The Fall of King James

The Fall of King James

For those of you who follow sports much you probably know who King James is, for those who may not, he is LeBron James a professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Now I must caveat that I have never been a fan of his, I don’t hate him or anything, just not a fan. I thought it was grossly inappropriate for ESPN to be covering him while he was still in High School to the point that he had his own show. Dubbing him the next Jordan before he had even put on an NBA jersey was also inappropriate. And of course, Nike’s $90 million endorsement deal before the kid even graduated High School was ridiculously inappropriate. But anyway…

Over the last several years that he has been in the NBA I have watched highlight reel after highlight reel of King James doing his thing. Many times I have been greatly impressed with amazing shots and dunks. Did you see the commercial where he was draining full-court shot after full-court shot? Or when he hit the half-court shot during pre-game warmups while sitting on his butt on the floor next to the scorers table? Those are just amazing displays of his tremendous talent. Unfortunately for LeBron, with that talent comes his tremendous ego.

I have previously made several posts regarding sportsmanship or the lack of it in many professional sports and athletes. King James made his own display of poor sportsmanship just the other night. The Cleveland Cavaliers had been a top team all year and finished the regular season with the best record in the league. They were favored to advance to the NBA Finals and most felt they would win it all. More jumped on the bandwagon as the Cavs steamrolled to the Eastern Conference Finals with sweeps of the Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks. Then they met the Orlando Magic, who had played well all year but had recently gotten really hot in the playoffs and even eliminated the defending champion Celtics in Boston with a blowout win. Were it not for a last-second 3-pointer in Game 2, King James’ Cavaliers would have been swept out of the playoffs as the Magic won Games 1, 3, and 4. The Cavaliers won Game 5 to stay alive but came up short in Game 6 and were eliminated 4 games to 2. That was when Lebron made his move.

Instead of doing the classy, respectful, and respectable thing by shaking the hands of the Magic, he instead walked off the floor without even looking back. Instantly, one of the greatest players in the NBA showed everyone that he was a big baby and a poor sport. The Magic went on celebrating (as they should) but the damage was done. Lebron James, who is considered by many to be the face of the NBA and a role model to hundreds upon hundreds of millions of kids and aspiring athletes showed us that poor sportsmanship is okay when you are “the best player in the world.” You don’t need to show respect to anyone but yourself. He continued his pouting by refusing to participate in the post-game interviews.

I, for one, strongly disapprove of his actions. I feel that he has brought shame and embarrassment to himself, his family, his team, and his fans. For me, it got even better as they showed clips on SportsCenter of other times his team has been eliminated in the playoffs and he has done the same thing, walking off the court without acknowledging those who bested him. The one exception was in the NBA Finals when the Spurs beat him and one of them stood between him and his exit and held out a hand. He gave a low-5 and brushed past.

What kind of an example is this to everyone? I am simply appalled that he did this so many times and nobody has done anything about it. I was further appalled as one of the anchors on SportsCenter then justified LeBron’s behavior! Unbelievable you might say, but it really happened! I am so disgusted that one of “the best players in the world” is happy and jovial and friends with everyone when he wins, but when he loses we see his true colors, the poor sport, the baby, the coward.

This is proof of why LeBron James will never be better than Michael Jordan or a host of other NBA greats, who even in the face of defeat were man enough to reach out a hand and congratulate those who have beaten them. They showed up at the press conferences and congratulated their opponents again and used phrases like, “they outplayed us”, “they beat us”, and “they played better than us.” But not LeBron, he didn’t even show up.

I am totally done with LeBron James. I am sick of people like him and the fact that they get applauded for, and justified in, their bad behavior. You lost, deal with it and be a man about it. If I were in a position to do something about it, I would see to it that he was benched or suspended for a few games as an example to others that this behavior is inappropriate and will not be tolerated. If James was in the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell likely would have done something like that.

I’ll end with a wise and as far as I know anonymous quote, “Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat.” His Highness could learn a lot from that.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct III: Hockey, A Beacon of Hope

Many of you are probably thinking something like, “How the heck can Hockey represent sportsmanship with all the fighting?” Here is what makes Hockey different from the rest.

While it is absolutely true that Hockey is one of the most physical sports (Sports Illustrated says it is the 2nd toughest sport [Boxing #1]), it is also the one where those who play can also see the big picture. In the other major sports where ones-self and ones-own are glorified in success, Hockey stands in stark contrast by showing respect to those who came up short. If you have ever been to a youth, high school, college, or playoff series deciding pro game, you have seen the handshake line.

After almost every game growing up, no matter where they are in the world, both teams line up and shake each other’s hands, win or lose, champion or not, to congratulate each other on their efforts. It is a tradition in-grained into the sport. Some of my proudest moments being a Hockey fan have been watching Stanley Cup Champion after Stanley Cup Champion follow this model. Buzzer sounds, throw gloves, sticks, and/or helmets into the air, mob the goalie, hug teammates (sometimes cry), put on champs cap, and then automatically like it has been built into their very being, line up as a team and shake hands/hug every player and coach on the team they just defeated. They don’t celebrate their victory during the handshake line; they celebrate the game, and the grit, passion, and determination it takes to play.

This type of sportsmanship is rarely if ever seen in the NBA, NFL, or MLB. When one of those sports crowns a champion, the winners are mobbed by reporters and other officials looking for that chest-thumping, self-boasting sound bite / video clip, and the losers are left to maybe congratulate a former teammate before disappearing into the mob and going to their locker room. When a big name player loses, he gets interviewed about why he and his team failed, and oftentimes he congratulates the other team but berates his own.

The question to ask here is which image do we want to send to kids? Do we want kids to realize that you can interrupt / put off celebrating long enough to show respect to your opponent, or do we want them to see that winning isn’t just everything, it really is the only thing.

Lastly, I want to cite some statistics about success beyond sport. What follows are the graduation rates among NCAA Div. 1 male student athletes as reported by the NCAA and its member institutions in their 7-year trend report of Sept. 2008. I also injected my own opinion by including their most likely career after sports in [brackets]. The statistics didn’t surprise me one bit, did they surprise you?

Ice Hockey- 84% [Manager/Entrepreneur]
Football (1-A)- 67% [Car Wash Attendant]
Football (1-AA)- 65% [Burger Flipper]
Baseball- 66% [High School Gym Teacher/Coach]
Basketball- 61% [Drug Dealer/Gangbanger]

Check back soon for my next article: Top 3 Greatest Sports Moments Ever