Elbow Gate

For the last 2 to 3 years Lebron James has been the poster boy for the NBA. With corporate sponsorship rivaling His Airness, Lebron has been a media machine since he was still in high school. ESPN even broadcasted a couple of his high school games, something that had never been done before. Looking at a stat sheet can show any casual basketball fan that Lebron dominates many of the statistical categories in the NBA. Accomplishing this has allowed him to become the league's Most Valuable Player for the second straight season, placing him in a select group of basketball legends. Clearly his achievements have made him the subject of intense media scrutiny. Everyone always has to know what Lebron is doing. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, the media has chosen to protect The King, even in the face of adversity.

According to James himself, he "hurt" his elbow about two months ago during practice. I choose to use quotes around "hurt" because 3 MRIs have revealed no damage to the elbow. Basically what happened was Lebron felt a tingle in his right elbow, a slight scratch in his armor, and decided to make a huge deal out of it.

News of the elbow came to light when Lebron walked back to the Cavs locker room stretching his elbow during his regular in-game break. Note that this occurred during his regular in-game break. Lebron returned to the game apparently feeling fine as he notched a triple-double and dominated the Bulls down the stretch to lead Cleveland to victory. However, the talk of the phantom elbow didn't escape Lebron.

In what to me seems like the most bizarre and unnecessary play in NBA Playoff history, Lebron James shot a free throw with the game on the line against the Chicago Bulls left-handed. No surprise, it was a brick. What's weird about this whole situation is how quickly the media hopped on the Lebron's elbow train. First of all, James made the first of 2 foul shot attempts before attempting the left-hander. In a post game interview Lebron said that he "made the one that counted" with his right hand, and then had to use his left because he couldn't feel it anymore. Really, Lebron? The one that counted? It was a 4-point game with 6 seconds left, I think both of them counted. What really happened here was Lebron thought the game was secure so he tried to show off my making a left-handed free throw at the end so it would look like he lead his team to victory on a bad arm. Failed attempt, Lebron. But this didn't stop the media from riding the elbow train, giving Lebron even more of an excuse for his poor decision making and, well, selfishness.

"Elbow gate", as it has become known, is destroying the NBA playoffs. In Game 1 of their 2nd round matchup with the Boston Celtics, the Cavs followed a spirited effort by Lebron to come from behind and win. In Game 2 Lebron played average - not like his usually spectacular self - and the commentators were talking about the elbow all game. Nevermind that Boston overcame huge foul discrepancies to win by almost 20 points. Never mind that Boston shot, rebounded, and played better defense than Cleveland. No, something must have been wrong with Lebron's elbow!

Now, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, but this whole elbow phenomenon has seemed pretty bizarre. It seems like literally from game to game, Lebron's phantom elbow comes back to haunt him. Forget the fact that modern science has shown there is nothing wrong with the elbow. No, this is The King we're talking about! It can't be that Lebron is just an inconsistent player...that's absurd! Clearly the issue is a phantom elbow injury that modern scientific devices cannot detect. Lebron defies nature!

No. The fact is we're seeing the same thing we see every year with Lebron - excuses. For the past several years the excuse has been, "Lebron doesn't have help!" Now that they have built a team of all-stars around him, the excuse when he inevitably loses will be "Well, he had a hurt elbow!" It's absolutely sickening. Let's all just ignore the fact that Kobe Bryant has been playing for the last 4 months with a finger that's actually broken. You know how we can tell it's broken? Because x-rays showed broken bones, and he is wearing a huge splint on the index finger of his shooting hand! There it is folks, scientific proof. Something Lebron clearly has failed to understand since he skipped college and came to the NBA. Or how about last night when Steve Nash led his team to a win on the road with a swollen left eye. No, saying the eye was swollen is an understatement. This eye was completely sealed up due to swelling. Never mind the amount of pain Nash was in, as a point guard one would imagine this would adversely affect his passing and shooting performance. No, Nash rose to the occasion. This is what MVPs do. MVPs do not make excuses.

Of course Lebron came back from his relatively poor performance in Game 2 of the Celtics series and dominated Boston while leading Cleveland to a big win in Game 3 on the road. This prompted the media to say that all talks of Lebron's elbow should be dismissed. On cue, James performed below his normal level in Game 4 and Boston won. I'm anxiously awaiting Lebron's next excuse.