Time To Embrace LeBron James!

Sports fans and sports radio talks hosts hardly ever change their mind but look for some of them to finally embrace Lebron James as the NBA Finals finish up.  Miami's 3-1 advantage over the Thunder is too tall a task to overcome for Kevin Durant and the Thunder.   Either Thursday, Sunday or next Tuesday will see the crowning of the Miami Heat and LeBron James as NBA champions.   It hasn't been an easy road for King James. 

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Last year's championship run was filled with ridicule, criticism and the like for LeBron James.  Very few folks had anything nice to say about him and for the most part, it has followed him into this year's season and run for the championship.  Unwilling to take critical shots, always looking to pass and not clutch have all been hung around his neck by the sports pundits who need something to talk about on their shows.   

Very little of the criticism has been warranted and for the most part, greatly overstated.  Almost all of it resulted from his center stage announcement two years ago announcing to the world on ESPN that he was leaving Cleveland in hopes of winning a championship in Miami.  It is understandable that the good people of Cleveland would be upset given that his move left them without hope of winning.  The fans and commentators should have been far more upset with Cleveland ownership for not surrounding James with players capable of putting the team over the top. 

Lebron's performance throughout the playoffs and especially in The Finals has been extraordinary.  To find fault with his performance and his leadership of his team should be falling on deaf ears.  Last night's Game 4 was one more example of the type of player James is.  Drawing the double team throughout the game and dishing one pass after another to his hot-handed teammates was the recipe for victory and a sterling example of his leadership of this team.

James has averaged 42.6 minutes over these four games with the Thunder.  He has averaged 29.2 points per game along with six assists, almost 2 steals and 10 rebounds per outing.  On top of that he has guarded the NBA scoring champion of the last three years in the likes of Kevin Durant.  James will most certainly win the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.  His performance should all but silence his critics.

It still will come down to the manner and fashion he left the Cavaliers.  The gaudy and less than mature announcement of his choice of leaving Cleveland and moving to Miami will always stick in the crawl of some guys.  Those who are most critical of James should remember back to their youth of 25 years old and reflect if they had the maturity level and experience to know better than to make such a circus out of the announcement.  Certainly ESPN did and LeBron's agent. 

It's time to embrace LeBron James as the good guy and not the guy in the black hat.  He has answered his critics and has done so in a professional and exemplary effort on the basketball court.  Congratulations King James.