I just finished watching the Jazz play the Mianmi Heat. I had the best seat in the house - my house, my chair, my big-ass TV. I could play with my beloved iPhone during commercials and during the third quarter when the Jazz weren't playing with as much energy and intensity and the Heat started creeping back into the game. I put my beloved iPhone down during the last two minutes of the game when the score was tied and the lead kept changing and LeBron James was making a basket absolutely every time he shot the ball. Devin Harris made an excellent basket with and added a free throw to give the Jazz a one point lead with only four seconds left. Plenty of time for LeBron, right?
So LeBron gets the ball and it looks like he has a shot, but instead, he passes is to an open teammate. The teammate, Haslam, shoots from around the free throw line and misses. Time runs out; the Heat's nine game winning streak is broken and the Jazz celebrate! Yay for the Jazz!
Now I can't decide if it would be a great thing or a really crappy thing to be LeBron James.
On the one hand, LeBron is an amazing basketball player. In tonight's game, he didn't play very well in the first half, but in the third and fourth quarter, he picked up the team and put them on his shoulders and WOW! Was he good! He just couldn't miss. He was strutting around, puffing out his chest...I don't really like that behavior but he was backing it up. He was The Shit out there. All I could do was shake my head and say, "Damn! That guy is good!"
But then, with the game on the line and the chance to win it, LeBron passes the ball to a guy who only scored four points the whole game. Granted, he had a wide open shot, but that guy isn't the superstar. That guy didn't have LeBron's rhythm.
A very similar thing happened during the All Star game. At the very end, LeBron passed the ball instead of taking the shot, and the East lost the game.
Kobe Bryant wouldn't pass the ball. Kobe would take the shot. Michael Jordan would have taken the shot. Maybe LeBron is freaked out by the thought of not making the shot so he just doesn't take the final shot. Maybe that's why he has never been int he slam dunk competition during All Star weekend. He doesn't want to lose. I just don't get him.
Of course, if Haslam had made the shot, the sports pundits would have been praising LeBron's sharing and his ability to find the open man. If LeBron had taken the shot and made it, the headline would be "James Crushes Jazz". (He did have over 30 points anyway.)
Instead, LeBron is being questioned about passing the ball, and the unspoken question is about his heart and his will to win.
Maybe we'll find the answers to my questions in May and June during the NBA play-offs.
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