Stop Making Excuses For LeBron James2

It still makes me go “Hmmmm” when people say that they do not believe LeBron is that great of an athlete but continue to make excuses for him when he plays terribly or even below his own usual standard. As a fan of his game, I refuse to sit back and feed into the drones and drones of rumors used to excuse why he has not been playing like a superstar in this year’s finals series.

There seems to be something wrong with him, however, superior players are supposed to be able to leave any off court issues, where they belong and perform to the best of their ability on the court. That being said, the newest rumor floating around that Jason Terry has trash talked LeBron’s game into mediocrity, is going to slide down my shoulders into the trash like all the other rumors being tossed into the mix.

There are far more intimidating active players than Jason Terry that LeBron James has played against. You think Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett were holding their tongues when LeBron was hitting threes right over their heads? Let’s be real. Garnett was accused of calling Charlie Villanueva a ‘cancer patient’ during a game against the Detroit Pistons. I am more than sure he tried everything in his power to get in the heads of every player on the Heat roster during the playoffs series. Did it work? It apparently did not because Miami is playing in the Finals after beating both Chicago and Boston four games to one.

To add to that, LeBron James was Miami’s closer in both of those series. Dwyane Wade was the second man in charge, but James closed a majority of those games with jumpers that most people thought had disappeared. Now, that he is on the big stage once again, he is in a rut and every media outlet wants to give some type of reason why.

However, the more interesting part of the Finals series is that, no one is looking to Dirk Nowitzki as the man who never won a championship. No one is questioning his leadership. You may want to argue the fact that no one is questioning his talent because he stayed in Dallas, even though he had not been handed a championship ring, but had James stayed in Cleveland without winning a ring, he would still be as criticized as much as he is now.

The problem with fans, is that everyone wants to define players by the Jordan standard. If that is the case, a lot of the players we consider great today, are not as great as the pedestal we put them up on. People need to realize that there are other ways, than the Jordan standard, to win. Larry Bird was no Jordan, but there is not a soul, dead or alive, that would be able to convince a room full of people that he was not one of the greatest of all time. Magic Johnson, a point guard, may not have been Jordan-esque, but still regarded as one of the greatest players ever to grace the courts of the NBA.

Do not excuse LeBron James’ perplexing performance because of some rumors about his girlfriend, his mother or anything else another player can toss into his face, verbally.

Those are words.

If you cannot separate trash talk from the reality of those words, you do not deserve to be on this stage. But, I think we can all agree that he has proved through the regular season, Philly, Boston and Chicago series that he deserves to be here. It is solely in his hands whether he takes full advantage or not. Not in the hands of Jason Terry or any other trash talking athlete.

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