“I’m a one-on-one player.” So true — that’s both the best and worst thing about Kobe’s game.
Tag: LeBron James (Page 22 of 85)
In a relatively short interview with CNN, LeBron James and Maverick Carter were asked whether or not race played a role in the backlash after “The Decision.”
O’BRIEN (voice-over): According to industry insiders, James and Carter have done just fine, striking multi-million dollar deals with State Farm, Nike and McDonalds. But those deals were overshadowed by this summer’s decision and negative headlines which seemed to tarnish LeBron James, the athlete, and the brand.
CARTER: It’s just about control and not doing it the way it’s always been done or not looking the way that it always looks.
O’BRIEN (on camera): Do you think there’s a role that race plays in this.
JAMES: I think so at times. It’s always, you know, a race factor.
CARTER: It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media, things that were written for sure.
O’BRIEN (voice-over): LeBron James and Maverick Carter say what does bother them is that lost amid the controversy is the fact that “The Decision” TV program raised $3 million for Boys & Girls Club of America.
CARTER: We own the advertising time. We went out and sold it to brands and we took every dime and donated it to charity.
FRANK SANCHEZ, V.P., BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF AMERICA: LeBron was using a significant moment in time to benefit young people. And a lot of people can take those opportunities and make it about them. He really was — his goal was to make it about kids and make it about giving opportunities for kids.
JAMES: For me to have an opportunity to give back to the Boys & Girls Club of America, that I would never change that. And if I have to take heat to give back to kids, I would do it the same way every single time.
I included the bit about the Boys & Girls Club because it is admirable that they donated all the advertising revenue to charity, but it still doesn’t change the way that LeBron ripped the heart out of his fans in Cleveland during an hour-long, primetime special. Again, it’s not the fact that LeBron left Cleveland that non-Clevelanders have a problem with, it’s the way he did it.
To be fair, Carter said that race played a factor in “some of the stuff coming out of the media,” but “The Decision” was such a big blunder that had it been Steve Nash or Larry Bird (in his day), the backlash would have been brutal.
It’s a free country and LeBron has the right to do whatever he wants, as long as he’s willing to deal with the consequences.
Boston Globe writer Gary Washburn tweets that Delonte West denied those salacious LeBron James rumors from earlier in the summer:
Delonte west denies lebron rumors “I come from an era where you dont say nothing bad about someones parent. So not at all.”
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Crawl out from under your rock, wipe the six months of sleep from your eyes and read this. Caught up? Great.
Back to West…this wasn’t a denial, at least the way it was written.
But in a longer Washburn story about West at Boston.com, the picture becomes clearer:
But then a reporter from a local radio station asked West the question that basketball fans, entertainment buffs, gossip columnists, and the entire Northeast Ohio region had been wondering about since the Cavaliers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs last May.
Did West have an intimate relationship with Gloria James, the mother of two-time Most Valuable Player and former teammate LeBron James?
Before a frantic team official could intervene, undoubtedly fearing West might react with four-letter words, or perhaps clam up altogether, as he did last season, West took a deep breath, stared the reporter in the eye, and addressed whether the rumors were true.
“Not at all,’’ he said. “I come from an era where you don’t say nothing bad about someone’s parent, so not at all.’’
Washburn left that first “not at all” out of his tweet, which made it seem that West was dodging the question.
Damn Twitter!
But back to West, again…why add the bit about “I come from an era…”? By saying that he doesn’t want to say anything bad about LeBron’s mom it would seem to confirm that he indeed has something bad to say, but just doesn’t want to say it.
And what ‘era’ is West talking about? He’s 27 years old, so is he talking about the ’80s or the ’90s? It’s not like he’s a WW2 vet or something.
One thing’s for sure — those Heat/Celtics games are going to be interesting.
Vincent Thomas argues that there’s some black protectionism going on with LeBron.
You’ve probably heard about his plummeting Q rating (the industry standard for measuring an athlete’s familiarity and appeal). According to The Q Scores Co., for non-blacks, LeBron’s positive Q rating went from 18 percent in January to 10 percent in September and, more telling, his negative Q rating went from 24 percent to 44. Nearly half of the non-blacks in this country don’t like the dude. Meanwhile, LeBron’s positive Q rating among blacks went from 52 percent in January to 39 — a noticeable drop — but his negative Q rating barely budged, going from 14 percent to 15. Among African-Americans, says The Q Scores Co. executive vice president Henry Schafer, the shift in opinion was mostly to neutral.
The general, expressed sentiment of African-Americans has been, “I may not have agreed with how LeBron carried the whole free-agency thing, but I’m not gonna hate the man.” The more America shuns LeBron, the more Black America retreats to his corner. In fact, as America hates LeBron more and more, Black America’s collective hug embraces LeBron tighter and tighter. It’s called black protectionism.
Athletes have always been inspirational figures within the black community and — as far back as Jack Johnson, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson — often have taken the public racial hit for the team. So, naturally, through the years, they’ve engendered an almost automatic protectionism response whenever America — whether justifiably or not — decides it wants to hate them.You saw it with Hank Aaron. You saw it with Barry Bonds. You saw it with Allen Iverson. You saw it with Michael Vick. You’re seeing it now with LeBron James. There are plenty of black folks who want LeBron to drop 60 on the Cavs when he visits Cleveland and wouldn’t mind the maligned Heat winning a championship.
As a white man who has never particularly liked LeBron the person or the player, I can honestly say that I don’t dislike him any more now that he’s decided to ‘take his talents to South Beach.’ He had every right to choose to play with a different team and, unlike most NBA fans, I don’t hold it against him that he decided to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Was he disloyal to the fans in Cleveland? Sure, but that wasn’t any surprise after hearing about how much of a front-running fan he was as a kid — rooting for the Cowboys, Bulls and Yankees — and how he’d hobnob on the Cowboy sidelines when they played the Browns or how he’d wear his Yankee hat to an Indians game.
First and foremost, LeBron is a fan of himself, and that was what “The Decision” was all about. It was a horrible lapse in judgment and the majority of the jump in his negative Q rating can be attributed to how he chose his new team in early July, not that he chose a new team.
As for the Miami Heat, I don’t know if I’ll be rooting for or against them, or if the truth will lie somewhere in between. I can tell you this — I’d rather see the Heat win a title in 2011 than see Kobe get his sixth ring, so to me, the Lakers are still far more annoying. If nothing else, it will be fascinating to watch LeBron, Wade and Bosh navigate the season and each other, and I’m looking forward to potential playoff battles with the Celtics, Magic and Bulls.
But back to LeBron — I don’t like the guy because he’s an egomaniac, he doesn’t do enough in the offseason to improve his game, he hasn’t developed a go-to post move because he thinks it’s “boring” to play on the block, he settles for jumpers far too often and he complains too much to the officials. Generally speaking, I don’t think he’s done enough with the innate talent that he’s been given, and that’s saying something considering the guy has back-to-back MVPs, six All-Star nods and six All-NBA appearances under his belt.
He has the physical ability to be the greatest basketball player ever to play the game, but he’ll never reach that level because he refuses to work on those areas of his game that give him trouble. That’s why I have a problem with the guy — and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin or his decision to take his talents to South Beach.
The Boston Herald has the details of West’s pending return to Beantown.
From a pure basketball standpoint, West is a great player to get for the league minimum, but the reason that his market value is so low is because he’s a little crazy and he may or may not have caused the Cavs’ playoff implosion earlier this summer. The signing would definitely add a little extra umph to a potential Heat/Celtics playoff series.
Nevertheless, he’ll bring shooting, defense and versatility off the C’s bench.
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