Bill Livingston writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Cleveland’s sporting faithful are most pleased today as their former favorite LeBron James has been awarded the Silver Medal in this year’s NBA Finals. Click through for a podcast of Robert with Bill after the jump.
Robert opened the week with a diabolically logical assessment of the NBA Finals, and the world’s most famous un-champion. Podcast below.
Listen. If you are in Cleveland, and you are a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, and you are actually deeply and profoundly happy about LeBron not winning a ring, you are a small and vindictive person.
LeBron left through free agency. Free agency is a system that managed to not provoke moral outrage until LeBron used his right to leave a poor team and sign up with a good team.
Root against LeBron all you like. Be happy the Heat failed. Be happy LeBron’s plans have gone awry. But don’t act like it’s your own championship, Cleveland.
This is the kind of thing that LeBron doesn’t get. Although his answer is honest and not terribly incendiary, it is HARDLY the response a public relations professional would have prepped LeBron to give. Until LeBron decides he wants professional people handling his media presence, he will continue to sound like the villiage idiot every time he speaks in front of a microphone.
It doesn’t have to be like this, LeBron.
It is a simultaneously glorious and ghastly time for basketball enthusiasts. While this 2011 Finals appears destined to be remembered among the all-time great championship series, we are also witnessing pre-ordained Next Great One LeBron James very really shrinking in the moment and wilting in the spotlight.
Yes he had a triple double in the Game 5 loss to Dallas. Guess what? Last night was not the time for ancillary stats. It was LeBron’s time to dominate. With Dwyane Wade injured, with the lead in the series on the line, with his basketball legacy hanging in the balance, LeBron did not do what Magic, Bird, Kobe, or Michael would have done. Instead, LeBron turned in a performance worthy of Lamar Odom.
Now, Lamar is a fine professional, and a 2-time champion. This is no slight on Mr. Odom. But still.
Ethan Skolnick is writing about the NBA Finals for the Palm Beach Post. He joined Robert in Hour 1 to talk about LeBron, the Heat, and the mood in Miami. Podcast after the jump.
Robert eviscerated the chattering classes today for attempting to discuss the NBA Finals’ impact on LeBron James’ future legacy.
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Robert Wuhl Show Opening Segment
This is a turning point in basketball history. Magic, Bird, Jordan, Kobe…and now maybe not LeBron. If he wins, if Miami ultimately outlasts a wildly fierce and resilient Dallas team, these questions disappear. At least until next year.
But if LeBron comes this close and fails to secure the ring, he is no longer what we have all been promised he is.
Rick Barry is a hall of fame basketball player. Rick joined Robert in Hour 2 to talk about the NBA Finals, and the new head coach (Mark Jackson) of Rick’s old team (the Golden State Warriors). Also, check out Rick’s websites:
Podcast of Rick Barry’s conversation with Robert after the jump.
LeBron James took one shot in the 4th quarter. Dirk Nowitzki battled through illness to have another huge 4th quarter. Through the first four games of the series, here’s the ranking of best players in the Finals:
- Dirk
- D Wade
- Tyson Chandler
- LeBron
So we can all stop with the “LeBron is better than” comparisons. Neither Magic, Bird, Jordan, nor Kobe (the four greatest individual talents – and champions – of the last 30 years) would have disappeared in the 4th quarter of a close Finals game like James did last night.
