Gotta love Wojo's latest Lebron trashing

[JSD]

Two days earlier, James had done nothing in overtime and ultimately decided the difference was a Hall of Fame coach, Jerry Sloan, who knew exactly what the Heat were going to do. James never takes responsibility, never says, “I’m the MVP and I need to do more.” He didn’t do it in Cleveland, and he’s never going to do it in Miami. Now, 44 minutes in a grudge game with the Celtics is too much. Always an out, always an excuse.

The Celtics were machinery. They beat up the Heat, obliterated them on the boards and bludgeoned them in a 112-107 victory. The Heat were never close, even with a late fool’s-gold rally that never truly threatened the Celtics. With their brilliant passing, precise shooting and ferocious physical play, no one exposes the flaws of these Heat like the Celtics.

Boston believes it can bully these Heat, believes they’re susceptible to games of the mind and body. When it was over, Big Baby Davis marched out of the showers and declared: “No one can spoil this night. Good for us to come in and spank that ass.”

As the Celtics hung around town for a couple days before the game, they loved hearing the Heat lament about how tough teams had been on them, how they’d been targeted for physical play. So the Celtics started laying out Miami players with forceful screens, flagrant fouls and crushing shots at the rim. They harassed Wade into missing 10 of 12 shots and made James work for his 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Frequent isolations are reducing Wade to an offensive sidebar, and the death of ball movement is turning these Heat into something so eerily familiar with the Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron, and four guys watching LeBron.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-celticsheat111210


As much as he gets a bad rep for his unremitting devotion to trashing Lebron, he does tell it like it is. Another classic article.

[Fafnir]

He deserves the poor reputation he's getting. He's gone away from good analysis onto trashing his "villian of the column".

[Celtics4ever]

James deserves everything he is getting.   He has been touted as an all time great but to me he is an all time flake.  He doesn't care about winning, quits on his team, is a poor leader and is mentally weak. You could see it in  his eyes at times last night.  The only thing he did right was keep driving because he knew David's Dirty Refs would pad his stats.  It helped them get back into the game, but LeBron could not deliver a back breaking shot to get his team back into the game.

I found these columns refreshing in the age of kiss butt media.  Like it or not that was a good dose of the truth.  Who really touts yahoo sports as a top media anyway.   Have internet media surpassed the TV or print media, I think not.

[JSD]

James deserves everything he is getting.   He has been touted as an all time great but to me he is an all time flake.  He doesn't care about winning, quits on his team, is a poor leader and is mentally weak. You could see it in  his eyes at times last night.  The only thing he did right was keep driving because he knew David's Dirty Refs would pad his stats.  It helped them get back into the game, but LeBron could not deliver a back breaking shot to get his team back into the game.

I found these columns refreshing in the age of kiss butt media.  Like it or not that was a good dose of the truth.  Who really touts yahoo sports as a top media anyway.   Have internet media surpassed the TV or print media, I think not.

I agree with a lot of what you said here. Just to add to your first paragraph, Lebron's game hasn't developed much in the last 3 or 4 years. The greats would always find a way to improve and get better because their hunger and love for the game was so intense. This guy probably doesn't pick up a basketball during the summer. Wojo's right too, where's the accountability?

It's way too early to say, but Lebron could be one of those players that can't make people around him better and won't win a title because of it. And yeah, that's easy to say now, but I feel like it was impossible to say just 3 years ago.

[Junkyard Dawg]

He deserves the poor reputation he's getting. He's gone away from good analysis onto trashing his "villian of the column".

Agree.  I'm not a huge James fan and it's somewhat entertaining to hear Wojo trash him just because everyone else loves him so much.

But while Wojo is a 'bron-basher, he is also a Kobe-lover with equal ferocity.  I don't know if he's from LA or what the deal is, but I honestly find it revolting to read the articles he writes about Kobe and the Lakers.  While at the same time barely more than an acknowledgment that the C's play "physical" defense or that Rondo is "one of the best" PGs in the game.  

Can't stand the guy.

[dark_lord]

wojo is dead on with this.  whether you like wojo or not, and his agenda against lbj, its difficult for any1 not to agree with what he wrote this time.

[Drucci]

I enjoyed the article but I agree with Fafnir and Junkyard Dawg, Wojo's articles have all been the same in the past 6 months (since the playoffs actually), it's getting boring and a bit caricatural.

Although I agree with what he says about LeBron, a good "trash a player" article is really good when it happens once in a while and gets very critical. When he does it every two weeks... it's looking ridiculous or out of line.

[Birdbrain]

Wojo is the anti-Brian Windhurst (ESPNLJlapdog).  Which is good thing.  I don't see anything wrong with what he wrote.  Everyone one of his points was dead on especially about how the C's look at the Heat (LJ in general).  Plus he's balancing out all the ESPN page view induced commentary.  And Wojo is actual reporter who has broken several big time stories (Reggie BushGate) so I'll take his side of things (especially because I agree) over any other reporters (bloggers).

Add eloquence to the long list of attributes for BBD.

[nba is the worst]

James deserves everything he is getting.   He has been touted as an all time great but to me he is an all time flake.  He doesn't care about winning, quits on his team, is a poor leader and is mentally weak. You could see it in  his eyes at times last night.  The only thing he did right was keep driving because he knew David's Dirty Refs would pad his stats.  It helped them get back into the game, but LeBron could not deliver a back breaking shot to get his team back into the game.

I found these columns refreshing in the age of kiss butt media.  Like it or not that was a good dose of the truth.  Who really touts yahoo sports as a top media anyway.   Have internet media surpassed the TV or print media, I think not.

