I'm beginning to think some sports fans hate LeBron James more than they love sports, and it's a shame.
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Following the Cavaliers' series-clinching 113-87 win against the Raptors in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday, you knew it was coming from ESPN's Skip Bayless. The former junior varsity bench warmer just can't help himself. He gets his rocks off on being hypercritical of James, especially following his highest achievements. It's weird.
It was shameful that LeBron and his team lost two playoff games in Toronto against a team that didn't belong on the same floor.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 28, 2016
I'll say it again: LeBron James just had the easiest star's path to a Finals I can remember. He should be completely healthy and rested.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 28, 2016
Bayless' "First Take" partner in pontification, Stephen A. Smith, was much more diplomatic about it, but even he, a former college basketball player under Winston-Salem State's legendary Clarence "Big House" Gaines, offered a little shade beneath the bright lights at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, where James led a team to the NBA Finals for the sixth straight season.
It's a feat no player — not Michael Jordan, not Magic Johnson not Larry Bird, not Shaquille O'Neal, not Kobe Bryant — has done since 1966. Smith said he wasn't convinced the Cavs could beat either the Thunder or the Warriors in the Finals. That's a fair take, but then he went on to lament James' teammates celebrating what they'd just accomplished too much. In his mind, that would make a loss in the Finals hurt that much more for James. After all, James is 2-4 in the Finals in his career.
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That makes sense, you know, because Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the only current players you could even mention in the same breath with James, have all been to, played for and won multiple championships. (Read: They haven't.)
LeBron James splits DeMarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas to deliver a pass. (Getty Images)
Once-in-a-lifetime excellence, because that's unequivocally what James has displayed for 13 years in the NBA, is appealing to the masses, but to many, for whatever reason, it's appalling. Nasir ben Olu Dara Jones said in his seminal work, "Hate Me Now": "People fear what they can't understand, hate what they can't conquer. I guess it's just a theory of man."
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It's a weird dichotomy that creates a climate in which James, who has never gotten in trouble for anything bigger than a speeding ticket off the court, can simultaneously be the most-hated and loved athlete in the country.
It's why jokers like Bayless and journalists like Smith (however reluctantly in the latter's case) try to minimize the virtually unprecedented.
Like Sean Combs once said of his success using '80s samples to make hits in the mid-'90s: If it's so easy, Skip, why isn't everyone else doing what James is? Don't worry. I'll wait.
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The Raptors were the best the Eastern Conference had to offer. They featured an all-star backcourt in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Their roster also included DeMarre Carroll, one of the league's top "3 and D" guys and a huge free-agent acquisition after helping lead the Hawks to the best record in the East a year ago. It also had two promising young big men: Jonas Valanciunas, who was injured, and possible $17 million man Bismack Biyombo.
Only one win separated the two teams in the regular season. One player did in Game 6. James dropped a postseason-high 33 points to go with 11 rebounds and six assists.
I know it might sound like a foreign concept to cynics, but maybe, just maybe, James hasn't played a slew of nobodies. Maybe, he's just making them look like nobodies.
True, winning championships is more difficult than getting there, but you've got to be in it to win it. Just ask James' contemporaries such as Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul, both likely first-ballot Hall of Famers who might never even play for a title.
Few times have those tapped as "the next best thing" lived up to the hype. James has exceeded it since entering the league as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft out of St. Vincent-St. Mary's High School in Akron, Ohio.
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Remember, he has won two NBA championships and two Finals MVP awards. That's not to mention four league MVPs, 12 All-Star Game appearances and 10 first-team All-NBA nods, one shy of the record. But you already knew that.
Sometimes, it's OK to live in the moment, like James told his teammates in the locker room after Friday night's game, because you never know if you'll ever get to enjoy this moment again. It's something James said he regretted not doing last season.
And sometimes, it's OK to just sit to back and appreciate James' greatness, particularly if you're a fan of the game of basketball, for its uniqueness. The next guy you'll have to hate on probably won't even be as good.