[Bette]

King Lebron James rushed out of the locker room after the final loss to the Magic and left his teammates to take the heat and talk to reporters.
He did stay on court though, to make sure the Pistons and Hawks paid their due respects to him.
He told reporters in Cleveland, "You know me. I'm a competitor. If someone beats you up, you're not going to congratulate them. It doesnt make sense for me to go over and shake someone's hand."
Immature?? Self-absorbed maybe?
Lebron doesnt want to win more than Michael Jordan did and Jordan could stop to sjake a hand. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird did also.
The Cavs reached the NBA finals, and had the best record wthin the past three seasons so James must have been surrounded by something that works.

King James left the playoffs as a loser - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

This was not written by a fan of Lebron James obviously.
Your feelings and reactions????
Anyone agree? Disagree?

[mike honcho]

I guess every sport has a Kyle Busch.

[bears9]

I'm not a LeBron by any stretch of anyones imagination, but honestly I kind of liked what he did. If I lost before my dream match up with Kobe that was immortalized with annoying puppets, and it'll never happen I'd be ****ed too. When you lose you get match, if I'm payed to compete I dont want to shake hands and smile with the guys that just beat me. You know?

[Bette]

Originally Posted by bears9

I'm not a LeBron by any stretch of anyones imagination, but honestly I kind of liked what he did. If I lost before my dream match up with Kobe that was immortalized with annoying puppets, and it'll never happen I'd be ****ed too. When you lose you get match, if I'm payed to compete I dont want to shake hands and smile with the guys that just beat me. You know?

But what about good sportsmanship? Shouldnt that be present in a hard fought game? Where does that come into play here?

[Curtisandkyleshow]

My take on this is this...Lebron James is a grown man. He isn't 14. If you are trying to instill good sportsmanship in a child this would be a big deal. For The King this is not a big deal at all.

His job is to win. People are counting on him to carry that team to the Finals. This time up he didn't succeed. He was upset, who cares that he didn't shake someone's hand.

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Curtisandkyleshow

My take on this is this...Lebron James is a grown man. He isn't 14. If you are trying to instill good sportsmanship in a child this would be a big deal. For The King this is not a big deal at all.

His job is to win. People are counting on him to carry that team to the Finals. This time up he didn't succeed. He was upset, who cares that he didn't shake someone's hand.

Personally I dont really care. But the writer of the article seemed to think so.
So in your opinion grown men dont need to show good sportsmanship?No one is trying to instill it here. Since he is a grown man it should have been instilled a long time ago.

[Curtisandkyleshow]

I am not saying that they shouldn't show good sportsmanship, but a man that just fought, clawed, and scratched his way into the eastern finals and had a goal of a title, that just lost has a right to be upset. For all we know, he may have been crying and not been able to talk...

We don't know what he did behind the scenes. Although he did talk to his teammates, and he did email Dwight Howard and wish him luck...

Lebron is a pro athlete. There are so many things he could have done that were far worse...

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Curtisandkyleshow

I am not saying that they shouldn't show good sportsmanship, but a man that just fought, clawed, and scratched his way into the eastern finals and had a goal of a title, that just lost has a right to be upset. For all we know, he may have been crying and not been able to talk...

We don't know what he did behind the scenes. Although he did talk to his teammates, and he did email Dwight Howard and wish him luck...

Lebron is a pro athlete. There are so many things he could have done that were far worse...

I dont think he talked to anyone right after the game. It sounds like he went to the locker room, grabbed his ipod and headed for the plane.
But you are right about him maybe being too emotionally upset to say anything. And better not to say anything than to say the wrong thing.
That had to be a devastating loss. King or not, I felt for him.
Watching the losers on the sidelines in the Super Bowl always gets me too.

[Curtisandkyleshow]

There is some comedic irony to the whole Nike puppet thing now...lol

[mike honcho]

Man up,Do the interview.That's why they get paid the big bucks.The sports world is turning into a bunch of crybaby millionairs.

[bears9]

Man up,Do the interview.That's why they get paid the big bucks.The sports world is turning into a bunch of crybaby millionairs.

Maybe, LeBron wanted to see if teammates could one thing for him in this series, lol

No, I think at some point we have to realize it's his job and if someone gets a promotion over you you might shake there hands, maybe. You don't definately doing everything possible on cable TV that shows affection of some of these guys. He was mad, his seasons over, now Nike has to breakout the Rashard Lewis puppet. I think we are kind of overrecating to this because we don't level these guys compete at it

[bears9]

Ok one more idea, if the Lakers win the Finals, we bring back the puppets, Kobe is telling LeBron how great winning ring four was, LeBron puppets leaves with no comment and has Mo Williams and Delonte West puppets listen to Kobe for him