I agree with a lot of what you said here. Just to add to your first paragraph, Lebron's game hasn't developed much in the last 3 or 4 years. The greats would always find a way to improve and get better because their hunger and love for the game was so intense. This guy probably doesn't pick up a basketball during the summer. Wojo's right too, where's the accountability?

Certainly looks like he prioritized partying over practicing.

Same bad ft shooting, same bad 3-pt shooting, same bulldozing for whistles.

If he worked on developing a post game, with his size and speed it would be SO difficult to guard - but the amount of work it would take to accomplish that he apparently doesn't consider "fun".

[jambr380]

Lebron's biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to delegate - not his ability. Seriously, guys, it's fun to dump on Lebron when he is down, but it kind of sounds ridiculous in the article where Wojo says, 'made James work for his 35 pts, 10 rebs, and 9 assts'. Those stats are absolutely ridiculous. How hard can it be for somebody when they put up those numbers.

I am as annoyed with Lebron as the next guy, but he is more than a 'showy' player and I highly doubt he is 'lazy' in the offseason. If Lebron ever learns to work with Wade, things could take a real turn for the worse. Let's just enjoy this while it lasts, but I won't be surprised if the Heat win it all this year either.

[Drucci]

Lebron's biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to delegate - not his ability. Seriously, guys, it's fun to dump on Lebron when he is down, but it kind of sounds ridiculous in the article where Wojo says, 'made James work for his 35 pts, 10 rebs, and 9 assts'. Those stats are absolutely ridiculous. How hard can it be for somebody when they put up those numbers.

I am as annoyed with Lebron as the next guy, but he is more than a 'showy' player and I highly doubt he is 'lazy' in the offseason. If Lebron ever learns to work with Wade, things could take a real turn for the worse. Let's just enjoy this while it lasts, but I won't be surprised if the Heat win it all this year either.

I definitely think LeBron is lazy. For years, people have been waiting to see him come up with a post game (not necessarily a dominating post game but an average one) and he doesn't have. Do you really think a guy with his talent can't learn to post up if he works as hard as he says he does during the summer?

I think he is more preoccupied by partying in Vegas or anywhere else, making promos for his movies, his brand, etc, than improving his game. You can say anything about Kobe but the guy his a work-freak, he spends the majority of his summer working hard to improve his game. I just don't see that in LeBron's game or mentality.

As for his supposedly great night against Boston, of his 35 points, the majority came off ridiculous free throws (22 attempts, are you kidding me? He deserved 10 or 12 of them at best, all the others were free points given by the refs) and he missed every big shot he needed to make in the 4th so... yeah, I understand Wojo's point.

[xmuscularghandix]

Lebron's biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to delegate - not his ability. Seriously, guys, it's fun to dump on Lebron when he is down, but it kind of sounds ridiculous in the article where Wojo says, 'made James work for his 35 pts, 10 rebs, and 9 assts'. Those stats are absolutely ridiculous. How hard can it be for somebody when they put up those numbers.

I am as annoyed with Lebron as the next guy, but he is more than a 'showy' player and I highly doubt he is 'lazy' in the offseason. If Lebron ever learns to work with Wade, things could take a real turn for the worse. Let's just enjoy this while it lasts, but I won't be surprised if the Heat win it all this year either.

His near triple double isn’t impressive, and it’s for the same reason his triple double versus Utah wasn’t impressive. He also had 38-9-8 in a playoff loss against Chicago last season, remember that team that they totally destroyed in every game except for the one when Lebron tried to beat Rose one-on-one instead of using his teammates?

If you have those numbers in a win it means you did all the right things, you took the right shots and made the right passes. If you have them in a loss it means that if somebody else took more shots it would have been better, or maybe if you took smarter shots, or maybe someone else should have handled the ball...


Miami won’t win the title because smart defensive teams can easily play them to the percentages.


Good teams will live with Lebron and Wade shooting contested three’s. And neither of them are very effective when they are off the ball.

When Lebron has the ball at the top of the key the defense is going to load up the strong side so he can’t drive in, Wade’s lack of an outside threat is going to allow his defender to cheat in even easier. If LBJ drives and then kicks it out to Dwayne a smart defender will close out under control, essentially daring Wade to shoot the jumper, it’s been proven that this is a percentage you can live with in the long run.

The exact same thing holds true for Wade with the ball, and LeBron off of it.

The Heat would be better if it was Wade/Pierce or LeBron/Ray. The thing with Boston is that we have two guys that will kill you if you leave them open beyond the arc, but if you close out too hard they are capable of driving on you as well. Miami has two guys are capable of hitting off the side of the backboard even when left wide open.


There are a bunch of fatal flaws that can cost you wins in the playoffs. Miami has a bunch of them.

-defensively weak PG
-lack of a shot blocking presence
-lack of rebounding
-lack of low post defense
-lack of an offensive closer (If LeBron and Wade are together neither of them can consistently break down good defense like                          the could before.

[Donoghus]

Wojo is a one trick pony.  It's pretty tiresome. 

[jdpapa3]

Lebron is the best player in the league and it is getting a little bit tiring to see that he seems to get the blame even when he has a phenomenal game.

Does Haslem just magically become open or do the Celtics absolutely have to respect the Lebron threat?

Does Lebron deserve the blame for the Heat defense acting like every Ray Allen back door screen is the first one they have ever seen?

I strongly dislike the Heat, but definitely not as much as most of the basketball world right now.

[gar]

Tired of the Lebron bashing. Yes he made a mistake and he admitted it (kinda); but he is the best athlete to play the game since MJ or KG or Kobe and to pretend otherwise is silly. I do not like Lebron and I don't like his game anymore than I like Kobe's; but to indulge in piling on is mean-spirited and cowardly. Would like to see Wojo be a man and tell Lebron to his face what he writes in his columns. The guy can write; but anyone can kick someone while they are down.