"king" James

Yeah, I think that's fitting. Because really, how is one truly a king if they have never fully made it to the mountain top? How is one truly a king if they quit on their team in the middle of a pivotal game in a series, and then not take their share of the blame after? To me, and to most people who have either watched sports or ever studied history, a king is a leader. Something that most people were always willing to say that Lebron James was, until recently.

After game 5, Lebron made a rather..., no an incredibly arrogant comment. "When you have 3 bad games in 7 years, it's easy to pick on them." No saying that he didn't play as hard as he needed to. No saying that it was on him for not picking his teammates up. No saying that he would work harder, and be better than anybody else for the rest of the year. Just saying, well what did you want me to do? Well, I bet most of your fans and the city of Cleveland wanted you to act like the leader that you think that you are, and play like you care more about winning a title than getting the highest bid in the offseason.

But there's the rub, that is the thing that he cares the most about. No, not the title, the being the most coveted free agent in his generation. Again, Yahoo Sports has been talking about this as well, and I have to agree with their take 110%. I watched clips of his post game interview, and a couple of times makes mention of approaching things with his "team", and implementing a game plan with his "team" over the summer. Now, to most people, they might think, "Oh, he's still planning to work things out with his team in Cleveland." But I don't think so. To him, his team is Team James. His agent and his "possee". This game plan regards free agency. If you even thought he cared about what happened in this game, just look at his body language during the post game interview. Questioned about the game and what happened, he almost deflects the questions. Little waves of the hand, as if to say the fact that they are now out of the playoffs is no big deal. But then quite serious when asked about his offseason plans. At one moment he says he hasn't really thought about it, but then makes a comment about how he and his "team" have a game plan that they want to execute. All of this paints the picture of a very different Lebron than most people are used to.

This Lebron is one that is, for lack of a better term, kind of a jerk. That kid from high school who has sort of had everything given to him on a silver platter, and knows that people will bow to his whims because he is capable of putting a ball in a basket. A prima donna who is more concerned about playing for the name on the back of the jersey, not the name on the front of the jersey. So, until he shows himself to be the kind of leader that made people call Wayne Gretzky The Great One, 4 time Stanley Cup Champion, that made people look up to Michael Jordan, 6 time NBA champion, and Magic Johnson, 5 time NBA champion, he'll always just be "king" James. Because the thing that all of those people have the Lebron doesn't, and that they all desperately wanted more than him, are championships. But only Lebron can decide what his priority is.