Calm Down People

I must apologize to everyone who reads this blog because I have misrepresented myself.  I call myself the Sports Informer and yet I am so out of touch with the sports world that I missed the fact that LeBron James was canonized and made St. James.  

I had no idea this had occurred until today when sports writers all over North America condemned St. James for not shaking hands with the Magic after Game 6 in which the Cleveland LeBrons were knocked out of the NBA playoffs.

Yes it appears that St. James is set to be burned at the stake for his terrible acts and will no doubt be hounded mercilessly until his final breath.

If you haven't heard by now the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic Saturday night and were eliminated from the playoffs.  LeBron James skipped the traditional handshakes and instead left the arena and drove straight home not even taking the time to talk to the media.  For these actions he is being made out to be a dick or a bad person.

Today on Around the Horn and PTI he was blasted for his actions and only Michael Wilbon, who I have spoken to personally on the phone and is a great guy, defended him.  It was not just ESPN that was giving LeBron a hard time but also Sports Illustrated, TSN, theScore, and even the lowly and irrelevant Sportsnet.

I think what everyone is forgetting is that this is the first time LeBron has ever done anything like this.  The guy has been in the national spotlight since he was 16 and is by far one of the most polished athletes out there.

He is by all accounts a great teammate, he doesn't shoot himself in the leg at clubs, he doesn't make it rain at strip clubs, he doesn't drink and drive, and he doesn't get into drunken bar fights or rape women (cheap shot at Kobe...deal with it).  

He has done everything right his entire career and the first time he slips up he gets ruined by the media and made out to be some arrogant asshole.  Ok so the guy didn't go shake hands and didn't talk to the media right afterwards is that such a big deal?

In his own defense James had this to say, "It's hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them, I'm a winner. It's not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you're not going to congratulate them. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm a competitor. That's what I do. It doesn't make sense for me to go over and shake somebody's hand."

Now I am not going to sit here and defend what James did.  I think that he should have manned up and gone and shook the hands of the players he had just played against but I don't think this public outcry is necessary.  James was clearly pissed off that he wasted another year of his prime playing beside scrubs and guys who couldn't hit wide open jump shots if they were promised a BJ from Scarlet Johansson.

Another thing people are making a huge deal about in terms of LeBron is the fact that he always wears Yankees hats.  Today when James spoke to the media he had on a Yankees hat and one reporter asked him if he was wearing it because he wanted to play in New York.  What a douchebag question.

Yankees hats are popular.  People who don't like the Yankees or even baseball often wear Yankees hats because it is popular.  When I was in grade 8 everyone had a Yankees hat and they were all different colors and nobody actually like the Yankees.

LeBron has been wearing Yankees hats since he was in high school and well before he played for Cleveland so I doubt he is going to stop just because he plays for the Cavs.  Besides what hat would he wear instead?  The Indians suck and if he wore a Cabs hat he would look like a shameless self promoter.  People in sports media need to calm down and stop making a huge deal out of nothing.

Since he was 16 the media has done nothing but build up LeBron James as this great kid who was freakishly talented but really down to earth.  They all said he was a nice guy and didn't let his fame go to his head.  Now because of the whole not shaking hands thing he has apparently in one swift move besmirched his great reputation.  

I guess he is no longer St. James but just simply LeBron.

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