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that's about as fair an evaluation into it as there could be. i guess i just can't wrap my head around it because i couldn't imagine myself not swinging (even if it meant swinging blindly) until the final second ticked away.

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I have to give Bosh some credit.. he took abuse all year as the "junior" member of the big 3 and he's the only one of the group that actually seemed to step up his game in the finals.

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Wade played out of his mind every game besides the last one.

Saw this online....figured it's worth a peak. Here are Jordan's, Kobe's, and lePukes first 2 or 3 Finals statlines:

Jordan
31.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 11.4 APG, 2.8 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 56% FGs, 50% 3Ps, 85% FTs.

35.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 6.5 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 53% FGs, 43% 3Ps, 89% FTs.

41.0 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 51% FGs, 40% 3Ps, 70% FTs.

Bryant
15.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 38% FGs, 20% 3Ps, 91% FTs

24.6 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 5.8 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 42% FGs, 33% 3Ps, 84% FTs

26.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 5.3 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 51% FGs, 55% 3Ps, 81% FTs

LeQuit
22.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 35% FGs, 20% 3Ps, 69% FTs.

17.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 6.8 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 47% FGs, 32% 3Ps, 60% FTs.

And Pippen thinks lePuke is a better overall player than Jordan. He's either really dumb or he's still living in the negative Jordan shadow....or both.

I don't really follow the NBA like I used to, but people who compare James and Jordan are delusional.

Did Michael Jordan ever have a bad game? Especially when it counted?

best 2 articles on the Finals.

David Thorpe discussing what went wrong (and right):

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/30224/second-guessing-david-thorpe-on-the-finals

Wetzel describing the Cleveland mindset really well:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ar...on_james_061211

The bigger the game, the more Jordan thrived.

He wanted the spotlight. He wanted the pressure squarely on his shoulders. He wanted to be the man who would lead and carry his team to victory.

Today, LeBron James is just looking for a place to hide, and someone to blame.

It's pretty bad when even his hand picked ESPN writer has started to turn on him .........

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoopmiamiheat/post/_/id/8869/another-season-without-acquittal-for-lebron

A Season Without Acquittal For LeBron

MIAMI -- The screams and laughs wafted into the interview room from the nearby Dallas Mavericks locker room, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade couldn’t avoid having it wash over them. All around them were the sounds of celebration in their own building, salt in their wounds as similar cheers were raging across the country.

Space, time, irony and remorse; these realities and emotions were crashing down on the Miami Heat. Everyone had a part in it. This defeat had many fathers. But no one felt the weight more than James.

In this same space -- a couple feet away in fact -- where they were feeling their lowest, Wade, James and Chris Bosh had once boarded a hydraulic lift to announce their arrival in Miami to the world. A world that was so turned off by it that they stayed up late and had parties and jammed Facebook and Twitter with glee at the Mavs’ 105-95 vanquishing of the Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.

“Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don’t,” James told the media. “The Greater Man upstairs know [sic] when it's my time. Right now isn't the time,” James told his Twitter followers a few minutes later.

That time. Yes, time is now all James has and it’s going to be hard time, too. With the start of next season in doubt because of labor issues and no free agency to distract the basketball world he lives in from another late-season personal collapse, there’s no redemption on the horizon.

Then there’s the irony. The Heat lost to the Mavs, whose owner Mark Cuban was so enraged that James, then a free agent, wouldn’t even grant his franchise a meeting last summer that he called for an investigation into how James, Wade and Chris Bosh all came to the decision to shift the NBA’s balance of power. Now the same man was carrying the Larry O’Brien Trophy right out of their building.

“I could care less about the Heat, that’s their problem,” Cuban said with the bravado of a man who was tasting revenge and vindication in the same moment. “They did their thing, we did ours.”

On to the remorse. This will be the toughest one because it’s a burden James, and his teammates too, will have to endure alone. The grisly statistics will dog him forever, even if he’s able to enjoy supreme success in the future. The film will chase his legacy too, the unexplainable possessions in which he looked lost and unsure of his talents. The whole quarters when his usually fantastic play was inexplicably missing.

In Game 6, James scored nine points in the first few minutes, looking to all like he was finally showing some mettle before it was too late. Then he went 36 minutes while scoring just five more points, throwing odd passes, deferring and looking passive all over again.

