Wiedmer: LeBron needs supporting cast to win NBA championship
Monday, June 1, 2009
It wasn’t hard for LeBron James’s actions to speak louder than his words Saturday night. That's basically because the most talented basketball player on the planet never opened his mouth following Cleveland’s 103-90, season-ending loss to Orlando in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.
The Cavs again unable to reach the championship round, the usually loquacious LeBron bolted from Orlando's court without shaking the victors’ hands, then headed for the bus without speaking to his teammates.
Because we live in an age of both instant and endless news cycles, Sunday morning’s sports pundits were deliriously dissecting what all this meant.
Had LeBron’s good-guy image been damaged?
Was this a certain sign that he wants out of Cleveland yesterday, if not sooner, despite knowing he’ll spend at least the 2009-10 season there?
And what does Nike do with its LeBron-Kobe (Bryant) puppet commercials now that LeBron’s done? Does it start a new series for the Finals featuring Kobe and Superman (Orlando’s Dwight Howard), since Kobe’s Lakers now face Orlando? Does it edit the existing ad of Kobe blinding Lebron with his three championship rings by adding a fourth bauble to his fingers?
Does ABC now stage the entire Finals with puppets instead of real players, since ratings will surely plummet without Kobe versus LeBron to fuel viewership?
Thankfully, James emerged from his understandable funk long enough to answer at least a couple of those questions late Sunday afternoon.
“I feel great about this situation,” he told reporters when asked about the Cavs’ future. “We got better, and I feel this team will be better next season.”
As for not speaking to the media or shaking the Magic’s hands after the 103-90 loss, James added, “It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.”
You can argue with King James over that last point. If he wants to stay in the puppet business he probably needs to retain his warm and fuzzy side in both victory and defeat.
On the other hand, even the world’s best athletes have a bad day now and then. Just ask tennis player Rafa Nadal after the world’s top-ranked player lost his first French Open match ever on Sunday.
So James will probably get a free pass on his behavior Saturday night as long as he doesn’t do it again. And given his own spotless history — as well as the public relations machines at Nike, Gatorade and elsewhere — that shouldn’t be too difficult.
But whether or not he should remain in Cleveland past 2010 is a more complex issue.
Yes, James has spent his entire life in northern Ohio. He grew up rooting for the Browns, Indians and Cavs as a youngster in Akron. As hurtful as this loss may be for Cleveland residents, were James to leave, he knows his exit might top The Drive orchestrated by Denver’s John Elway or The Shot buried by Michael Jordan over the Cavs’ Craig Ehlo as the most painful moment in the city’s excruciatingly painful sports history.
Yet who could blame him?
The guy averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.2 assists against the Magic and his team still lost in six games, with one of the Cavs’ two wins coming on a miraculous James 3-pointer at the buzzer. Without James, the Cavs don’t even make the playoffs.
This doesn’t mean they can’t get better. Jordan's Bulls didn’t win their first NBA title until 1991, which was His Airness’s seventh season in the league. James has just completed his sixth year. Hmmmm.
But much as Jordan once did, James desperately needs a better supporting cast. At almost every position on the floor. That was the problem against Orlando. Other than Cleveland point guard Mo Williams, the Magic were both better and deeper everywhere save James. And if Orlando point guard Jameer Nelson hadn’t been injured, the Magic would be better there, too.
Of course, Orlando might also have the edge on Kobe’s Lakers in the Finals. The Magic swept the Lakers during the regular season and if LA’s bench doesn’t deliver, Superman may prove as superior to Kobe as Disney World is to Disneyland.
But that doesn’t mean LeBron’s Cavs can’t overtake the Magic a year from now and spare Nike from scrapping those LeBron-Kobe puppet spots. They just can’t be the same Cavs as this season.
If they are, LeBron need say only two words to his teammates and his town this time next spring: Good-bye.
