O in us.
@neal s – Ha! This is true.