By the fourth quarter it was too late. He’d actually made a few baskets -- scoring seven points -- which qualified for his best fourth quarter of a series in which he had vanished so glaringly that people were asking about injuries and making up rumors to make their minds fit what their eyes were seeing.

Just like last season in Cleveland where James' performance in the clutch was the polar opposite of what his talent and history called for. Just like when the top-seeded Cavs got behind the Celtics, as soon as the Mavs turned the tables on the Heat midway through this series James' swagger and game left him. When the Heat were beating the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, series they took control of early, James was a brilliant frontrunner. At his best, really, finishing those teams off.

It was now when he was expected to rediscover that dominance with anger and motivation from the Mavs and the masses. Everyone around him thought so, too. They talked to him about it, they encouraged him, they expected it. Even his biggest detractors and critics knew it could happen. They qualified and tempered their lashings over the past two weeks expecting James to answer at some point.

But as he went through another puzzling game Sunday -- dishing repeatedly to Juwan Howard at the rim instead of taking the ball to the basket himself, passing up wide-open shots when the ball came his way, standing and watching on defense like it was a summer camp drill at times -- it got more and more clear.

James couldn’t do it.

So fitting was the moment in the fourth quarter when the Heat were trying to cobble together a comeback and Mario Chalmers and James found themselves on a break together. James called for the ball. Chalmers saw him but kept it, trying to beat two Mavs players by himself. It was a brash play by a headstrong and fearless player that was wrong, but it was also a glaring indication of where James’ teammates apparently thought he was by then. Chalmers felt like he could do it better by himself.

James finished with 21 points, the most on the Heat, on what looks like a wonderful 9-of-15 shooting performance. It was, in fact, a better game than Wade's; he shot 6-of-16 and had just 17 points. But Wade’s game had so much more will and passion. He was blazing across the floor trying to carry the Heat through it.

In the coming weeks, Wade’s heartache will be as intense as his teammates'. But while it’ll be fair to cry over his execution, his drive was unquestioned and he goes to sleep every night knowing he’s still a champion. His mistakes, and there were plenty, came from aggression and the desire not to lose.

So were Chalmers’, who had 18 points, seven assists and three steals. And Udonis Haslem's, who had 11 points and nine rebounds on a foot that still isn’t totally healed. Bosh, too. He didn’t rise to the level of counterpart Dirk Nowitzki, true. No one could. But Bosh acquitted himself better in these playoffs than perhaps anyone on the Heat team. He finished Game 6 with 19 points and eight rebounds.

All of them played like their playoff lives were on the line Sunday night. James, again, played much of it like he was stuck in a bad dream.

After James’ Game 4, when he scored eight points in a game that truly turned the tide in the series after he was unable to impact the outcome when the Heat were just a big play or two away from grabbing a 3-1 series lead, the demand for James to respond was immense. A marginal improvement would not do. He needed to roar back because of his talent and those fresh memories from the past two rounds.

Of course, he did not. More chilling, it looked like he could not.

For those who cursed him when he signed with the Heat last summer -- be it fans of the teams he spurned or those turned off by the nature of his announcement -- it was like Christmas. Even buried in the bubble of friends and family he’s crafted over the years to protect him, he knew it and heard it as clearly as those Mavs players, coaches and officials cracking open Budweisers down the hall.

Left threadbare, all James could do was deploy his defense mechanisms.

“All the people that were rooting me on to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had before,” James said. “They have the same personal problems they had to today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want with me and my family and be happy with that.”

Yes, James could leave in his Bentley or Rolls Royce or Maybach or whatever vehicle he chose to drive. He could, indeed, go home to his mansion where his personal chef might have a five-star meal waiting. Then off to his plush bed with 1,500-thread-count sheets. In a few days, it’ll be off on a private jet for a needed vacation.

The vast majority of those who toasted his defeat will wake up and go to work on Monday morning.

James is a multimillionaire now and he’ll still be a multimillionaire after the coming lockout ends. As a two-time MVP, he's earned it. All these things will provide him plenty of comfort while his performance is eviscerated nationally.

“They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy that not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal,” James said. “But they’ll have to get back to the real world at some point.”

And there’s the rub. So, too, will James. Eight years in, James is walking away from another season with no ring. In the past he could -- and did -- with his head high while quietly blame others. Last year, he got away with a series in which he failed to deliver.

