RF23 - Lebron Has Been Here

The Miami Heat has captured its third NBA Championship and quite frankly, this series with the San Antonio Spurs will go down as a classic.  I don't think San Antonio's west coast rival the Lakers and the new up  and coming Thunder would have pushed the Heat more than the Spurs did.   Having said that, Lebron James literally grew up in our eyes with this series.  Problem with that last statement is that he's been here all the time.  He was here, when he single handedly willed the Cleveland Cavaliers to its first NBA Finals appearance in his what? second or third year!  and he wasn't jacking up air balls like the individual he's compared too.  

Back in the day, I loved the play of one Michael Jordan, there will never be another like him.  A few back in days earlier, I was entertained by the play of Earvin Johnson and Larry Bird, there will never be an era in which two great players on rival teams brought the NBA from tape delay to prime-time TV.  

But if you want to be straight up and honest about the treatment of Lebron James by the media, you have to scratch your head.   It all started with the "The Decision" and ESPN sponsored and hosted TV event where James announced that he was leaving Cleveland to play in Miami.  Why? because he was being crushed by the media for "Over-achieving" way too early and his game was better than air ball chucking Kobe Bryant when he was the same age as Lebron.  If memory serves me correct, Kobe sat the bench his first year and played sparingly.   So if the media is crushing Lebron for his off the court decision to rightfully leave Cleveland, how does that compare to other off the court bad decisions the follwing made:

Michael Jordan:  After winning his third championship, it was reported that Jordan's strong will to compete at everything from betting the next car will be red to marbles, gambled. Gambled a lot!  If you are conspiracy theorist, you may not buy his reason for retiring because he was grieving over the loss of his father, but was secretly suspended for two seasons.  Media gave a hall pass like no other.

Earvin Johnson:  How is it possible for a man to announce he has AIDS and not one reporter bring up that Johnson used bad judgment by having unprotected sex.   Media hall pass, the pass is so strong that every year, his announcement of having AIDs is celebrating like Black History Month.

Kobe Bryant:  Colorado.  No need to say more.

And Lebron is the one castigated for his earned right to move on from Cleveland.   Lets look at all the criticism after that ESPN hosted show:

1.  The Decision which was supposed to bring awareness to a local Cleveland Boys and Girls Club was criticized to no end.

2.  After the Decision, comments about his in game aggression came up, because how dare he be a facilatator and want to involve, I dunno Wade!

3.  Questions about his leadership.

All of this was going on, while he was racking league MVP honors back to back to back!

Lebron has been here, folks, it us who are late and still in love past eras.  

RF23 - It's Showtime!!

Is it me or has the pendulum swung to Showtime in regard to its boxing programming?   Remember it was Showtime that took a chance of ELITE MMA which is now producing household names in the UFC.   But it’s boxing where Showtime is now making its mark and with the signing of Floyd Mayweather, it seems that the CBS owned cable station is looking to send HBO back to England with a Money May “Chin up.”  Let’s look at the action over the weekend.  HBO had a doubleheader, in which its first fight received more boos than punches thrown and the main event, well..I’ll come back to that later.

 

Meanwhile on Showtime, it also had a double main event starring Cuban Erislandy Lara and hard puncher Alfredo Angulo and although the first co-main event ended with a gruesome eye injury suffered by Angulo in the tenth mar.  Angulo, prior to this withdrawal had sent Lara to the canvas two times, with the most recent knockdown coming in the ninth round.   The fight was entertaining and the crowd was still buzzin’ when the main event kicked off with Josesito Lopez and Marcos Maidana, now this fight lived up to the hype, with the more experience Maidana scoring a knockout, over a game and ready to throw down Lopez.  Lopez had Maidana hurt in two rounds, however could not put it together to put Maidana out.  Now lets roll to HBO, their main event consisted of Chad Dawson putting his title against  Adonis Stevenson and before I give my take on on the fight, let me get this out.   Once again, I’m still complaining that Jim Lampley is still calling fights and my main concern was that he was going to report or give a take on a boxer who, well done the same thing he’s done.  Abused women.   Stevenson was charged, tried and convicted for 3 years for essentially being a pimp and abusing women.  This was not the story Lampley should be reporting on, since he plead no contest for abusing his ex-girlfriend and then breaking the restraining order and allegedly doing it again.  HBO should do us a favor and get rid of Lampley and his dumb boxing show.

 

Now for the fight, apparently Dawson is, what we thought he was.   A bum!  Dawson should have taken a page from Jermaine Tayler and quit while he was getting his behind beat by Andre Ward.  But no, he didn’t see the writing on the wall and on Saturday, got what everyone knew was going to happen to him.  Knocked out.   And that was HBO boxing for Saturday and this includes going against FUEL TV which had UFC fights on.

 

When Mayweather left HBO, he took it all and now it’s Showtime!!