Be A Good A Sport!

There was much made of LeBron James recent show of unsportsmanlike conduct. If you were living in cave recently, LeBron's team lost to Orlando on Saturday night and they were knocked out of the playoffs. LeBron made a quick exit off the court after the game. Leaving without congratulating the Magic on their series victory. LeBron also left the Cleveland lockerroom and boarded the team bus without speaking to any reporters. This left his team to answer all the questions for him. A day or so later, LeBron explained his actions. He said that he was "a winner". He wasn't about to congratulate a team that just beat him. Whaaaaa????? There are a few memorable images/moments that I will always remember from the conclusions of some playoff series in the past. In 1988, the Detroit Pistons finally defeated the Boston Celtics in a hard fought 6 game series to advance to the NBA Finals. At the series end, Kevin McHale of the Celtics met Isiah Thomas at mid-court and shook hands with him. He encouraged Isiah to "take care of business" against the Lakers. For as much as the Celtics and Pistons didn't like each other, it was a classy move by McHale. In 1991, the Chicago Bulls swept the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. The Pistons did not handle the defeat well. Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer led several Pistons in walking off the court without shaking the hands of the Chicago Bulls. But, Joe Dumars of the Pistons stayed behind to shake hands with Michael Jordan and the other Bulls. As he put it, "Jordan had shook hands with him 3 years in a row and there was no way he was gonna leave without shaking Jordan's hand." People are comparing LeBron's actions to those of the Pistons. When I was in high school, I played a set of tennis against a friend of mine during tennis practice. My friend was a very competitive person. I won the set 6-4 and at the end of the match my friend simply walked away without shaking my hand. Not very sportsmanlike, but I knew how my friend was. We had a 5 minute team meeting with our coach after the set we played. After the meeting, my friend said to me, "Nice match." I said, "Thanks." Nothing more was said. My friend just needed some time to calm down after our set. I realized that. We moved on. But, as a professional athelete, LeBron needs to realize that there are many people (kids especially) who watch everything he does. A few minutes of congratulating the Magic and answering reporters questions would have said volumes about his character.