Crybaby

But I do agree that everybody seems to take the “sportsmanship” thing to levels that shouldn’t exist. I could really care less about the whole shaking hands thing. I really don’t see what the big deal is.

And to be honest, I would be happy if they eliminated any sort of meaningless post or pregame interviews. I think we’ve all heard the same story a billion times. Unless they’ve got something to say that is unique or contreversial, I don’t care you played hard, the other team had a lot of heart, or (insert generic sport talk here)….

And if you left it all on the field, well then you’d be dead sir.

…but I disagree. Vehemently.

LeBron knew, or should have known, that he’d get ripped for not shaking hands after the game. What’s more, he deserved to be criticized for doing so. Shaking hands after a game should be considered a sign of respect for your opponents. I don’t know whether it’s considered manly or something to ignore those who just beat you in a competition, but it just strikes me as childish.

James plays basketball. It’s a game. Even though James plays it at the highest levels, it’s still not life and death. Life and death is what is going on over in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wouldn’t expect our soldiers to shake hands after a battle, even if they had the opportunity, because their opponents want to kill them. On the other end of the spectrum, I don’t expect LeBron to go to the tavern and throw back a few pints with the Magic. But in the middle, between life-and-death situations and casual competitions, there should be some modicum of decorum expected of athletes. By storming off the court, ignoring the Magic, and ignoring the media, James was being nothing more than a sore loser. My friends can tell you that I like James and admire his abilities as an athlete, and have generally respected his overall behavior — certainly a lot more than I respect, oh, say, Kobe Bryant — but his actions after the game rub me the wrong way.

Undoubtedly, somebody who listened to last week’s podcast with Rock M Nation — all two of you — is going to jump in here and claim that I defended running up the score, which is demonstrably unsportsmanlike. I guess it’s fair to characterize what I said as not being an absolute condemnation of running up the score, but it would still be a grossly inaccurate characterization. My argument, which I’ve made before, is that I wouldn’t support my own coaches’ decision to run up the score, but if another team runs it up on us, you won’t hear me complaining about it. If our team is so bad that we are completely incapable of stopping the other team, we have a lot more to worry about than whether the other team’s coach exhibited proper decorum during the game. If others see that as an unsportsmanlike position, so be it, but in my mind the two positions are not irreconcilable.

If LeBron wanted to do something that (a) demonstrated that he took the loss seriously, and (b) he knew he would get blasted for, he should have held a press conference demanding a trade. Or, if he wanted to demonstrate that he took the loss seriously and do something for which he would be praised, rather than criticized, he should have dedicated himself to working that much harder in the offseason.