My Beef with King James

I haven't had a chance this past week to react to an incident that occured recently, but now that I have a few minutes, and I've actually had a chance to gather my thoughts on it, I figured now's as good a time as any to give you my opinion on it.

Everyone knows LeBron James is a great player. And, everyone knows he loves to have fun, especially on the court. But last Friday night against the Bulls, I think he went a little overboard.

Throughout the game that night, LeBron was seen dancing excessively on the sidelines and during the game, even while he was on the court. He was seen during one timeout making "funny" faces at the camera that just so happened to be right in his face. And as he put it later, he was just having fun.

Well, Bulls center Joakim Noah took exception to it. And frankly, so did I. Late in the game, while James was about to shoot a couple of free throws in front of the Bulls bench, Noah, sitting on the bench, started calling him out on it. After James made one of the free throws, he casually walked towards the Bulls bench to confront Noah, but before it got out of hand, it was broken up.

Still, even after the game, there was a lot of talk about it.

Now, we all know Noah had a knack for a doing a little excessive taunting back when he was at the University of Florida. And some might suggest he was being a bit hypocritical to call out James. But I think Noah was dead-on for calling him out in this case.

This is the NBA. It's a professional league where the players get paid. This is a different animal from the NCAA.

Some say that NBA players, no, check that, all professional athletes, are entertainers. While this might be true, the last thing that gives you the right to do is showboat, rub it in your opponents faces. It's one reason why I'm not a big NFL fan. Because the lack of maturity and respect from some players to their opponents disgusts me. (The end zone showboating after a score has gone far too overboard for my taste, and so has the showboating after making a great defensive play when they're trailing by three touchdowns late in a game.)

Back to LeBron James. As I said before, he's nothing short of a great player, a great athlete, a great talent. But one thing he does lack, in my opinion, is maturity. And I think it was that immaturity that led to the excessive dancing on the court.

By comparison, you never, ever saw Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or Michael Jordan dance around like that while on the court in the middle of a game. You never saw them disrespect their opponents. Heck, you don't even see Kobe do it, or even Dwayne Wade.

Why? Because they respected/respect the game and their opponents. And most importantly, they took/take the game seriously. They were/are passionate about it. Sure, they tried/try to have fun, but they did/do it without chastising their opponents.

They did/do it respectfully and with dignity.