LeBron’s Gut Check

The player Scottie Pippen has heralded as “better than MJ,” the two time MVP, eight time all-star, best player pound for pound, and greatest endorsement asset the NBA currently beholds, had another gut check in a series of long disappointments. What now?

LeBron James’ career has burst into flames, after his self-aggrandizing title prophecies with the Miami Heat ended Sunday in a game six loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The NBA’s darling just one year ago–a mild tempered family man, with the dribble speed game of MJ, and the passing and rebounding finesse of Magic, is not only the league’s most wanted but is now left for another off-season to ponder his lowly 2-8 record in NBA Finals games and dismal 2-6 record in must-win elimination games.

As much as the league has tried to endorse James as the predecessor to MJ’s greatness, one is left to wonder whether he will go down as the games biggest bust. Despite this ever-evolving debate in the eight year relationship fans and critics have had with James, the man himself seems undeterred.

“I pretty much don’t listen to what everybody has to say about me or my game or what I’ve done with my career,” James said. “I don’t get involved in that. This is year after year after year for me. Me as an individual, people write or say what they want to say about me. It doesn’t weigh on me at all.”

This is yet another form of kindling for the LeBron hatred across the country, and is the type of thing that has taken the “King” mantle from James and placed his name among the all-time villains. Something LeBron seems indifferent towards.

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

Despite the criticisms, LeBron’s mantra is simple: his life is better than yours. Today the man woke up to a multi-million dollar mansion with his family, and is currently sipping prepared pina coladas by an aqua lagoon furnaced by his own personal natural hot spring. As his wife kisses his forehead, his children have the best education money can buy, and his hard-working mother — the one who worked day and night as a single mother — is doing just the same.

So what gives?

“It hurts of course,” James said. “ I’m not going to hang my head low. I know how much work as a team we put into it. I know how much work individually that I’ve put into it, when you guys are not around. That’s something people don’t see. I think you can never hang your head low when you know how much work, how much dedication you put into the game of basketball when the lights are off and the cameras are not on.”

LeBron’s confidence in his work ethic is the saturation necessary to help him get past this on-going bout of losing when it matters most. In fact LeBron seems half-right. In eight elimination games in the playoffs, his career numbers of 29.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 7.4 assist would argue his point.

Yet for Cleveland fans and many across the country the problem has never been LeBron’s abilities, rather his inabilities to close out games in the final minutes. Cavs fans are left to ponder not only James inappropriate decision parade on national television, one in which took them from title hopefuls to cellar dwellers, but his final game against Boston in the Conference Semi-Finals where James looked as if he’d quit on the franchise and aloof thereafter.

This loss, whether it be just another loss in a long seemingly successful hall of fame career for James, is vindication for many across America. For Cavs owner Dan Gilbert it was everything he needed to move on with his career. After the loss, Gilbert tweeted: “Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE.”

The longtime friendship Gilbert and James had, rooted in the franchise selection of the Akron native, continued its bitter feud. Gilbert has never waned from admitting his disappointment in the player he believed was faithful and would help change the course for Cleveland fans’ long drought without a professional title.

This is like the “Young and the Restless,” but better–it is Brokeback Mountain the sequel, starring Jamie Foxx and business mogul Bill Gates. But jest aside, this is the life of a man left to wonder whether his career will ever culminate into anything more than best greatest loser of all-time.

For James and any other NBA great, the tiers of hall of fame stars is a real topic, one of which none of these player can run from. It is like having your name sprawled next to MJ, Magic, or Bird instead of Iverson, Dominique, or Ewing.

And despite the majority, who are beginning to wonder whether James is the latter, the star is limitless in his drive. “The only thing that weighs on me is when I don’t perform well for my teammates and the guys that I play for every day,” said James. Which as of now, seems like the theme to his rocky unabashed career.