Celtics vs. Cavaliers Game 5 Proved Lebron is Not Ready to Be the King of NBA Royalty!

Posted by By Sports Session at 12 May, at 06 : 38 AM Print

Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semifinals just came to an end, and I sit in disbelief and joy at what I just witnessed.  Let me make it clear, my loyalties lie with the Orlando Magic, but I found myself rooting for the Boston Celtics tonight.  Watching The Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron implode right before my eyes, I can honestly say although the game was a blow out it sure was not boring.

Once again, Lebron and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers took the court with a chance to steal momentum back from the Boston Celtics and perhaps land a crucial dagger in the series.  But, instead they came out passive, uninspired, and put on an underwhelming performance.

On a normal night during the regular season we would see Lebron driving the lane, shredding through the defense and finishing with a monster dunk or acrobatic layup.  Tonight he took two steps in from the 3-point line and just passed it to a teammate or missed a long jumper.  It was the third time in this series alone that the most explosive player in the NBA limited himself to being a below-average long-range jump-shooter.

Why?  Well it is quite simple, what Lebron has started to show over the past few years is a propensity to not really care.  Yes, I said it he does not care, and for all the lip service he puts out about winning a title and the team coming first he sure does not show it on the court at times.  He comes up small in the biggest moments; he lacks the aggression of Michael Jordan and the nose for closing games like Kobe Bryant.

Lebron’s play contradicts what he says, remember all the articles that were written about the anger and motivation he felt after losing to the Orlando Magic last year.  How this was going to be the year he was going to lead the Cavaliers to winning an NBA championship.  He also told anyone that would listen; there would be no smiling and goofing around during this year’s playoffs because it was all about focusing on the task of bringing the city of Cleveland its first title since 1964.

Well none of that showed up on Tuesday night, I know all of the sports media will be trying to convince everyone that your “ailing” elbow is the source of all this downgraded play.  But Charles Barkley said it best after the game, “Lebron left bullets in the gun tonight”, what he meant by that was even in a blowout you do everything you can to score and make plays.  The Cavaliers are his team, Lebron is the MVP of the league, and there is no way he should have been sitting on the bench shaking his head while Ray Allen drained another 3-pointer.

We all know that Lebron has a subpar supporting cast, Moe Williams (please), Shaq (too old), Antwan Jamison (too inconsistent).  But Lebron is drawing comparisons to Hall of Famers, and talks of the crown being passed from Kobe to him.  Well I can say Jordan never left bullets in the gun, I cannot recall Jordan ever losing in the playoffs by 32 points in a much tougher NBA that what Lebron is facing.

Lebron’s post game comments just did not sound right, he basically said I had a bad shooting night.  No shi*t that is what the stats are for, but what are you going to do about it?  How are you going to get the most out of Anthony Parker, Moe Williams, and those other stiffs that you play with?

If this was Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, I can almost guarantee they would have said something along these lines.  “We played horrible tonight, and they handed our ass to us.  With that being said this won’t happen again, we will be ready to play next game you can be sure of that”.  Then both of them would have went into the locker room and ripped their teammates a new one, I do not feel Lebron has that type of fire in him at this point in his career.

People will point to Kobe’s Lakers getting hammered by these same Celtics a few years ago, but they forget one thing.  Kobe has so many clutch championship moments that he can get a mulligan on one, but the next season he finished the job.  Not only did Lebron fail last year against the Magic, but he is now in danger of going out even earlier in the playoffs this season.  Lebron is a good player, but he has not earned consideration to be on Jordan or even Kobe’s level of NBA knighthood just yet.  If he can come up big and win this series he will prove a lot of people wrong, but the odds are stacked against him.

Front Page Features NBA Anthony Parker, basketball, boston celtics, Cavaliers, Celtics, Charles Barkley, cleveland cavaliers, Eastern Conference, eastern conference semifinals, kobe bryant, lebron, Michael Jordan, Moe Williams, NBA, nba championship, Orlando, orlando magic, ray allen