When you caused a controversy by storming off the court after Game 6 and refusing to attend your press conference, you did something even better: You brought us back to the days when “rivals” didn’t hug each other like Red and Andy after every game, when NBA stars actually took losing personally and treated their peers like enemies instead of friends. I loved it. That was an old-school move. And as reader Brian Naftaly points out, you accomplished something even better: You made your teammates cover you in the postgame press conference, marking the first time all series they did something or helped you in any way. That was genius. Hold your head up high, LeBron James. You could not have done more with the possible exception of coaching the team … and really, that might not have been a bad idea.
(Now, please spend the summer working on a low-post game and come back with at least two moves. If you care about cracking the top six of all time — and I think you do — then you should have a reliable jump hook, a drop step and an MJ-like fallaway by November. Period.)
What's hard to believe is that even in the height of the NBA's popularity in the 80's CBS was still televising Finals games in the afternoon BEFORE meaningless golf tournaments.
