After the Heat beat the Bulls to advance to the NBA Finals, LeBron James was asked about his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami. In his response, LeBron said “I wanted to team up with some guys that would never die down in the moment.” You can read his full response here, but the point is he was taking a shot at his Cavs teammates for not being good enough to win in the playoffs. We made a big deal of his comments here at LBS but it seemed to be overlooked by most of the media (no surprise, they were too busy writing whatever cliche stories they had in mind).
On his podcast with The Dugout Sports Show via Marcas Grant at Black Sports Online, Boobie Gibson, who has played with the Cavs since ’06, took exception with the comment. He says great players don’t need to call out players who aren’t as good:
The way it’s said, you can’t help but take it personal. I would prefer to talk to him personally and say, ”Exactly what did you mean when you said this comment? What point were you trying to make?”…I take comments like that and when you speak out and you feel the need for everybody to hear what you are saying, it’s kind of like admission. By you saying that, I don’t think great players should feel the need to say this about a team or say that about a team. I think what it all boils down to if you’re great, you go play great, be great and everybody will realize you’re great. And you wouldn’t have to let it be known that everybody else was less great. Great players shouldn’t have to do that. So I feel like it’s kind of an admission. He might have needed some help. He might have needed to go somewhere and find someone who is a little greater so maybe he wouldn’t die down in those moments.”
When analyzing LeBron’s quote, I said that he had other ways of conveying his message without directly knocking his former Cavs teammates. But honestly, the media just criticizes LeBron without looking at the rest of his team and realizing that the Cavs were overmatched by the Celtics last year. In that sense, I don’t blame him for wanting everyone to understand that. Took bad my voice isn’t loud enough otherwise he wouldn’t have to say these things.
Boobie also addressed the Delonte West-Gloria James rumors without definitively calling them false. He just called them disrespectful, but he never said they were inaccurate. He also doesn’t think you need more than one superstar in order to win a title. He says you need a lot to fall into place, you need to be healthy, and you have to be rolling at the right time. He cited Dallas as an example of a team that’s reached the Finals with only one star player. I know they reached the Finals, but I think we’re at the point where you need multiple stars on your team in order to win a title. We’ll see how long that holds true.
