LeBron James in response to Larry Bird: I’m an easy target

LeBron James is having a very LeBron James week. By that I mean he has found himself having to answer some tough questions and has not handled it as well as he might hope. First, LeBron was criticized for tweeting about Blake Griffin’s dunk on Kendrick Perkins. He said he would not apologize for that — which he really doesn’t have to — and that it was just a way to connect with his fans. Then, Larry Bird said he would take Kobe Bryant as a teammate over LeBron if he wanted to win. James didn’t seem overly offended by Bird’s remark, but did some whining about it on Wednesday anyway.

“It’s simple. Kobe has five rings and I have none,” James said. “It’s easy to say that. If I (had) five rings and Kobe had none then it would probably be the other way around.

“I’m an easy target — let’s say that. When someone wants to get a point across, just throw LeBron’s name in there. If you’re watching cartoons with your kids and you don’t like it you say, ‘Blame it on LeBron.’ If you go to the grocery store and they don’t have the milk that you like you say, ‘It’s LeBron’s fault. I’m an easy target and I understand that. It doesn’t get to me at all.”

Are you sure? Because it kind of sounds like it does. Bird’s comment was not meant to bash LeBron in any way. If you were an NBA owner and they told you you could go back to the beginning of Kobe’s and LeBron’s careers and have one of them, would you take the guy who you know is going to win several championships or the one who has not hoisted an NBA Finals trophy after eight seasons.

Call the whambulance.