Just when you think that maybe LeBron James is maturing and that you’ve forgiven him for The Decision and for getting his coaches fired and for his annoying onstage promise of endless championships in Miami; just when he’s making you feel mildly warm and fuzzy for taking his talents back to Cleveland for a championship and making you laugh in a surprisingly good movie turn … then he makes the one mistake he always makes:
He opens his mouth.
We would call this a season of discontent for James, but aren’t they all? He calls Phil Jackson a racist — PHIL JACKSON!!?? James calls Charles Barkley “a hater.” He’s complaining about teammates. He’s complaining about his owner and his general manager for not building him a better team. He’s insisting that the Cleveland-Golden State rivalry is not a rivalry.
He’s the most insecure superstar since Karl Malone, in need of constant validation. He says he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, then he makes that insufferable “What should I do” TV commercial plying for sympathy. If he didn’t care, then he wouldn’t feel the need to respond to every little slight, à la Donald Trump.
Maybe the most galling thing about it his insistence on being surrounded by a ready-made championship team as if it’s his birthright, which is what Barkley was trying to say when he drew the wrath of the Chosen1 (see tattoo). That’s why he left Cleveland for Miami years ago — unlike Bird, Jordan and Magic, he abandoned his team in search of an all-star team to help him win a title. Fortunately for him, the NBA’s poor brand of revenue sharing allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, which is why we now have an arms race underway between the NBA’s two superpowers, Cleveland and Golden State — but, remember, it’s not a rivalry.
When the Cavs hit a deep slump last month, James went into Whine Mode. He whined that the team is not better than last year. He whined, between profanities, that the Cavs are a “top-heavy” team — by including himself, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.” (Remember when having two stars of that caliber was a championship formula?)
He whined that the Cavs haven't’ done enough to build a team around him even though the team has by far the highest payroll and highest luxury tax in the league.
It doesn’t help that he’s enabled by fawning media. Here was the headline on a recent cbssports.com story: “LeBron’s On-Court Genius Affords Him License to Whine All He Wants; Deal with it.”
SB Nation.com posted a story saying James had every right to hold Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to his promise to do everything to win a championship, even, apparently, if it means going bankrupt. “Why should he be (patient)?” the story states. “He’s the best player of his generation … he chose to return to Cleveland as a free agent in 2014. That affords a certain level of impatience. You bow to the king if you want to remain in his good graces … If you don’t play by his rules, he can — and will — leave ... LeBron comes with strings attached. Ignore his rules at your own peril.
Not everyone in the media is so enabling. Barkley said this of the Chosen One on TNT: "Inappropriate. Whiny. All of the above. The Cleveland Cavaliers, they have given him everything he wanted. They have the highest payroll in NBA history. (James) wanted J.R. Smith last summer, they paid him. He wanted (Iman) Shumpert last summer. They brought in Kyle Korver. (James) is the best player in the world. Does he want all of the good players? He don't want to compete?"
James responded about the way you would expect, telling ESPN, “He’s a hater. What makes him credible? Because he’s on TV?”
Well, Barkley did play a little basketball and was the NBA’s Most Valuable Player once.
Then there was the tiff with Jackson, who, in an interview with ESPN, commented on James' departure from the Heat in 2014:
"It had to hurt when they lost LeBron," Jackson said. " … But there were a lot of little things that came out of that. When LeBron was playing with the Heat, they went to Cleveland, and he wanted to spend the night. They don't do overnights. Teams just don't. So now (coach Erik) Spoelstra has to text (team president Pat) Riley and say, 'What do I do in this situation?' And Pat, who has iron-fist rules, answers, 'You are on the plane. You are with this team.' You can't hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland.
"I always thought Pat had this really nice vibe with his guys. But something happened there where it broke down. I do know LeBron likes special treatment. He needs things his way."
James didn’t refute any of what Jackson said — instead, he focused on Jackson’s use of the word “posse,” which he said was racist — an absurd claim given Jackson’s four decades of coaching and playing with black players without a hint of racism.
James is one of the greatest basketball talents in history, but if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut he’s going to be remembered as much for his whining and selfishness as his skills on the court.