Now, in the real world, there’s nowhere to hide.

Ouch.

Yeah....there's isn't a single soul defending him today. lePuke quit, was too scared, and just didn't want to work for a title.

It would have been nice to give Wade some truth serum before their press conference last night.....and then ask him, "When you pulled this team together last offseason, did you really think you'd be getting this type of no-show perfromance from lebron in the Finals? And one follow up, would you have rather signed Dirk away from Dallas?"

Funny.

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Jordan
31.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 11.4 APG, 2.8 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 56% FGs, 50% 3Ps, 85% FTs.

35.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 6.5 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 53% FGs, 43% 3Ps, 89% FTs.

41.0 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 51% FGs, 40% 3Ps, 70% FTs.

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I have to say, those numbers are all just ridiculous. And he was the best defensive player on his team.

he was the best defensive player in the NBA at the time

(stacey augmon may have been the 2nd best perimeter defensive player as Gary Payton didn't become the premier perimeter defensive player until the mid-to-late 90s)

since it hasn't been mentioned here yet:

Let's not forget 'the curse of the Fab-5'
Michigan's Fab Five = 0 rings (college or pro)

Honestly, I think Scottie Pippen knew exactly what he was doing.

Pffftt...those are Pippen's remarks AFTER he was blasted for his original comments. Point being, Pippen is dumb or still bent about living in Jordan's shadow. Those two never seemed to be very good friends.

Anyway, bigger news from Cleveland. The mayor announced tomorrow is Lebron James Day. To celebrate his stellar performance in the Finals against the Mavs, everyone gets to leave work 12 minutes early.

From the Miami Herald


.Posted on Monday, 06.13.117Share emailprintcommentreprint tool nameclose [x] tool goes here .Israel Gutierrez | In My Opinion
LeBron just wasn’t LeBron throughout the NBA Finals .Miami Heat Courtside: Mavericks win NBA titleIsrael Gutierrez looks at Game 6 of the NBA Finals, as the Heat - and LeBron James - let the championship slip from their grasp.Miami Herald Staff



It was over before it was over.

It was over when nerves got the best of this team that, by the end, appeared so unfamiliar it looked worse than when the season started.

It was over when the Mavericks had such a grip on this series that Erik Spoelstra was forced to change his starting lineup and then rely heavily on Eddie House off his bench.

It was over when Dirk Nowitzki missed 11 of his first 12 shots and the Mavericks were still leading by a bucket at halftime.

It was over when Jason Terry started backing up his words by lighting up LeBron James and the Heat.

There are a lot of things you can account for when dissecting this Heat six-game Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

But the Heat lost this final game because of the unaccountable.

Nerves. Pressure. Burden.

There’s no way to prove it, of course. And it’s certainly not a way of shortchanging the Dallas Mavericks.

In fact, it’s because the Mavericks managed to avoid succumbing to any pressure in this series, playing as freely in the fourth quarter Sunday as they did in the final quarter of that Lakers sweep, that they managed three consecutive wins.

But the Mavericks aren’t the Heat when it comes to pressure. No one on the Mavericks is LeBron James.

And on Sunday, LeBron James wasn’t LeBron James.

He hadn’t been LeBron James since this series started.

There’s no way to dance around it this time. There’s no way to ignore six consecutive games of this. No way to excuse another passive performance (12 points after a red-hot nine-point start that included a pair of long jumpers).

If you needed to see how the pressure of being LeBron James had gotten to him, all you had to do was watch a few possessions of the last few minutes in the second quarter.

It was a close game at that point, with the tension in the building tangible.

At one point, James drove to within a couple feet of the paint, facing little resistance. And he didn’t even look at the basket. He passed it off for a baseline jumper to someone else. Didn’t matter who it was. It wasn’t LeBron James with a layup.

A few moments later, LeBron was at the line, his first trip there in the game.

Even though he had hit his first few jumpers, there was a strong feeling he’d miss the first free throw. He did. And the second. Not close misses. Misses that basically proved his hands weren’t steady, his mind wasn’t right.

That free-throw line issue wasn’t just LeBron’s, of course

The Heat lost by 10 and missed 13 free throws. James missed three of his four attempts. The fact that he missed three of them isn’t even as bad as the fact that, once again, he got to the foul line just a few times in a game that was begging for him to get to the rim more often.

