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Stephen Jackson torches LeBron James over hand, Finals: 'He quit, he knew he was beat'

[Yahoo Sports]  Jason Owens,Yahoo Sports 12 hours ago 

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Stephen Jackson, who has not shied from hot takes since his playing days, accused LeBron James of making excuses and quitting on his teammates. (Getty)

While much of the sports world has moved past the NBA Finals to the summer of LeBron James, Stephen Jackson isn’t quite ready to let go.

The former Golden State Warrior and NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs lit into James Wednesday during an appearance on Fox Sports, taking him to task for quitting during the Finals and making excuses after the Cleveland Cavaliers got swept.


Stephen Jackson: LeBron James was ‘selfish’ when he hurt his hand

Jackson started his diatribe by calling out James for talking about his injured hand after the Cavs got swept and for injuring it in the first place by punching a white board after a brutal Game 1 loss.

“The series is over,” Jackson said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t go back and start over ’cause your hand hurts. It wasn’t a good decision by the guy you expect to carry your team.

“For him to do that, that was real selfish.”

Jackson: Did James punch his heart against white board?

Jackson went on to criticize James for what he saw a subpar effort in the wake of Game 1’s loss.

“I think his heart was questioned,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if he punched his heart against the white board. Because at times it looked like his heart was hurting. He wasn’t competing, wasn’t giving the same energy we see from LeBron.”

He went on to accuse James of making excuses after getting swept.

“I just think it was too late to come out with,” Jackson said. “The series was over. If you hurt your hand, just say you hurt it. Don’t bring it up to try to make it the topic from getting swept.”

‘Go home, bruh!’

Toward the end of his rant, Jackson came to the conclusion that James just up and quit on his teammates.

“That took a lot out of him,” Jackson said of Game 1. “He quit. He knew he was playing against a better team. After Game 1, he knew he was beat. Point blank, bruh. It had nothing to do with his hand.

“They got swept. 4-0. Take it like a man. Go home, bruh.”


 Quand les vrais enfants de Dieu décident de faire la différence .Avec ELITES VOYAGE NOUS AVONS UN SERVICE DE QUALITE.
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LeBron James, Once Told to 'Shut Up and Dribble,' Is a Black Athlete Who Stays Woke While Managing His Success

James, in the spotlight for his latest move to the Los Angeles Lakers, doesn't shy away from addressing racial issues in the U.S.Sheryl Estrada
 July 02, 2018

LeBron James trended on social media on Sunday for signing a four-year, $153.3 million contract with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time. Since his six-year contract with the Miami Heat in 2010, it's the longest deal he's signed, according to ESPN.

The 33-year-old NBA superstar may be taking a gamble in his latest move, but he's definitely had a say in the management and direction of his groundbreaking career. His accomplishments include four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, three NBA Finals MVP Awards, two Olympic gold medals and three All-Star Game MVP awards. In June, he ranked number six on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes.

With his earnings, James has become a philanthropist. The bulk of the LeBron James Family Foundation's work focuses his hometown, Akron, Ohio, but it extends beyond the Midwestern city. His foundation spends at least $1 million per year on educational programs.

James also partnered with the University of Akron to provide a guaranteed four-year scholarships to the school for students in his "I Promise" program. The scholarship should cover the costs for more than 1,000 kids, which will cost his foundation a total of $41.8 million.


Throughout his career in the league, James has had a history of being unafraid to use his platform to speak about racial issues in the United States.


Following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, James, then on the Miami Heat, posted a photo on social media of the team, all wearing hoodies, their heads bowed, their hands stuffed into their pockets. It was both a tribute to Martin and a condemnation of a society that deems a young, Black male wearing a hoodie as dangerous.

In 2014, James and five other Cleveland Cavaliers players wore T-shirts reading "I Can't Breathe" during warm-ups in honor of Eric Garner.

In 2016, in the wake of the police-related deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, along with the killing of five officers in Dallas, James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade used the ESPY awards ceremony in Los Angeles as a platform for social justice.

