Blake Griffin had just "posterized" Kendrick Perkins with a monster dunk when LeBron went to the Twitterverse, ""Dunk of the Year! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!!! Wow! I guess I'm No. 2 now. Move over #6."
It seemed harmless enough, in fact, he was actually giving props to Griffin for out-slamming the King himself, but that's not how Kendrick Perkins saw things. Perkins wondered why LeBron had to drag him down in public— so he had a few choice words for LeBron: "You don't see Kobe (Bryant) tweeting," Perkins told Yahoo! Sports. "You don't see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you're an elite player, plays like that don't excite you.
"At the end of the day, the guys who are playing for the right reasons who are trying to win championships are not worrying about one play. They also are not tweeting about themselves talking about going down to No. 2," Perkins added, according to the report. "I just feel (James) is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him."
Shortly thereafter Bill Simmons of ESPN had Larry Bird on his podcast and asked him whom he'd rather play with Kobe or LeBron, not surprisingly, Larry chose Kobe.
LeBron could have ignored both comments, he could have responded by saying who cares what a nobody like Perkins thinks. He could have said Kobe has earned Bird's respect by winning championships. LeBron could have opined, "I'm still young, hopefully I'll have as many rings as Kobe and a good enough resume to change Bird's mind when all is said and done". He could have been humble.
Instead, LeBron opened his mouth and with his spoiled-brat wisdom confirmed exactly what both Bird and Perkins were saying. As usual, LeBron was quick to blame everyone but himself, and in true megalomaniac fashion, believed the whole world wrongly blamed him: "I'm an easy target; if someone wants to get a point across -- just throw LeBron's name in there," James said. "You could be watching cartoons with your kids and you don't like it, you say, 'Blame it on LeBron.' If you go to the grocery store and they don't have the milk that you like, you just say, 'It's LeBron's fault.' "
Perkins, who won a ring with a veteran-laden Celtic team, and likely learned a little about how champions conduct themselves, was trying to tell LeBron to act like you've been there before. Champions conduct themselves like champions. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell Kobe or Michael would have tweeted how fantastic they thought someone else's dunk was because they wouldn't want to build up their competitors. The thought that either would have said anyone was better than them at anything is insane.
Could you imagine Michael Jordan tweeting, "Stockton & Malone's pick and roll was fantastic, can't stop that" or Kobe tweeting, "Ray Allen shoots a 3 that's a dream, wish I had that touch." Not a chance, they both only think of and work on ways to out-perform their competition, not compliment them.
Even more revealing to LeBron's character was his response to Larry's assertion that he would rather play with Kobe: "It's simple, (Kobe) has five rings and I have none so it's easy to say that, if I had five rings and Kobe had none, it'd probably be the other way around."
Really LeBron, you think? If you had 5 rings no one would be questioning your heart. Fact is Bron-Bron, Kobe does have 5 rings and, despite your once-in-a-generation skill set, you have the same amount as the high horse you rode in on. Larry would have left his balls on the court if it meant getting a victory. Larry knew how to win, he can recognize a winner and to no one's shock but yours, King James, he chose Kobe.
By leaving Cleveland to join Miami, James ran from the opportunity to prove his own greatness, becoming Robin to Dwayne Wade's Batman in order to gain the easiest route to a championship.
Would Kobe or Michael have done that? No chance! Larry knows you could have put those guys in Guantanamo Bay and water boarded them for a year and they still wouldn't choose the easy way— it would have diminished their greatness.
This is why an all-time great like 'Larry Legend' can see you still haven't learned to shoulder the responsibility and become a winner, a back-up centre can see you don't carry yourself like a winner, and every time you try to defend yourself, the masses can see that you don't know what it means to be a winner.
Perhaps, if you try to work harder than everyone else, stop choking when it matters most and, every once in a while, quit looking to blame everyone else when the issue is your attitude, you might learn what it takes to be a champion.
Larry's trying to tell you something LeBron, maybe it's time you shut up and listen.
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