James was playing the same game he had been playing since the series started: standing around the perimeter, whipping passes side to side, hoping offensive execution would mask the fact that he wanted no part of taking over games.

Think about this for a second: How many times this year did you get upset because James stalled the offense by standing in front of his man and waiting until the final seconds of the shot clock to put on a move? Regardless of what the result was, that was one of the most memorable and repetitive scenes we’ve seen in his first season in Miami.

Now, how many times do you remember him doing that in this series? Hard to remember even a couple.

Did he choose this series to suddenly perform within the offense at all times? If so, why?

No, these are the kind of inexplicable parts of LeBron James’ performance in this series that will haunt him, will haunt this franchise, will linger with him for the entirety of next season.

And under normal circumstances you could say he made up for it on the defensive end, like he had so many other times in these playoffs. But this time, James was as flat-footed on that end as he was lacking on the offensive end.

He left Jason Kidd open for a three-pointer. He fell asleep multiple times on Terry. This was Terry, the most efficient offensive player of the last three games in these Finals. And LeBron was, once again, caught up in the moment, looking the other way, rather than responding to it.

James wasn’t alone in this one. It just so happened that Wade had his first poor performance as well. He was a lousy 6 of 16 from the field, and he spent more time complaining to refs, committing bad turnovers or launching unanswered prayers from the perimeter than lifting his superstar teammate.

Another picture of a Finals series gone horribly wrong?

With 8:12 left and the Heat down 12 coming out of a timeout, it was Mario Chalmers who was in the face of Wade and LeBron and not the other way around.

The point guard that spent so much time being criticized for being inconsistent and having too much confidence in himself suddenly looked like the only steady force in this game.

And what of Chris Bosh? Well, he didn’t get enough of a chance to make a stronger impact in this game. Whose fault is that? Perhaps a coach who also crumbled under this unprecedented level of pressure.

“I was frustrated. ... I would’ve liked to get more involved,” Bosh said. “But I was just playing the game as it went. Looking back at it, I had it going a little bit. I was in a good place for the game.’’

This game, this series, was certainly an eye-opening experience for this team and its biggest star.

Perhaps the pressure was too much, after all. Perhaps it always has been for LeBron James, in particular.

“At the end of the day, guys try,” Bosh said, offering the best possible compliment he could of James’ play.

Maybe next season the Heat will take a cue from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and stay quiet, maybe then relieving some of that pressure that was placed on the team.

Because this season ended at the exact opposite place that it started.

No. They. Didn’t.


....

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/13/v-fullstory/2263933/pressure-burden-take.html#ixzz1PAu24vOA

July 8th is now known as "LeBron James Day!"

Celebrate by leaving work 12 minutes early!

JC...

LeBron is taking an absolute beating in the press today. It's unlike anything I have ever seen. No one seems to be coming to his aid. It is a complete tear down of a guy. It's so bad that I actually feel a little bad for him. Granted, he brought it on himself ... no doubt about it ... but he is just being destroyed right now.

j/c

For maybe about the last two weeks now, anytime I watch or listen to LeBron, in the back of my head I keep thinking 'Never had a father figure.'

And I'm beginning to think it explains everything about him.

I don't feel the slightest bit bad for him.

He wanted the spotlight. The spotlight can do more than shine .... it can burn.

James disappeared in the 4th quarter of every game in the finals. He scored something like a grand total of 25 4th quarter points in 6 games. He stood around when there were rebounds to be had, and loose balls bouncing around him. He refused to try and put the game on his shoulders, instead deferring to his teammates. He passed up wide open looks.

He stopped trying. He was pathetic. He deserves every negative thing being written about him. This was even worse than his performance last year in the playoffs with the Cavaliers.

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I was also thinking that James is a perfect example of why most guys benefit from a year or two in college.

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I thought LeBron skipped college because he didn't want to have to show up for the finals....

Well, I think he deserves it, and I can't stand him one iota.

But I have never seen anything at all like I am witnessing today in the press. He does not have one single person in his corner. And it is all poison filled venom.

It's just unpredented and quite a bit for one person to take. Maybe that's what he needs to wake up to reality. And if he does, then it will all be for the better. But it seems like the world is against him in a big way. That's a lot for anyone to take on.

