Washingtonians were the original LeBron James skeptics. While the rest of the country marveled at the young superhero, D.C. basketball fans thought they saw a different side: an impossibly gifted player who was allowed to take four or 17 steps and then started talking about the crab dribble; an impossibly strong phenom who reacted to light contact as if he’d been struck by a pickaxe; a player who never ever fouled out and yet seemed perpetually aggrieved.
Maybe this was just sour grapes from following a Wizards team that was incapable of beating him. Still, the rest of the country caught up with Washington around the time LeBron headed to South Beach, finally repeating some of the old criticisms. And then we all changed our minds as James continued to mature into one of the best and most irresistible players in league history.
By last year, when James dragged the Cavaliers to that unforgettable championship and erased Cleveland from the “perennial losers” list, all the old complaints had faded almost entirely — even in Washington. There was no rivalry anymore, and he wasn’t driving the Wizards crazy anymore, and so we forgot about all that crab dribbling stuff (and that Darius Songaila suspension!) and just appreciated the greatness.
Then came Monday night. Not only did the Cavs slowly remove the hearts of Washington sports fans using toothpicks and dental floss: LeBron also managed to rekindle some of those 2007 feelings of exasperation. Now, maybe I’m reading this wrong. Maybe most D.C. fans weren’t annoyed. But just consider:
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* Asked about his missed layup near the end of regulation, James had an otherworldly explanation.
“The extra step that I took, which was a travel, threw me off of my rhythm,” he said.
He blamed his missed layup on an uncalled travel!
Sure, he went on to say “it was a point blank layup and I missed it,” but that still is a Hall of Fame explanation for a missed layup. Also, my column last week stunk because I misplaced several amazing plagiarized quotes.
* Asked about the play that led to his heroic game-tying three-pointer, James was nonchalant.
“It’s a play that we work on in practice and just trust my, uh, you see me practicing it all the time during, at the facility, so it was able to go in,” he said. “I think every shot is going in,” he also said.
I don’t believe anyone asked a follow-up question about whether he typically banks in the shot high off the glass when he practices that play all the time at the facility. Maybe I missed it.
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* How do you manage to get booed during halftime? This is how.
Before heading to locker room, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving lingering on court to engage in convo w/ refs. Arguing last out of bounds call
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) February 7, 2017* How do you manage to react with stunned outrage when the officials give the other team the ball, after it goes out-of-bounds off your hands? This is how.
* And then, of course, his team won, leaving D.C. partisans with no outlet but to grumble about trivia like this while waiting for the next chance, which will also almost certainly go poorly. He’s still the best player in the world, and he still can drive us a little bit crazy.
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