On Shall Rise, The Other Shall Fall...
So LeBron James gets popped in the lip and slapped on the noggin and all of a sudden he's Kobe Bryant. Wait a minute: even Kobe (who's way better than James) doesn't get treated that well. Maybe it's because Kobe's emulating Michael Jordan Version 2 (after his post-baseball comeback) and not Michael Jordan Version 1 (the first three rings).
See, with MJV2, Jordan drove to the basket, had pull-up jumpers, the fade-away, and post ups. MJV1: 98% slasher, but a damn good one. The key difference is James is bigger so he's not going to be knocked down too easily. But that's his game; no more no less. Don't be fooled when James hits the occasional 3-pointer; he's only the 206th best guy from that range.
We all know that the Wizards aren't the Bad Boy Pistons, but they ain't the Chris Webber Kings either. They are good enough offensively to score on the Cavs, and just good enough defensively to stop any Cavs player not named LeBron James.
In other words: if they play man-to-man D for three straight quarters, than double James in the fourth like he's wearing Tag Body spray while he hapless teammates (who had been up til now gone through the experience of having every shot contested) try to overcome the crunch-time pressure of making key shots, the Wizards can win tonight's game...and the series.
I don't want to hear about Arenas' injury; if he's able to play it doesn't matter.
Star Players get hard fouls...and the ones who can tough it out and survive become Super Stars. Players who go to the paint will get hit more often then jump shooters (one of the reason guys like Reggie Miller lasted so long). So James has to decide if he wants to be Kobe Bryant or Vince Carter.
Or maybe he should just go back to high school, where I'm sure they'll be more lenient.
Until he can man up, I don't want to hear any "LeBron's tough enough" talk.
The guy who knocked his lip? Andre Blatche? This dude was shot...in the damn chest. And he's still playing basketball. So don't talk to me about tough.
James is a star player, and an incredible force in the lane. So he will be hit. Constantly. If he can't take it, he better pray to God that Detroit and Boston self-destruct and somehow, someway, the soft Dallas Mavericks make it to the Finals. Because that is the only way he's going to avoid any hard fouls.
(P.S.: don't get me started on the tit-for-tat Cavs hyping their own "optimist" to try and counter ours.)
See, with MJV2, Jordan drove to the basket, had pull-up jumpers, the fade-away, and post ups. MJV1: 98% slasher, but a damn good one. The key difference is James is bigger so he's not going to be knocked down too easily. But that's his game; no more no less. Don't be fooled when James hits the occasional 3-pointer; he's only the 206th best guy from that range.
We all know that the Wizards aren't the Bad Boy Pistons, but they ain't the Chris Webber Kings either. They are good enough offensively to score on the Cavs, and just good enough defensively to stop any Cavs player not named LeBron James.
In other words: if they play man-to-man D for three straight quarters, than double James in the fourth like he's wearing Tag Body spray while he hapless teammates (who had been up til now gone through the experience of having every shot contested) try to overcome the crunch-time pressure of making key shots, the Wizards can win tonight's game...and the series.
I don't want to hear about Arenas' injury; if he's able to play it doesn't matter.
Star Players get hard fouls...and the ones who can tough it out and survive become Super Stars. Players who go to the paint will get hit more often then jump shooters (one of the reason guys like Reggie Miller lasted so long). So James has to decide if he wants to be Kobe Bryant or Vince Carter.
Or maybe he should just go back to high school, where I'm sure they'll be more lenient.
Until he can man up, I don't want to hear any "LeBron's tough enough" talk.
The guy who knocked his lip? Andre Blatche? This dude was shot...in the damn chest. And he's still playing basketball. So don't talk to me about tough.
James is a star player, and an incredible force in the lane. So he will be hit. Constantly. If he can't take it, he better pray to God that Detroit and Boston self-destruct and somehow, someway, the soft Dallas Mavericks make it to the Finals. Because that is the only way he's going to avoid any hard fouls.
(P.S.: don't get me started on the tit-for-tat Cavs hyping their own "optimist" to try and counter ours.)
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