Crazy.
You are going to think this column is crazy.
Everyone, at some point has to make a decision. Do you live life to win, or to have fun?
Should this really be a question? Isn’t fun secondary? Shouldn’t we live life to do our best, and succeed as much as we can?
Not necessarily.
Take college, for example. Would you rather go through college with a 3.5, have a ton of friends, live stress free, and make lasting memories? Or would you want to work as hard as possible, sacrificing time, friends, energy, and girls to earn a 4.0?
Both roads have their pros and cons. Personally, I would go with option number one, but I have many friends that chose door number two and will make much more money than me the rest of their life because of it.
So how does this translate to basketball? Because every superstar, eventually, has to make the same choice.
Of course, this leads us to LeBron James.
After The Decision, and the Party, and the initial struggles, LeBron hate was at an all-time high. But recently, I have been trying to give the guy a break. The reality is that I WANT LeBron to be great. Maybe I don’t THINK he can be the greatest of all time, but I still want to see him maximize his potential, just to see if he really COULD be better than Jordan.
Honest to goodness, I have tried to watch this series with an open mind. To my delight, it’s been a fantastic series. In spite of all the great “Hollywood-esque” stories, this series needs no narrative in order to be compelling and interesting.
But I still am left wondering, “Who is LeBron James?”
I wanted to finally figure it out for myself in Game 5. The stage was set. After the worst playoff game of his career, LeBron admitted to us all that it was “Now or Never.”
I wanted LeBron to come out with a vengeance.
I wanted LeBron to take out all of his frustration with the world on the floor.
I wanted LeBron to do something legendary.
Ten minutes in, I was ready to rip him to shreds.
I took the liberty of documenting EVERY meaningful touch that LeBron had in Game 5. By meaningful, I really mean every single touch that didn’t include basic things like advancing the ball into the front court, and receiving it on the wing only to pass it back to the point guard up top. I wanted to look at every possession, every shot, every pass, and every drive while looking past all the other-worldly highlights. Who was LeBron, really?
Ten minutes in, I thought I knew.
I would have bet anything in the world that LeBron would start out the game as aggressively as possible. Michael Jordan would have put his stamp on the game immediately. Kobe Bryant would have either scored 15 in the first or shot his team into a huge hole. Either way, those guys were killers, and I expected LeBron to do the same thing.
But over and over again, he “made the smart play” by bailing out.
On the first possession of the game, he posted up strongly…only to kick it back outside. He then reposted, got the ball back, took a few dribbles…and passed it out AGAIN. On the next play, he passed to an open Bosh who scored. His third possession ended with an awkward airball from six feet away.
Repeatedly, LeBron would make the “good, smart play,” but was it really the RIGHT play?
He passed up a wide open jump shot off an offensive rebound in order to pass it to Wade who was guarded. He posted up Marion, 4 feet away from the basket, and passed it all the way across court to Mike Miller who made an open three. He crossed over DeShawn Stevenson and found himself wide open fifteen feet away from the basket, but passed it to Juwan Howard who made a ten footer. He posted up again, and kicked it out to Bosh just seconds before the shot clock expired.
Some of these plays ended in points, and others ended in turnovers. Over and over, the announcers would applaud James for making “the smart play” or “the good pass.” But I kept wanting more. Why wasn’t he being more aggressive? Why was he not attacking the basket?
We grade superstars on the “Winning” scale. If anyone else took the types of shots that Kobe, Dirk, and Wade routinely take and make, we would call them TERRIBLE shots. But when those guys do it, we accept it, and we actually applaud them for being such great competitors who are so willing to take the tough shot.
Kobe, Wade, and Jordan are wired to win. I honestly don’t think they care about being liked or having fun. They really don’t care about being appreciated. All they want to do is win. Whatever that takes, that’s what they will do. Even if it means making the “bad basketball play,” they can see the big picture and realize that it gives their team the best chance to win. If we are honest with ourselves, we would rather Michael Jordan take an incredibly difficult shot than watch Jud Buechler hoist up an open jumper. Why? Because Jordan’s is actually the higher percentage shot, especially with the game on the line.
Let’s fast forward to the fourth quarter.
The Heat were down by five, and then LeBron took over without scoring a single point. He ran the pick and roll with Bosh and found him or a layup. He ran the fast break with Wade and found him for a layup. He penetrated beautifully and made an amazing pass to Haslem for a layup. He ran the fast break again, perfectly, and found Wade AGAIN for a layup.
