Couldnt Lebron have man-ed up and actually spoke in the press conference?

[trueceltic]

Cleveland's supporting cast is horrible. Mo Williams was a decent PG on a horrible Bucks team. Lebron made him what he is. If you take Lebron out then Williams goes back to a chucker who doesn't involve his teammates. The 2nd best player on that team is Delonte and I love him but come on! The frontcourt is ridiculously bad. No post game whatsoever. You are relying on Wally off the bench. I can't believe they won 66 games with this team.

I'm not a Howard fan but I hope he abuses Bynum.

[RIPRED]

I don't have an issue at all with him not giving a post-game interview, but I do think it's pretty weak to not congratulate the other team at the end of a series.

[trueceltic]

If we played 1 on 1 and I gave you cheapshots going to the basket and just hacked you every game (how many FTs he take?) and then you lost to me after being the team to beat. Wouldn't you do the same?

[trueceltic]

this whole thing about congratulating your opponents is awful. It really p---es me off when the loser starts laughing or whatever. You should be hurt, disappointed. You didn't see those old Knick teams do it. I hate people who don't care and when I see Gabe Pruitt (have you ever seen him when he's not laughing or looks serious?) I want him cut.

[star18]

Is that you Star?

No that's not me.  Well here are my thoughts anyway.  Susan Boyle could have beaten the Cavs in a 7 game series, at least she has enough class to congratulate the winners after a loss.

[cdif911]

[PosImpos]

If we played 1 on 1 and I gave you cheapshots going to the basket and just hacked you every game (how many FTs he take?) and then you lost to me after being the team to beat. Wouldn't you do the same?

LeBron doesn't need to get hacked to go to the line...the amount of free throws he takes isn't indicative of the actual coverage he gets.

Players actually fall over themselves just to try not to get too much contact on LeBron in the hopes they don't foul him for a stupid And1

[davemonsterband]

I don't want to sound rude, but who cares? It's a press conference, it affects and means nothing. I'll never get why people yearn to listen to cliches.

[hpantazo]

I don't want to sound rude, but who cares? It's a press conference, it affects and means nothing. I'll never get why people yearn to listen to cliches.

who knows, people still always tune in to listen to the president talk, no matter who it is. Lebron is marketed as "the king", the savior of the NBA, and a role model to millions of kids, it does matter if he acts like a jerk and doesn't come out to say a few good words about his opponents after a hard fought series. Can you imagine John Mcain for example, not wanting to comment at all after losing to Obama? It's all scripted cliches, but it still matters. Silence in these cases speaks volumes.

[kheeko]

[guava_wrench]

If we played 1 on 1 and I gave you cheapshots going to the basket and just hacked you every game (how many FTs he take?) and then you lost to me after being the team to beat. Wouldn't you do the same?

For all his faults, Kobe wouldn't complain. He would take it like a man and do the interviews.

[star18]

The expert picks.  Now that is what I'm talking about.  Abbott is 2 games off, 5 guys are 3 games off, and 4 guys are 4 games off.  Nobody was even close, and the funny thing is that it was almost Orlando in 4, which would have made 9 of 10 guys 5 to 6 games off of what really happened.  Where do these "experts" come up with their numbers.   Before the series started the last time ORL played CLE they were up 88-47 after almost 3 quarters.  I guess that meant nothing when compared to how dominant the Cavs were 2 whole games(both in the ORL series)won against a .600 healthy team in their last 58 games.  What media hype, and CLE got basically every call in the series.  Boston deserved home court, not Cleveland. If you watched the games, the Cavs got all these ridiculous calls during the season and were heavily favored by the refs. They had no business getting the #1 seed.

[star18]

The reason I do not agree with these expert picks and all the hoopla surrounding Lebron & Kobe is because it took all the attention away from the real champions the Celtics.  Last year the Celtics were one of the most dominant teams ever, started 9-0, went 66-16, never trailed in any playoff series, won their last game by 39.  Doc didn't get coach of the year, KG didn't get MVP. During Feb. of last year NBA had the Celtics ranked 6th best team in the NBA when they were 6 games ahead of every other team in the league. Even then few people picked them in the finals.  In the ATL series it was wow they had to go 7 games, in the CLE series it was wow they had to go 7 games, in the DET series most people expected DET to win, in the LA series 9 out of 10 experts picked the Lakers.  Then Celtics won Game 6 131-92 World Champions.  Within 2 weeks all you heard from anybody was how the Lakers were getting Bynum back, Pierce faked the injury etc.. So the 2008-09 season starts, Celtics go 27-2 break the NBA record, then lose 7 of 9 and that was it.  No more talk about the Celtics, all the Lebron vs Kobe talk started.  Then the Cavs started getting more and more calls to get homecourt. Then when KG got hurt, no more talk about the Celtics.  Here they were clearly the best team in the NBA for more than a year and a half, and they got media coverage for like 3 weeks saying they were the best.  Now all of a sudden Lebron and the Cavs are the best, so they will sit and talk about 1 player and ignore all the retired jerseys, banners, and hall of famers that the Celtics have had throughout their history. Then Lebron loses and after all the chalk throwing, Rick Ashtley singing, muscle flexing, showboating, picture taking, trick shot shooting, most amazing dunk after amazing ref call, the greatest player ever, on the greatest team ever Mike Brown coach of the year, LBJ MVP, the guy puts on his headphones and hurries grumpily to his bus talking to no one. What a way to forget about the Celtics and Celtics basketball to hop on the bandwagon of this guy. Also, in the process the NBA forgot about the Orlando Magic too, so hopefully they will win the title.

[thedawg]

At least we have class TEAM players in Ray Allen and KG (and maturing Pierce too) who all know what TEAM work means.  I have always thought Lebron being a bit dodgy and I HATE "one man´s teams". I am so happy that Orlando is through to the finals as they reminded me much about Celtics in last year´s playoffs (2nd round and onwards) when they made the ball do the talking and ended with a great final pass or a final shot.  I seriously think Orlando will beat Lakers if Dwight Howard can mature quickly and keep away from foul  trouble.

[gar]

No excuse not to respect Orlando
If you are mad at the refs that is one thing, if you are mad at your teammates that is another. He did speak with his teammates. Is fine if he was ducking an interview that I understand. Who knows I hope he calls each of the magic individually to man up and give them their due.

From a players perspective must have been difficult since they called every game different. But with the number of travels Lebron gets away with and the number of calls he usually gets is fine with me that they let them play in this game. Lebron was looking for someone to bail him out. Howard on the other hand just played his game.