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Damn, LeBron is really taking a lot of heat for all this. Being a media darling is obviously a double-edged sword.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...,4168871.story
The basketball star avoids media after Cleveland's elimination from playoffs, proving he has much to learn from tennis star, who takes his lumps after shocking loss at French Open.
Diane Pucin, On
9:55 PM PDT, May 31, 2009
There was Rafael Nadal on Sunday after a shockingly disappointing upset loss to Robin Soderling at the French Open answering questions in two languages and manfully owning his disappointment and emotions.
There wasn't LeBron James on Saturday night after his Cleveland Cavaliers exited the NBA playoffs being reminded that having the best regular-season record means, well, not so much after the playoffs start. There wasn't any James at the postgame media podium. That dirty work was left to lesser teammates. There wasn't any James with a headset on talking to the TNT studio show stars. Sideline reporter Craig Sager told us James had slunk out of Orlando's Amway Arena with his mother and without a backward glance.
Hey, LeBron.
You want to be a star and have puppets cavorting in your honor on television commercials? You let talk ebb and flow about how you need the bigger stage that New York might provide in another year when you are a free agent and everyone will beg for your otherworldly basketball talent and indisputable will to win?
Then show up when it hurts too, when the world isn't being operated like a, well, puppet on a string in your favor.
In its way, Nadal's early departure from the tournament in which he had won 31 straight matches was just as big a deal as James' premature exit from an NBA playoffs, in which most all the world was hoping for Kobe against LeBron. Nike ads, VitaminWater commercials, the puppets, all humanity, seemed to demand a Lakers-Cleveland Finals, and the Cavaliers let them down.
But whatever limelight moments tennis gets in this country right now mostly center on the enthralling rivalry between Nadal and his personality and game-type opposite Roger Federer. And Nadal blew his chance for another week of personal adulation as well as being an ambassador for tennis by losing too early. But, hey, that's sports.
James waited until he got back to Cleveland on Sunday to open his mouth.
Too little, too late. For the next year, as his free-agency drama plays out, James is going to be the biggest story going in the NBA. He's going to face questions most every day about the quality of the team around him, about the quality of coaching, about what might await him in New York, Chicago . . . pick the big-market NBA city of your choice.
And will James just walk away every day?
His teammates and coaches excused his Saturday behavior. Winning meant so much to him, they said. He played so hard, tried so hard, wanted it so much. Maybe he was embarrassed about all that creative advertising brainpower wasted. Not that Nike's LeBron/Kobe puppet ads weren't cute and funny and who wouldn't go out and buy colored VitaminWater (I guess it has vitamins in it) because LeBron and Kobe guzzle it, but shouldn't these companies know a little bit about sports? Such as the winner isn't always who you think it will be?
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, James addressed a question Sunday about whether he will sign a contract renewal with the Cavaliers this summer with understandable vagueness.
"I don't know," James said. "I haven't thought about it just yet. I'm just going to take time off from basketball and not think about contracts or the game, period, and relax with my family. We'll figure out once it comes from" the Cavaliers.
James could have said that Saturday night and also maybe congratulated the Magic, shook a hand or two, praised a teammate even for helping the Cavaliers achieve 66 regular-season wins.
Even in his sadness over losing his first-ever French Open match, Nadal looked at a camera and said of Soderling, "I congratulate him and I'll keep working hard for the next tournament."
See, it's not that hard.
Damn, LeBron is really taking a lot of heat for all this. Being a media darling is obviously a double-edged sword.
It's not that hard, we all would have done it. I would have been down and depressed but shook the hands of those guys and said good luck man you guys were the better team this year and you deserve it.
tennis is gay
Spoken like a true athlete. Pfffft.
Blackswords.......
man
shut your ass up, let me hit my 100 mph serve at you mother er.
I've just upset the gay community
oh my
Rafael Nadal is one of a lot better looking than LeGoiter James.
BIG difference... Nadal is forced by ATP to attend the press conference or he could face a huge penalty /suspension for not addressing the Media... if LeBron was to lose Money etc... he may have showed up... Same thing was done by NOH pussies Chris Punk and Garbage West last year when they were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs... just classless...