You know, maybe the father-figure thing is true, I don't know, we don't know, none of us know him personally, but I know plenty of people who grew up without a father who don't have a problem with growing up and moving along with life (I know it's much different when you have the entire world waiting to see what you do)

I said it earlier in this topic, Lebron doesn't have anyone with the stones to tell him that he needs to adjust his attitude, work ethic, and overall posture towards the game. As well as the way he handles the media. Everyone is gravy training him. You think Savannah is going to tell him? Gloria? Maverick?

I bet you those 3 wanted to stick around in Cleveland. Wouldn't doubt me one bit. Those 3 can't tell Lebron what he needs to hear, because they have nothing going on for themselves. It's all tied to Lebron. In that case, he truly is a king.

Although maybe the father figure comes into play then, with nobody to tell him that you should listen to those closest around you.

If the father figure thing is true, I feel bad for the guy. All the money in the world couldn't make up for the way my dad brought me up, and probably all you guys too. That's not his fault.

I'm trying not to be a bitter cleveland fan enjoying this, but it is hard. I loved it last night. I posted quotes from lbj earlier in the year, from dan gilbert's letter on facebook. I wanna be done with it. Everyone today at work is asking me if I celebrated last night. Celebrating isn't the term. The Heat may have lost but Cleveland's title drought is still going very strong. It does nothing personally for me. It's just nice to see karma showing up like it usually does, I'll leave it at that.

Hopefully we can put lbj and the heat away now, and focus on the draft. I'm more happy we got 1&4 than i would be about miami losing. true story.

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Hard lessons to be sure, but will this motivate him to work harder in his life all year every day to achieve his dream? Or will he continue down the same dead end road?

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He doesn't need to work harder or get better, (I mean it's not a hole in his skills or his game that needs work) he needs to fix whats between his ears if he wants to transcend being a great basketball player into being one of THE great basketball players. His skills in the finals are the same as his skills in the first 3 rounds but his ppg average is about 8 or 9 points lower.. it's not because of his skills, its because in the regular season and the playoffs he takes the shot and drives the lane and in the finals he passes the ball... who knows why.

I know Wade is beat up, but no way they'd trade him over the other 2..

I actually know a Heat fan, no like a legitimate one who lives in Miami and was before the decision. He always tells me Wade is the man with the people of miami. They enjoy lebron (maybe not today) but that is wade's town.

He's told me that for years. That's why I never even thought it would be considered that lbj would swallow his pride and leave to go play with him. Like in my list of places he could have gone, it was behind cleveland, new york, nj, chicago, even dallas.

Cuban paying for parade

MIAMI -- You just knew Mark Cuban would have to do something big, something different for the Dallas Mavericks first championship. His first two orders as trophy holder: The parade's on me and we're doing something better than rings.

Via ESPN Dallas:

Mark Cuban said championship parades and title rings just aren't his style, but the 2010-11 NBA champions will be riding floats through the streets of Dallas very soon.
And Cuban said he's picking up the tab.

"We'll do it," Cuban said early Monday morning. "All I told them was -- Terdema Ussery, our president -- you plan the parade. I'll pay for it because I don't think it's right for the city to have to pay for it. And let's just have some fun."

Remember all the problems last year in Los Angeles when the Lakers couldn't figure out what to do with the parade? It was going to cost the city millions and there was debate whether or not the team would have it. Cuban, being the completely awesome guy that he is, just said, "I've got it you guys." Say what you will about Cuban, but he's a terrific owner.

Then Cuban talked about the hardware. But he doesn't want to go the traditional route.

"I might not get rings," the Mavs' billionaire owner told NBATV. "Rings are old school. You've seen it before: There's guys who pick up the sweats and towels and they have these big, blingy rings. I'm like, 'Rings are done. It's time to take it to the next level.'"

If not rings, then what? Championship belts? Crowns? Necklaces? Golden sceptres? I wouldn't expect anything less from Cuban because, well, he's Mark Cuban.

But you know, if you don't get Dirk a ring, then how are Dallas fans supposed to win arguments now? They won't have the "Yeah but he's got a ring!!!" argument. I guess they'll just have to say, "Dirk is a top 10 player dude. He's got a sceptre now!" Actually, that's not all that bad.

awarding championship belts WWE style would be awesome. then, they could add 'buckles' onto the belt if they win more than one.



why do LeBron's pants droop? he doesn't have a belt.