Some Love For LeBron

In case you haven’t noticed, we rarely take notice of the National Basketball Association around here.

Seriously, who cares? Defense wins championships, and since they never play defense in the NBA, there really are no championships to be won, are there?

Of course, LeBron James is slowing changing that perception.

In fact, we actually watched a few seconds of James’ epic performances in the NBA Eastern Finals last month, which was the first time we’d taken in any NBA ball since a particularly hazy fantasy baseball draft weekend four years ago when our founding editor literally got too stoned to change the channel. Northern Lights and NBA don’t mix, people. Let’s just leave it at that.

Anyway, LeBron capped off a herculean (albeit wasted) effort against the Orlando Magic by throwing what many viewed as a childish, unprofessional temper tantrum.

Of course, after single-handedly leading his team that far, can we really blame him for being pissed?

From a long-and-winding but highly amusing ESPN column by Bill Simmons:

When you caused a controversy by storming off the court after Game 6 and refusing to attend your press conference, you did something even better (for the game): You brought us back to the days when “rivals” didn’t hug each other like Red and Andy after every game, when NBA stars actually took losing personally and treated their peers like enemies instead of friends. I loved it. That was an old-school move. And as reader Brian Naftaly points out, you accomplished something even better: You made your teammates cover you in the postgame press conference, marking the first time all series they did something or helped you in any way. That was genius. Hold your head up high, LeBron James. You could not have done more with the possible exception of coaching the team … and really, that might not have been a bad idea.

That makes sense, and even though we think that ice hockey’s famed end-of-series handshake (when rival teams line up and congratulate each other on a hard-fought series) is one of the greatest traditions in all of sports, it’s hard to argue that there isn’t at least a small place in the competitive endeavor for genuine hatred of one’s opponent.

Particularly if one’s opponent is the media.

So yeah, props to you, LeBron. You can bail on talking to us anytime!