Tag Archives: Jason Terry

Honestly, when the question was asked about Lebron shying away from the big moment in crucial situations, even I was a bit taken aback by it.  I felt bad for Lebron who I reminded myself quickly should NOT be a person anyone feels bad for.  Not after the offseason and not after the preseason parade.  But I was a bit puzzled by his question.  Sure, Lebron is allowed to have one bad shot or one bad quarter which is all fine and well.  But if you want to be the best you have to earn it and for Lebron there is no other end game.  If he becomes anything less than better than Michael Jordan when all is said and done consider his career a failure.

Seriously.

Its not that I think being better than MJ is going to be easy by any stretch.  The weight of that title can crush any normal man but Lebron hasn’t been trained to be normal all his life.  His teenage years, his adolescent years have all been spent under the watchful eye of the television camera and so there is no hiding for Lebron.  He’s made his life one big Truman show so we can all enjoy and bask in the life and times of a great basketball player and before I say anything about his Game 4 performance let me repeat: Lebron James is already a great basketball player.

But game 4 was atrocious.  From beginning to end.  He looked like a rookie navigating his way around his first playoff game.  He looked like a kid in a toy store for the very first time.  He was there for the ride and happy to be there.  Unfortunately that’s not Lebron’s job.  Lebron is supposed to be everything and nothing that Michael Jordan was.  He has to take over fourth quarters.  He has to score the game winning basket.  He has to get the big steal.  He has to make the big defensive play to turn the tide.  That’s what HE has to do.

There is however, the problem of having someone on your team that can rival your own talent and skill set.  After all, isn’t that why Lebron and Wade joined forces?  Lebron never had the kind of band mates he has in Miami in Cleveland.  It was about winning and forming the best team possible under NBA free agency rules.  So if that IS the case. why should anyone care if Wade does the heavy lifting?  If Wade carries the team once in a while.  I mean, it was Lebron who carried the Heat against the Bulls.  Shutting down Derrick Rose on one end and then hitting clutch shot after clutch shot on the offensive end.  It was the fulfilling of the prophecy moment for most Lebron fans.

But Wade’s disappearance throughout the Bulls series was not due to failure of trying.  We never questioned Wade’s effort like Lebron’s clearly was after Game 4.  Lebron looked confused.  He looked uncertain.  He looked scared.  He looked lost.  He looked nothing like what we expect and what we expect is MJ.  What we expect are memories we have of Michael Jordan.  Sure we acknowledge the push off on Byron Russell in 98 but we remember the hand staying in the air as he posed for what SHOULD HAVE BEEN his final game.  An artist so sure of what to do in critical moments.  A different being in critical situations.  What was so crazy about LBJ’s performance was this: we saw it in his eyes.  He wasn’t in the game.  He wasn’t so much involved in the goings on of this crucial game 4.  Another game in which they held a 9 point advantage with 7 minutes to go and faltered again.

There are really two sad things about last night’s game:  If Lebron had looked anything like his normal self, the Heat win this running away.  They are up three games to one and on their way to either a five game win or six for added celebratory effect in downtown Miami.  They lost by 2 because for some reason Lebron just wasn’t himself for the entire game.  Dirk Nowitzki outscored Lebron James in the fourth quarter alone.  In 90 career playoff games no one had ever held him to single digits in points and yet on the Finals stage, in a game where I was blown away more by Dwayne Wade’s ability as the BEST two way guard in the game* than Lebron’s no show until I started looking for Lebron on the court like a parent who just remembered they had a kid with them.  Panic set in and I was wondering if Lebron was even in the game and then I saw him turn it over.  I went online looking at his stats and was confused.  6 points?  Are they only showing me the points for the quarter?
*= seriously if there is any argument I’d like to hear it because Dwayne Wade’s block of Tyson Chandler and his 32 points and his Finals MVP showcase performance are all you need to know to end any argument anyone has.  He’s the best 2 way guard in the game.  Better than Kobe.  Better than everyone.  Forget it.   

It was beyond me.  But that’s only because my expectation of Lebron is so much higher than perhaps he has of himself.  Maybe he’s unsure.  Maybe he got a text message from Delonte West and noticed he had checked into Akron, Ohio near his mom’s house.  Maybe the lingering Jordan debate is just too much for him.  Who knows what was bugging him, but what we do know is that for the Heat to win this series, Lebron has to be himself.  Lebron has to rise above his below mediocre self and become that guy from the Bulls series.  How can anyone think that Jason Terry can guard him?  Credit the Mavs D from taking the ball out of Lebron’s hand and making him throw passes to players wearing blue jerseys.  But also you have to consider that Lebron is fading from this series for altogether other reasons just like he did when he quit on the Cavs last year against Boston.

You have to wonder, what’s eating Lebron James?