Canzano is so full of shit on LeBron James. He's cracking on James for not showing up for the Boston series. James averaged 27/9/7 in that series and had one bad game. His teammates flat out sucked against Boston. Kobe Bryant goes 5 for 25 in a Game 7, his support cast carries him, and Bryant is lauded as some sort of clutch hero. The LeBron haters can't have it both ways. Cracking on him when he can't drag a team of slugs across the finish line, and cracking on him because he makes a decision to go to a situation where he doesn't have to carry an entire team (and franchise) on his knees, er, back.
Earlier on the W@W, Quick said the team is extremely high on Babbitt and view him as an immediate impact player.
Dude, he was straight up apathetic for the last couple games of that series. I kept thinking, "Ok, when is LeBron going to try to take this game back?" It never happened. The thing is, he proclaimed himself as King James. He has Chosen One tattooed on his back. He brought all of this attention to himself, and I was looking forward to see how he would react to some adversity on a team that played so well in the regular season. He didn't come through plain and simple. Maybe the Delonte thing really did happen because he seriously looked like he didn't care. Kobe was terrible in that last game as well, but Kobe doesn't lay down and die when his team needs him. LeBron has all of the ability in the world. Think about when he scored 20+ straight a couple years ago. He just doesn't have the mentality to do it consistently IMO. I think he will benefit big time of having someone willing to do that in Wade.
Game 6 - 27 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, Cavs lose 94-85. How could that even remotely be considered "laying down"? By the way, Kobe did lay down against the Suns a few years ago when he took 2 shots in the second half of an elimination game. The fact that people view this as him underperforming tells me all I need to know about why he wanted out of Cleveland. He had one bad game in that series, his teammates didn't step up, and James gets killed for it.
LeBron James didn't "come through" in the playoffs? Well, his team didn't come through, but here are James' numbers for the playoffs. 29 ppg 9 rpg 8 apg 2 bpg 2 spg 50% FG 40% 3FG 73% FT 28.6 PER I'll throw in the James had an ungodly 37.4 PER in the playoffs last year, and still didn't make the Finals. Yet that was James' fault as well.
And during the three games everyone said he quit in he averaged: 21.3 points on 33.9% shooting, 11.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists, with an amazing 6.3 turnovers a game in those final three games as a Cavalier. He plain up quit in those final three games. He looked apathetic - during game five I don't believe he even drove for the hoop until middle of the third quarter.
Why would Nate have a problem with Babbitt? It's not like he hasn't given rookies minutes in the past.
Or, he couldn't carry the team, and Boston had a plan that wore him down. Whatever the case, let's blame LeBron. Also, if he's such a quitter, why didn't Gilbert actively pursue a sign-and-trade? He sure seemed to want this quitter back, didn't he? Also, bad shooting aside, 22/11/8 while having a very good defensive team defend you isn't all that bad. Kobe had worse numbers the last three games of the Finals, but his team won, and he is lauded. Plus, James shut down Paul Pierce, which is no easy feat. So even if LeBron "quit" on the offensive end (which I think is a silly opinion), he humliated Pierce on the defensive end. Or, did Pierce quit on Boston, but his teammates made up for him quitting?
Not true really. Of the 89 games Lebron played all season: Game 5 of the Boston series was the worst game he played. Game 4 was the 7th worst. Game 2 was the 15th worst. Game 6 was the 31st worst. Games one and three, he was good though. His 9th and 17th best games of the season. He's a great player and even his off games are very solid. But he wasn't good in that series. He had a pretty bad series for him. It's not hate if it's true. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01/gamelog/2010/
He was very good in that series for most players. He wasn't the best player in the league during that series, and he didn't have the cast to make up for him only being very good. For that, people like you kill the guy. It makes it obvious why he left Cleveland, yet people like you don't even seem to realize it. You're making his case. Boston had one mission - stop LeBron and make somebody else beat you. It didn't happen for Cleveland, and that is somehow James' fault? EDIT - I'd also love to see you run the game stats on Paul Pierce. LeBron shut his ass down that series and humiliated Pierce.