Nadal es bueno, por el es un espanol mancho.
Lewalk is an idiot…. the stupid moron even dared to say “I’m a winner” when in reality in the NBA he has won ……he had a big opportunity to show how “professional” he is… and he just showed how immature and unprofessional he actually is.
Lebron has paid more efforts than he had to the series against the Magic, actually you can't consider loser a player who averaged over 40+ in the 6 games of that series, not to mention the tripple double he gained in game 5 and the beating buzzer 3 pointer that stole the win from Hedo's hands in game 2. Lebron is more professional and mature than whoever else can be around today's NBA league, he is just trapped in a terrible team where no one can give him any help while it's needed. Mo used to play decently in the regular season but he started to suck immediately after the post season began. Also D-Whistle for that matter, who is also a great player yet trapped in a scrub team.
I didn't watch the match or the whole post match interview, but ESPN made it seem like Nadal didn't really give his opponent credit and blamed the loss on him playing poorly. If as mentioned he is forced to address the media by the ATP, then it doesn't seem like the best example to teach LeBron how to act after losing.
I think the NBA and Media has put LBJ in a position where he thinks he has no option for failing. They pumped his ego so high with all the ads and money that he forgot how to deal with defeat from an image perspective. I know it´s hard to deal with the cameras, but at least give Dhow or anyone on the magic team a hand shake and congrats before leaving the floor.
Dude can score 81 points every game… stats don’t make you a “winner” to autolabel yourself as a winner in the NBA… you first need to win in the NBA… basic logic.
That is good stuff there. Well said!You want to be a star and have puppets cavorting in your honor on television commercials? You let talk ebb and flow about how you need the bigger stage that New York might provide in another year when you are a free agent and everyone will beg for your otherworldly basketball talent and indisputable will to win?
Then show up when it hurts too, when the world isn't being operated like a, well, puppet on a string in your favor.
. Sticking around to shake a few hands and wish them luck isn't too much to ask, but as far as the media stuff is concerned I'd say Lebron's in a no win situation.
On the whole I think these post game pressers with an elminated team are a waste of damn time anyways. Any of the big names that you want to hear from never have anything of value to say, probably because they know if they don't say anything but the exact "right" things they'll get ripped apart for being selfish whiners. So they sit there like drones, fielding moronic questions like, "How does this feel right now?" and rattle off canned responses that don't mean anything. , if it'll make you feel any better, I can give you the transcript from the press conference Lebron didn't hold. "This is really hard right now. It's just such a huge let down for every guy in that locker room, we really had our sights set on a ring this year. But we just didn't play well enough, you have to take you hats off to the Magic, they played great and we didn't play well enough to compete. I think there's a lot of things that we could all have done better, I'm going to take advantage of the time off, get some perspective, really refocus on what it's going to take to win it all next year. I don't know if we should trade anyone, that's up to Danny and Mike. I don't know what is going to happen with my contract. I'll see where I'm at in a year. As long as the Cavaliers are as committed to winning as I am I would love to stay here."
If you're gonna drag a guy out there for the cameras at the lowest point in his professional life that's probably what he's going to give you. And if that's the case, :wgaf: Just about any columnist looking to write about that elimination probably already had their stuff written and was just waiting on those cookie cutter quotes to fill in the blanks.
Or he'd go out there and say what he's probably thinking, what most sports fans are thinking, and what he'd get labeled a "bad teammate" for saying, "We lost because my ing teammates couldn't hit an open shot, while somehow a set of streaky bas s like Hedo and Skip to My Lou couldn't ing miss. What the ? And yeah, I had a bad game tonight. I've been putting up statlines like something out of NBA Jam while having to play 44 minutes a night, I'm just a little ing fatigued. And all I'm going to hear for the next week until you guys remember how much you love sucking Kobe's is how I wasn't good enough. I guess you think I should have been the one guarding Dwight Howard too."
If the choice comes down to saying something hollow or something that would get him in trouble, I have no problem with him just going home.
Well written SFIE.
I wish you were a sports writer. Your articles would rock.
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