Bill Simmons on LeBron Controversy
The LeBron debate rages on for another day as we wait for the actual basketball to be played in the finals. A lot of the national press has weighed in whether we wanted to hear their opinions or not. One polarizing writer had not been heard from until today. I am talking about Bill Simmons. I know a lot of people out there sometimes don’t like him because he talks about Boston so much. Still, when it comes to the NBA, Bill Simmons is about as big a fan of “The Association” as you will find. His opinions and observations are usually spot on when it comes to that topic. Well, maybe not always when it deals with the Celtics. Regardless, he starts off his latest mailbag with some talk about LeBron and what kinds of silver linings that LBJ and the Cavs can take away from this year’s playoff run. Of course, Simmons also comments on the “controversy.”
When you caused a controversy by storming off the court after Game 6 and refusing to attend your press conference, you did something even better: You brought us back to the days when “rivals” didn’t hug each other like Red and Andy after every game, when NBA stars actually took losing personally and treated their peers like enemies instead of friends. I loved it. That was an old-school move. And as reader Brian Naftaly points out, you accomplished something even better: You made your teammates cover you in the postgame press conference, marking the first time all series they did something or helped you in any way. That was genius. Hold your head up high, LeBron James. You could not have done more with the possible exception of coaching the team … and really, that might not have been a bad idea.
(Now, please spend the summer working on a low-post game and come back with at least two moves. If you care about cracking the top six of all time — and I think you do — then you should have a reliable jump hook, a drop step and an MJ-like fallaway by November. Period.)
While I have been on record defending LeBron only due to the overwhelmingly unreasonable nature of the level of criticism, Bill Simmons chimes in on the controversy and gives LeBron a free pass. On top of that, he also seems to have the same conclusion that I came up with for how the Cavaliers can develop during the off-season to force the rest of the league to catch up with them next year. Not that I needed Bill Simmons’ seal of approval for validation, but sometimes it feels good to have out-of-market people come to the same conclusions just to make sure my head isn’t squarely locked into the homer perspective.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:06 am
This is one of his best articles from my standpoint because his criticisms of the Cavs are spot on. I agree with what he likes, agree with what he dislikes, and laugh when I read who the questions are from. Finally, a column that was worth the 25 minutes it took to read. Thanks, Bill!
June 4th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I feel validated by the fact that I said in our series preview: “Cleveland doesn’t have the interior defensive speed to keep up with Howard and Rashard Lewis all of the time, but if they can limit Lewis and clamp down on the 3-point shooting, it honestly won’t matter much what Howard is able to do down low.”
And, I believe I echoed that early and often throughout the comments of the series recaps we posted. I feel validated, though it’s not much consolation since apparently our coach of the year couldn’t figure it out.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Agreed that Simmons is right on with his analysis.
The problem with Brown is that he just HATES to see easy baskets for the other side, and in the first half of Game 1, it was clear that Howard was going to be able to get all the easy baskets he wanted. Of course, at the end of the 1st half of Game 1, the Cavs had a 12 point lead, thus validating all of us who thought the best strategy was let Howard get his and clamp down on everyone else.
Of course, in the 2nd half, the Cavs completely changed their defensive strategy and began inexplicably doubling Howard. The Magic comeback thus began in earnest and Brown refused to adjust back to his original strategy. It wasn’t fun seeing Howard abuse us repeatedly, but I could live with it up 12 points. Apparently, Mike Brown couldn’t.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Mike Brown was terrible all series. I think he is getting an easy pass from this whole series.
Of course it would have been nice to see Z offer some resistance on Dwight. He wasn’t even making Dwight work. He was almost as terrible.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:54 am
” His opinions and observations are usually spot on when it comes to that topic.”
Especially when he picked the Cavs to roll over the Magic easily.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Unfortunately, we have another year of Slowdrunas Dunkedongauskas, because he’s not going to give up the 11mill owed to him.
It’s almost like this whole Lebron not talking issue is overshadowing what a poor coaching job Mike Brown did. No one is talking about it. Once again, Lebron bails MB out.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
yeah dude that has to be the best simmons article to date.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Or, Nicko, going with their later strategy of fouling the bejeebers out of him instead of letting him score. You’ve got how many big men that can just foul him? Do that, make him earn it at the stripe (though you have to tip your cap at how much above his season average he hit his FTs), and cover everyone else.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Agreed.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
This sux though, I don’t even think I can get myself to watch any of these games.
June 4th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Is the mere thought of Lebron coming back next year with at least two moves in the low-post (that he uses consistently) giving anyone else goosebumps?
June 4th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
For goodness sakes guys! You have this 24 year old prodigy who is carrying the hopes and dreams of Northeast Ohio on his (extremely) broad shoulders. He brought home the Olympic Gold Medal, he was named MVP – the stars (and Nike’s puppets) were in alignment. It didn’t happen this year and I know that LeBron was beyond disconsolate. Cut him some slack, please.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Aren’t you glad that ESPN didn’t drag out some film of Willie Mays catching Vic Wertz long fly ball?