roycrikside
05-14-2010, 02:39 AM
For a player who's so good and so talented, LeBron James is sure insecure, immature and dumb as all hell. You'd think a guy who's been in the league for eight years would've figured some stuff out, but I guess not. Maybe if you've had the whole world kiss your butt since you were 15, you'd lose perspective too, but I'm honestly wondering, when do you think was the last time somebody looked him in the eye and criticized him or told him he was doing something wrong?
Probably not since his rookie year, I'm guessing.
The reason the Cavs always choke is because their role players always fail to step up. Why do they fail to step up? Because there's no accountability on the team and because they don't respect the coach. Why don't they respect the coach? Because Mike Brown is a sycophant and a cheerleader. He kisses the ground LeBron walks on and makes it known every single day how fortunate he is to be LeBron's coach.
I'll give you a perfect example. Late in the first quarter LeBron got whistled for an obvious foul. Mike Brown went crazy and berated the referee for a good two minutes. And this was an OBVIOUS foul. Later in the game, Varejao got whistled for a questionable, ticky-tack foul and all Brown did was clap and say, "C'mon Andy, let's go."
Or maybe you remember the recent game between the Spurs and the Cavs. Manu was on fire, especially in the 4th, and he brought home the win for the Spurs. Yet while Ginobili was scorching the likes of Delonte West and Anthony Parker, Brown was perfectly content with having James, supposedly his best defender, check the eternally harmless Keith Bogans. Sean Elliott on the mike couldn't understand it, and he said so ad nauseam. Why did Brown not make the switch? Because he didn't want to expose James' fragile ego to the prospect of getting burned by a red hot scorer. He'd rather lose with LeBron looking blameless than risk his guy losing face, even in a relatively meaningless regular season game.
You can't coach this way on a championship team. You can't have one set of rules for one guy and another for everyone else. The role players start to openly despise you and tune you out. The star, meanwhile, starts to subconsciously lose his connection with his teammates. It starts to become a situation where, "I won, we lost," even if the guy doesn't say so or think it. Jealousy and bitterness sets in, and the team is doomed. Even worse, the star never gets better or achieves his true potential because he's not getting the proper coaching. He's always being complemented while his teammates are getting ripped.
You ask the role players for championship teams why they won and they always say the same thing. The coach criticizes our star. We know if he can be yelled at, we all have to be accountable, so we all buy in. Pop rips Duncan and Tony and Manu all the time. Phil rips Kobe and Gasol and used to rip MJ and Pippen. Even Stan Van Gundy rips Dwight Howard. It's what you have to do, not just to make the star play better, but to show the whole team that you're in it for all of them to win, not just to get the star the glory and a new shoe deal.
A naive person might say, "Hey, it's not LeBron's fault that Mike Brown is this way, he should get a new coach." And if he stays in Cleveland he probably will. But GM Danny Ferry knows James as well as anyone. The reason Brown's survived this long is because LeBron wanted him to be here. Brown is not emotionally mature or secure enough to handle criticism. He's surrounded by yes men and stooges and flunkys and that's how he wants it.
Watch how Cleveland's front office will spin this series in the coming weeks. They'll throw one live body after another onto the grenade to absolve LeBron of any blame. It was Mike Brown's fault. And Mo Williams' And Jamison's. And Shaq's. LeBron had a very injured elbow that no other player would've even suited up with. It'll be more ass kissing, which is what LeBron and his gigantic ego demands. All the roses, none of the thorns.
Either way, I'll be happy to see Mike Brown gone as his Bobo the Clown act on the sidelines was becoming rather tiresome. What a puppet. Seriously, would any self-respecting coach let his players get away with all the strutting and preening and fake camera nonsense that LeBron revels in during the regular season? Would Pop or Phil or Sloan let their players do that shit in a million years? Of course not.
It's surprising none of the players ever asked LeBron to tell Brown to hop on one foot while giving a pep talk during a time out. What a dipshit.
Probably not since his rookie year, I'm guessing.
The reason the Cavs always choke is because their role players always fail to step up. Why do they fail to step up? Because there's no accountability on the team and because they don't respect the coach. Why don't they respect the coach? Because Mike Brown is a sycophant and a cheerleader. He kisses the ground LeBron walks on and makes it known every single day how fortunate he is to be LeBron's coach.
I'll give you a perfect example. Late in the first quarter LeBron got whistled for an obvious foul. Mike Brown went crazy and berated the referee for a good two minutes. And this was an OBVIOUS foul. Later in the game, Varejao got whistled for a questionable, ticky-tack foul and all Brown did was clap and say, "C'mon Andy, let's go."
Or maybe you remember the recent game between the Spurs and the Cavs. Manu was on fire, especially in the 4th, and he brought home the win for the Spurs. Yet while Ginobili was scorching the likes of Delonte West and Anthony Parker, Brown was perfectly content with having James, supposedly his best defender, check the eternally harmless Keith Bogans. Sean Elliott on the mike couldn't understand it, and he said so ad nauseam. Why did Brown not make the switch? Because he didn't want to expose James' fragile ego to the prospect of getting burned by a red hot scorer. He'd rather lose with LeBron looking blameless than risk his guy losing face, even in a relatively meaningless regular season game.
You can't coach this way on a championship team. You can't have one set of rules for one guy and another for everyone else. The role players start to openly despise you and tune you out. The star, meanwhile, starts to subconsciously lose his connection with his teammates. It starts to become a situation where, "I won, we lost," even if the guy doesn't say so or think it. Jealousy and bitterness sets in, and the team is doomed. Even worse, the star never gets better or achieves his true potential because he's not getting the proper coaching. He's always being complemented while his teammates are getting ripped.
You ask the role players for championship teams why they won and they always say the same thing. The coach criticizes our star. We know if he can be yelled at, we all have to be accountable, so we all buy in. Pop rips Duncan and Tony and Manu all the time. Phil rips Kobe and Gasol and used to rip MJ and Pippen. Even Stan Van Gundy rips Dwight Howard. It's what you have to do, not just to make the star play better, but to show the whole team that you're in it for all of them to win, not just to get the star the glory and a new shoe deal.
A naive person might say, "Hey, it's not LeBron's fault that Mike Brown is this way, he should get a new coach." And if he stays in Cleveland he probably will. But GM Danny Ferry knows James as well as anyone. The reason Brown's survived this long is because LeBron wanted him to be here. Brown is not emotionally mature or secure enough to handle criticism. He's surrounded by yes men and stooges and flunkys and that's how he wants it.
Watch how Cleveland's front office will spin this series in the coming weeks. They'll throw one live body after another onto the grenade to absolve LeBron of any blame. It was Mike Brown's fault. And Mo Williams' And Jamison's. And Shaq's. LeBron had a very injured elbow that no other player would've even suited up with. It'll be more ass kissing, which is what LeBron and his gigantic ego demands. All the roses, none of the thorns.
Either way, I'll be happy to see Mike Brown gone as his Bobo the Clown act on the sidelines was becoming rather tiresome. What a puppet. Seriously, would any self-respecting coach let his players get away with all the strutting and preening and fake camera nonsense that LeBron revels in during the regular season? Would Pop or Phil or Sloan let their players do that shit in a million years? Of course not.
It's surprising none of the players ever asked LeBron to tell Brown to hop on one foot while giving a pep talk during a time out. What a dipshit.