After a year of boos, James tries to stop Bulls
During a Jan. 9 game at Portland, while LeBron James scored 44 points and led his Miami Heat to an overtime win over the Trail Blazers, he listened to all the boos and decided to react the way any good pro wrestling villain would.
James raised his arms in the air to taunt the crowd and basically signaled, “Bring it on.”
“I enjoy it,” he said at the time. “I've kind of accepted this villain role everyone has placed on me, and I'm OK with it.”
After knocking off Boston in the second round, James apologized for last year's heavily-criticized television special and expressed love for his ex-Cleveland teammates.
So where does he stand now? Chicago fans watched Michael Jordan evolve from a talented rookie to one of the most beloved athletes in history. James has similar talent but managed to turn fans against him.
When James and the Heat take the court at the United Center for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, there won't be anything unusual. James was a bitter rival when he played for the Cavaliers and getting booed in Chicago has been a routine occurrence.
It would be interesting to conduct a semi-scientific poll of American sports fans. Are they clamoring for the Bulls to knock off the star-studded Heat, as many suspect? Maybe just as many fans got tired of watching the Bulls win championships in the 1990s.
Bulls forward Carlos Boozer was a teammate of James in Cleveland for one season. Boozer's personal popularity has been up and down during his pro career, but it's never approached the levels of disgust aimed at James.
“No matter what he did, he was going to get criticism one way or another just because of who he is,” Boozer said Saturday. “If he stayed, people would have given him criticism for that. So he left, people gave him criticism for that. That's his battle. I think he handled it well.”
Erie calm before stormJames is a likable person. He's also someone who faced the scrutiny of being billed as the next big thing in American basketball and delivered.There was an interesting calm before the storm. During a 2001-02 game between the Bulls and Cavaliers, James and some friends sat in an empty section of Gund Arena behind the visitors bench. A few high school students from nearby Akron just doing some research.This was a meaningless game between two terrible teams. But that same person would turn that same place into a madhouse within four years. Approached for an informal chat, James was friendly and well-spoken.He had already turned heads in NBA circles by playing pickup games against professionals in Chicago during the summer. Bulls guard Jamal Crawford talked about giving James his cell number and an open invitation to discuss any topic.From the time James was a Cavs rookie, he was good with the media and almost always held court at his locker before games. His personal marketing campaign was relatively successful, though well behind the standard set by Jordan in the 1980s.Most NBA fans seemed ready to accept an era of Cleveland dominance. After serving as Jordan's punching bag so many times, it seemed to be an appropriate reversal of fortune.Now in a cruel twist of fate, disappointed Cleveland fans are forced to stand behind the Bulls if they want to see James fall short of the Finals with Miami.The tide seemed to turn for James during those two 60-win seasons when the Cavaliers decided to test the bounds of sportsmanship by dancing, mugging and showboating throughout the regular season.After growing up in the spotlight, James seemed to lack a sense of self-awareness and never seemed to understand why people took offense at that behavior. It would be reasonable to ask James why he doesn't act like that on the Miami sideline. Chances are, the Heat wouldn't put up with it.Bulls players such as Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose never said anything, but sent the impression that while they respected James, they probably didn't like him that much. Then suddenly, there was a chance James could join the Bulls as a free agent last summer.Feeling the heatWhile Dwyane Wade worked hard to create the power trio in Miami with James and Chris Bosh, Rose was basically indifferent about the Bulls signing James.At the time, no one realized what Rose had planned. Instead of turning over his team to a seemingly bigger star, Rose led the Bulls to 62 wins and won MVP without an all-star by his side. Boozer and the other new players clearly helped, but the Bulls used a more traditional one-star system with a collection of hardworking role players.Meanwhile, James flaunted the free-agent process, then announced his decision on a nauseating ESPN special, after leaking it to the media, of course, in an effort to soften the blow.To the underdog-loving American sports fans, James and Wade took on the role of playground bullies who got tired of losing, so they rigged the teams in their favor. Many felt James abandoned Cleveland without giving his best effort in last year's playoffs.If the Heat doesn't win the championship, the team will be regarded as a failure, but there's always next year.James hasn't spent much time trying to rebuild his image and that's probably a smart move, since Kobe Bryant demonstrated how success-plus-time can be a winning formula.Wade reacted by playing up his Wade's World charity weekend in Chicago last summer and invited local reporters for 1-on-1 interviews to promote the event. If the goal was to demonstrate that Wade is a good guy at heart, it worked.The past 12 months in Chicago, Miami and Cleveland have been crazy, surprising and NBA ratings couldn't be better.James clearly will not be the next Jordan. To start winning like Jordan, he needs to get past the Bulls.BKN26724000Miami Heats LeBron James reacts during the first half of Game 5 of a second-round NBA playoff basketball series against the Boston Celtics in Miami. Associated PressBKNBKN21001490With sweat rolling down his face and his uniform No. 6 on his mouth guard, Miami Heat forward LeBron James questions an officials call during the second quarter of Game 4 against the Boston Celtics in Boston.Associated PressBKNBKN40002443Miami Heat forward LeBron James looks upward during the second half of Game 3 against the Boston Celtics in Boston.Associated PressBKN