It's rare that Counterpunch has a sports article, but recently there was one by Dennis Loo entitiled LeBron James and the Culture of Narcissism. He posted the article on his blog at Open Salon, but I didn't feel like signing up for a Salon account just to rebut one article so I'm rebutting here.
Apparently Loo started watching LeBron this past season. If he had followed LeBron throughout his NBA career, he wouldn't have made the following erroneous statement:
How can he be the King when he hasn’t taken his team to even the NBA finals?
LeBron led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007. I was at Games 3 and 4 of the 2007 NBA Finals as well as Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, when they clinched their berth in the Finals. A quick Google search will also confirm that the Cavaliers played in the 2007 NBA Finals and that LeBron James was on the Cavaliers.
Apparently Loo didn't watch Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, when LeBron scored the last 25 points for the Cavaliers on the way to a victory in double overtime. If you have NBA TV, Dennis Loo, they usually air that game on December 30, LeBron's birthday. It's one of the greatest playoff performances in NBA history. And I think it qualifies as an example of "take your team on your shoulders and say, follow me."
Loo ends his LeBron bashing with the following gem:
If I were a Cleveland fan, I’d think real hard about whether I wanted him back after this. Not because he lost to Boston, but because of the way he did it.
I am a Cleveland fan, and I want him back because I remember what things were like before LeBron. In the four seasons before LeBron joined the Cavaliers, they lost 220 games. That's 55 losses a season, which is losing approximately two-thirds of their games. The arena was 75% empty on weeknights unless Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, or the Lakers were the opponent. Things sucked pre-LeBron, and they will suck post-LeBron. I know you don't remember how things were before LeBron, Dennis Loo. You don't even know what they were like during his tenure with the Cavaliers.
