Lay off the King!

I have constantly made the point that sports stars are not role models. So the fact that Lebron James did something completely unsportsman like is completely irrelevant. We as fans hold these guy to higher standards, and when they fail it sends in to a ranting tizzy! If you do not know what I am talking about bear with me and I will make sure you understand. But first the conversational tone has to be established. We often hold our sports stars to standards that are entirely too lofty, and when they let us down, no matter how trivial the matter, we expect them to attempt to pay complete penance. Is this a realistic standard, or are we complete idiots?

So now the back story, Lebron James exited the court after his game six early exit without congratulating any of the Magic players or talking to the media. Over the last few days the talking heads have gone nuts and labeled Lebron James a bad sportsman. I don't understand this. I remember when I let myself down and disappointed someone else, which is exactly what happened here, the last thing I want to do is tell someone else "Good job" and talk to the people I let down. The media, and me, has been salivating over a Lebron verse Kobe final. With the Vitamin Water and puppet commercials, you would've thought that they had already made it. But then something crazy happened, Lebron played his guts out and his supporting cast disappeared. Poor Lebron was on a team full of witnesses and he couldn't beat the diverse magic by himself. He let himself down due to his own high standards, and he let the media and the NBA down by not giving the much hyped Lakers-Cavs final. Lebron is very competitive and the last thing he wanted to do was stick around and shake hands and field questions. Lebron has been a shining example of how to be a superstar in the NBA. He speaks clearly, he dresses well, and he stays out of trouble. Not to mention all his dancing and goofing off shows me that he loves his job, and what more could you ask? Which leads directly to my next point.

Let's just say for the sake of argument that Lebron did act inappropriately. Why are we chastising one of the few superstars who does things right, over what is really a minuscule mistake. He lost his cool in the heat of passion, hell that will get you off a murder rap so it should damn sure be overlooked in the handshake context. It is no secret that I think highly of Lebron James as is demonstrated by my blog a couple of weeks ago, but I can also say without bias GET OFF THE HATE TRAIN! The more an athlete succeeds the higher we set our expectations, which makes it inevitable for said athlete to fail. I have a great idea, why don't we encourage Lebron to mess up so that way we can praise him when he gets his life turned around, we seem to like those stories better. Lebron made a mistake in the moment, but he is a great sportsman and good for professional sports. Please excuse him for being competitive. Live like no one is watching and stay focused on what matters