LeBron James Says He Is A Winner....After His Team Loses to Orlando

Okay, so LeBron spoke the other day and said, “I’m a winner…If somebody beat you up, you’re not going to congratulate them on beating you up.” Um, okay. That still doesn’t explain why he walked off the court and refused to meet with the media after the Cavs were sent packing. I wish he would have just told the truth, which probably would have sounded something like this, “Look, I was disappointed in the loss. I expected so much more from my team and from myself. It hurt like hell to lose and they always say, if you don’t have anything nice to say then you shouldn’t say anything at all. I was in the heat of the moment and I knew my comments would not have been appropriate, so I opted to keep my mouth shut. It was hard enough to swallow the loss without answering a bunch of questions about it.” I think something along those lines would have been more appropriate than the short speech he gave. At least he said he sent Dwight an email to congratulate him.

I might have had a problem with LeBron’s reaction if it wasn’t for one fact: Orlando talked a lot of shit all the way through the series. The team and coach jumped on the bandwagon with their fans and complained that LeBron was getting too many calls and Orlando was being disrespected by the media with the LeBron-Kobe hype. I guess I should be the one to break it to them about how things work. The media wants the matchup between the number 1 and number 2 teams in the country. They would want it whether it was Kobe and LeBron or as it was last year, Kobe vs Allen, Pierce and Garnett. Last year, from the tipoff of the playoffs, all you heard about was LA and Boston and their historic rivalry and yada, yada, yada. You should ignore that crap or use it as motivation to win. Orlando won, end of story, bye bye Kobe-LeBron Final. The world has not come to an end and the media is not dying, they’re simply picking up a new storyline.

And while we’re on the topic, Orlando was leading the series, yet Orlando fans were saying that the refs were trying to help LeBron win. I’d just like to say that if the refs were on LeBron’s side, then the Cavs would have won all of the close games, because refs can and sometimes do, determine the outcome of games. Look at the Denver-Dallas game and Carmelo’s now infamous three after he was fouled. If the refs wanted the Cavs to win, then they would have called some cheap tic-tac fouls at the end of the game, when it mattered most, and all the calls would have gone to the Cavs. I try not to be a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the refs. Let’s face it, the refs make bad calls on both ends of the floor and sometimes the refs swallow their whistles and sometimes they get whistle happy. Sometimes a tap on the arm that was ignored two minutes ago in a game is suddenly a foul when it is done again. I’ve given up on trying to figure out what the refs are thinking and how they decide to officiate games.

Now back to LeBron: It is better to be thought a fool then open your mouth and remove all doubt. He should have simply stated that he didn’t have anything to say after the game. I actually find it amusing that LeBron’s silence after the loss received more focus than the fact that Orlando won the game. I think that’s kind of funny.

All that said though, I love LeBron because he doesn’t accept defeat the way I do and the way a lot of other Cleveland fans do. He wants more and he honestly believes he will get more. I’ve watched his ego grow bigger and bigger and at first it annoyed me but now I’m starting to think that it might be just what this city needs. We need a star who thinks that he is going to be one of the greatest; a star who doesn’t even think the sky is the limit. He is no more arrogant than Kobe and both have the skills to back it up, so I’m biting my tongue on his big head for a while but I reserve the right to comment later.

I’d also like to point out that LeBron wasn’t the most hated basketball player in America until his team was in the number one spot. Hmm, kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Status: Wondering why I’m still talking about the Cavs.