Then, it happened. My favorite moment in basketball.
If you ball it up enough, you may one day experience the purest part of the game. I have been lucky to partake in it a few times, and there really is no better feeling.
You are stuck in a tight battle, and your team just starts FEELING it. Your passing is fantastic, your movement is fluid, and your wide open shots are falling. All of the sudden, one great pass becomes three great passes and three great passes become seven. Almost like osmosis, your teamwork starts rubbing off on each other and the defense just can’t guard you. You become unstoppable…until you miss a few open shots.
In order for it to happen though, you have to have the guy to make it happen. You have to have one guy on your team who makes it his goal to find anyone and everyone with the ball. Jason Kidd’s teams do it a lot. So do Steve Nash’s. So did Magic’s. And awesomely enough, last night, so was LeBron’s.
Wade made a great pass to Haslem for a layup. Then Wade hit a HUGE three to go up by four. Wade then found Bosh on a pick and roll who got fouled.
It was at this point where I was ready to change my tone. LeBron DOESN’T NEED TO BE JORDAN!!! HE DOESN’T NEED TO BE KOBE!!!! HE DOESN’T NEED TO BE A KILLER!!!
He was the facilitator. The ultimate team guy. Everything just made sense.
LeBron was never comfortable with being “the go-to guy” in Cleveland anyway. LeBron was never meant to make those tough decisions. He never wanted to do whatever it took to win if it meant ostracizing himself from his teammates. He wanted to make the game FUN at all costs, and hopefully, he could win while having fun.
Strangely enough, LeBron was just like me. For the first time in my life, I empathized with LeBron, because I have always played basketball the same way. He LOVED the osmosis game, just like I did.
He wanted to play with Wade for a reason. Wade could be the closer, scorer, killer. LeBron would be the orchestrator of it all.
Let’s be honest…Jordan could never do that…Kobe could never do that. LeBron is DIFFERENT from them.
And you know what else? LeBron is so good, that when he starts playing with that energy and care-free spirit, his team reaches its potential. I honestly believe that the Heat would have won last night had LeBron kept playing that way.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Why?
Because we as fans just can’t comprehend it. It’s weird to watch the most talented player in NBA history routinely refuse to exploit an isolation he has with Shawn Marion and instead choose to pass to Udonis Haslem who is fifteen feet away from the hoop.
Because we don’t comprehend it, we expect him to be something he’s not.
Because he wants to please everyone, he ends up being something he’s not.
And when LeBron isn’t LeBron, and he tries to be what WE think he should be instead of what he wants to be, the Heat lose.
Add to that the fact that he was asked to play like Jordan for seven years in Cleveland, and it’s not hard to see why he’s so confused.
Everything was going perfectly. Wade had started to take over, the osmosis game was happening, and then, LeBron missed a shot and all the air was let out of the team.
LeBron posted up Jason Kidd and settled for an 18-foot fade away. Brick. Then, he cut baseline and was whistled for an (admittedly questionable) offensive foul. Soon thereafter, he missed a wide open three at the top of the key. Then, the Jet lifted off.
And it was game over.
Look, this series is not over by any means. Regardless of what happens, I truly believe that we will have a worthy champion. But the narrative on LeBron will probably be unfair.
Half of the sports world hates him for The Decision. Another third hates him because they don’t want him to be Jordan. His only supporters are annoying Heat fans who didn’t even know they had a team before this year.
The entire sports world wants him to be something he’s not.
Not me. I’m done with trying to force LeBron into Jordan’s image. Let’s let him make his own legacy. Will that legacy lead him to six rings? Probably not. But I think LeBron would be ok with that. If he ends up with three rings and a lot of good memories along the way, I think he will be happy.
I could have gotten a higher GPA in college. I chose to spend less time studying and more time making memories. You might be different from me, but hopefully you can at least respect the decision I made.
Let’s give LeBron the same benefit of the doubt that we all hope to have from others when we make our decisions. Let’s stop killing him for being the guy who wants to have fun instead of the guy who wants to win at all cost. In the end, as soon as we accept that, it probably WILL end up leading to some wins for the King. But really, that’s not what I want. I just want to see some more of those beautifully osmotic moments of basketball.
Just like LeBron, that’s all I really want. Crazy.
About Jon Washburn
