LeBron James played the role of bully and he played it well.
Unlike the Cavaliers, LeBron James had plenty to smile about.CLEVELAND ------ LeBron James sat at the podium between Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade following the Miami Heat's victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. And after James answered a series of questions, Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock left the Q and A session unsatisfied.
Whitlock writes how James refused to jump on the highest road and apologize for the pain he caused the fans who loved him for seven years.
He won’t express remorse, he says, because his intentions were good. The Decision, he says, was created to help kids.
BP drilled for oil in The Gulf with the best intentions, too. The captain of the Titanic intended to get its passengers across the Atlantic Ocean in record speed. Jim Jones intended for his followers to drink Kool-Aid and go to heaven.
People apologize for the consequences of their behavior. James can’t grasp that because his immense, God-given talent allows him to negate the consequences of his improper actions.
James undercut the brilliance of his performance by mocking the Cavaliers with non-stop trash talk and taunting body language, writes Whitlock. James looked like a bully. James and the Heat have perfected the art of beating up bad teams. They’re 11-1 against teams with sub-.500 records. The Heat are 12-8 overall.
You do the math. Ponder what it says about the Heat.
James learned in high school how to dominate inferior talent. We’re still waiting for proof he knows how to compete against equals.
The King came and conquered
Yahoo.com reporter Adam Wojnarowski writes how LeBron James remains the King in Cleveland and in Akron.
And despite all of the chants, jeers and boos, the Cavaliers fans should now direct their anger at the Cavaliers.
And Wojnarowski suggest that LeBron was never loved here, just the idea of LeBron was.
They made James into the ideal of what they wanted him to be, but never was: the hometown hero, the prodigy who lived to deliver them from their long, suffering sporting demons.
Not about LeBron
The ending to Thursday's game between the Cavaliers and the Heat quickly switched the focus from LeBron James to the Cavaliers.
The Tin Man is no longer jealous. The Cavaliers don't have hearts either.
Fanhouse.com reporter Pat McManamon writes how the Cavs played pretty much like a bunch of guys who hope to be playing in Miami next season, not a group that truly wanted to win Thursday night.
"I'm embarrassed," said guard Mo Williams, who played hard but not always well.
"That's what hurts so much," said Anthony Parker. "The fans showed up like that, and we let them down."
If this game did anything, writes McManamon, is that it allowed the rest of the nation to say it could validate James' decision, that his best chance to win a championship really is in Miami. Not Cleveland. This was what James left, and it was what James left Cleveland with.
Throwing in the towel
A fan threw a towel in the direction of LeBron James on Thursday night, but the towel, like most of the Cavaliers' shots, fell short. The fan was escorted out, but more important;y, writes ESPN's Michael Wallace, the Cavaliers should have thrown in the towel based on their performance.
But Wallace got a chance to watch how other events transpired.
To James' credit, he largely ignored the chaos that started when someone threw a battery from the stands that landed right in front of the Heat's bench. That drew a warning from the public address announcer.
As the Heat's lead grew, so did the craziness in the stands. One fan wearing a Heat jersey was showered with cups of beer in the upper deck. He didn't duck. Instead, he basked in the beer until he was escorted out.
Then came towel man. Maverick Carter, James' business manager, left his courtside seat moments later and had to be escorted through the crowd by three bodyguards. James, meanwhile, was oblivious to his surroundings. Or at least he did a remarkable acting job.