(These are ugly.)
His...comments...regarding race, concerned me.
"I think so at times," ... "It's always, you know, a race factor."
Well that sounds bad doesn't it? But wait, calm down for a second, the reporter asked him "Do you think race plays a factor?" So, it was sort of a setup. But then again, Lebron definitely fell for it and gave what could be considered a stupid answer. Chalk it up as another hash-mark in the 'idiot' column of Lebron responses. He and Maverick Carter are certainly steamrolling the competition in that arena, and the eternal questions on my lips this entire summer could be nothing but "WHY?"
Why is Lebron gone?
Why did Dan Gilbert pick Comic Sans?
Why is David Kahn involved in basketball?
Why does Darko Milicic deserve more money than I will ever make in my life?
More importantly, why couldn't I be 7' with mind-blowing 'rejumpability'
Why would Chris Paul want to leave and then not want to? His situation is HORRIBLE!
Why would Melo want to be like Chris Paul and Lebron?
Why do the Nets think anyone will ever want to play for them?
As you can see, the above questions are a wave of negativity. For a ray of sunshine, the are another set.
Why is FIBA basketball incredibly exciting, yet underappreciated?
Why is Durant off Durantulizing across the universe, and all we do is bask in the eclipse of the Nazgul?*
Why is Durant-Durant not the most popular fantasy basketball team name ever?
The negative questions, in typical media fashion, have been debated with more words than War and Peace. The big bad wolfs have puffed, huffed, and blown down every house of public opinion. You have ESPN and ears, you know the angles. I would like to focus on the positive, for a change.
Ah, yes, my favorite basketball subject in the universe. The peerless, seemingly infallible Kevin Durant.
This has been a wondrous summer for the Durantula. He quietly locked himself in to his up-and-coming Thunder via Twitter during the Lebron Decision debacle. He sacrificed for his country when the big names were 'too busy' and dominated on the world stage. He took a highly doubted USA team and delivered it nice, shiny gold medals. For clarity, Durant owned that tournament. 33 against Russia, 38 (A team USA record, by the way) against Lithuania, and 28 in the championship against Turkey. These are games that are a full ten minutes shorter than NBA games, and if you adjust the numbers that would be like dropping 50 points a night for us Yanks.
Kevin Durant emerged as a leader, which may be the most important realization a young player can have. He is talented, his rise has been meteoric and his drive is utterly ridiculous. He has taken some flak for not taking over in clutch situations, which was excusable because of age. Sometimes, we say he is too humble. But now we can see a change, a coming-into from the new face of the league. He has asserted himself in interviews, saying that he needs to own those critical moments and stating that he can do so. We all knew that, but now that he does too, everyone look out. Articles over the summer have crowned him MVP, and there has been significant debate as to if he will retire the league's all-time leading scorer. (I think he will, even if he improves only slightly year-to-year. He looks like a 35 ppg-er this year, and his game is the kind that survives with age. It's pure buckets.)
Durant has become the anti-Lebron in a world where Lebron has been reported as the sixth-most hated athlete from his Q-rating.
Which brings us neatly back to how Lebron and his pulling of the race card. ESPN has had a field day, and hooray for them, there's some free rating spikes. The only thing I feel is worth noting, is how Lebron probably believes this. There is no conceivable reason that Leego could feel that people hate him because he's black. That's almost like Kanye thinking the president doesn't care about... never mind. This is ridiculous, it has NOTHING to do with it. There is no hatred for Amar'e, another african-american athlete, because he changed teams. People would hate you if you were white, yellow, green, purple, or burnt siena. I believe the nation is behind me when I say, shut up.
LeBenedict also stated that "If I had to take heat to give back to little kids, I would do it the same way every time."
Well, I dont quite believe you. I would maybe just give 2 of my seventy bajillion (exact figure!) millions to the Boys and Girls Club, but I apparently do not have access to the Public Relations for Dummies, and 9th grade business textbooks you and your team do. Disgusting, we're done here.
As for the summer, it was one of change. The NBA is hardly recognizable. The Lakers are still really good, the Heat may or may not have created the best team ever. Certainly the best of my short life. The Celtics went with the O'Neal family at their rotating door, err, center sport. The Knicks got Amar'e and Felton, the Hawks kept Joe Johnson, (for copious cash amounts) Rudy Gay stayed with the Grizzlies, Boozer is a Bull, and the Warriors acquired David Lee. Through trade, the Jazz replaced Boozer with Al Jefferson, which should be an upgrade. Don Nelson was fired as the Warriors were purchased by a sane owner. A level of sanity was restored to the NBA for two hours. Then, Chris Paul decided he wanted to leave New Orleans. Wait, disregard that last statement, he never wanted to leave. He wanted the Hornets to guilt-trip him by getting rid of his fantastic backup, Darren Collison, for the amazing Trevor Ariza. Because of that trade, the Pacers finally got a point guard! Melo decided he missed being compared to Lebron, so he somewhat kinda sorta maybe asked to be traded. But then he, too, said he did not. He will probably be traded. But not to the Nets, no one is going there. The Celtics and Heat talked a whole 'lotta smack about that Heat team, as did the world. Those guys deserve it, and they should just silent treatment the world. We all know that we hate it when we can't affect te people we mock, so they should just ignore and move on. Oh, there's still going to be a lockout next season, and no Ricky Rubio. Ever.
That brings us to today, resume breathing. The season starts in under a month with Heat vs. Celtics. With everything that has happened, there is no doubt that the season will be anything less than stellar. A lot of new faces, a lot of new tea,s with new toys going up against teams like Boston and L.A. Indeed, it is exciting. Most exciting of all, is the fact that there will be actual basketball soon. Not player news or free agency, but blessed basketball. We have survived summer 2010. Someone should make shirts.
(You poor, poor man)
*The Nazgul are three former kings who transform into undead monsters, whose sole goal is chasing the ring. AKA, the Miami Heat.
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