Related Story: 'N-Word' Sprayed on LeBron James' L.A. Home

A racist slur was spray-painted on the front gate of James' Los Angeles home in 2017. During a press conference in Oakland, James commented on the state of race relations in the U.S.

"No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being Black in America is tough."

In February, Fox News host Laura Ingraham insulted James's intelligence and said he should not express his political opinions about President Trump, telling him and Golden State Warriors Player Kevin Durant to "shut up and dribble."

James responded in a press conference: "We're back to everything I've been talking over the past few years. It lets me know that everything I've been saying is correct, for her to have that type of reaction."


He added: "But we will definitely not shut up and dribble."

In an Instagram post, he included a picture of the following words in a neon sign: "I Am More Than an Athlete."

Former and current NBA players are reacting on social media to James' decision to switch to the Lakers, many calling it a smart move.

NBA 2018 FINAL NBA 2018 FINAL NBA 2018 FINAL NBA 2018 FINAL NBA 2018 FINAL 


SPORTS

Pantorno: I'm ready to say LeBron James is the GOATIs LeBron better than Michael Jordan? It's close, but I'm ready to say yes on one condition.
By 
Joe Pantorno
 Published : May 03, 2018
 
Even growing up as a New York Knicks fan and watching His Airness destroy the title hopes of my hero Patrick Ewing year in and year out, to the point in which I abhorred the man, there was no denying that we were watching the greatest player in NBA history. 
 
So when I woke up the night after Jordan hit that famed game-winning step-back jumper in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, six-year-old Joe made the realization that there would never be a baller greater than MJ. 
 
Well, six-year-old Joe is on the cusp of being wrong because I'm ready to classify LeBron James as the new G.O.A.T (Greatest of All-Time). 
 
On one condition. 
 
If it wasn't already impressive enough, James has to extend his streak of consecutive trips to NBA Finals to eight. That means getting his Cleveland Cavaliers past the Toronto Raptors and either the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers as the headliner of his team once again. 
 
It will prove once again that James can will a team to the heights of the Eastern Conference despite having little to no support around him. It's been an issue that has plagued him during most of his career with the Cavaliers. 
 
Before I get into that, let's just look at the numbers one more time just to see how close these two really are.
 
GAMES
Jordan (15 years)- 1,072
James (15 years)- 1,143
 
POINTS PER GAME
Jordan- 30.1
James- 27.2
 
ALL-STAR SELECTIONS
Jordan- 11
James- 14
 
MVP AWARDS
Jordan- 5
James- 4
 
PLAYOFF APPEARANCES
Jordan- 13
James- 13
 
PLAYOFF PPG
Jordan- 33.4
James- 28.6
 
NBA FINALS APPEARANCES
Jordan- 6
James- 8
 
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jordan- 6
James- 3
 
Four of LeBron's last seven Finals appearances came with the Miami Heat alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, winning two of them, so you can't say that he's had no help during his career. But just take a look at this combined list of players that received substantial playing time when James carried them to a Finals appearances: 
 
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao, Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson
 
That's an awful lot of moving (and not very good) parts in just four years. 
 
Sweep it under the rug all you want, but Jordan had Scottie Pippen, another Hall of Famer, for 11 years. That automatically trumps what LeBron has had in Cleveland.
 
Put two Hall of Famers together in the Eastern Conference like that today and you'll get, well, LeBron and Dwyane Wade in Miami. 
 
Take Pippen away from Jordan and the Bulls wouldn't have made six finals and MJ certainly wouldn't have more Finals wins than "The King." The Utah Jazz, Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets would have made it a Western Conference-controlled decade.
 
But let's talk about what we definitely know. We've watched a man for the better part of 15 years carry a franchise and city that was on the canvas not just to relevancy, but to an elite status solely on his back. 
 
That's good enough for me to tab him as the greatest to ever play. 

NBA: et à la fin, c'est LeBron James qui est en finalePar AFPPublié le 28-05-2018 Modifié le 28-05-2018 à 11:40
[media] La vedette des Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James face aux Boston Celtics lors du match 7 de la finale de conférence Est des play-offs NBA, le 27 mai 2018 à BostonGetty/AFP

Cleveland a passé une bonne partie de la saison régulière au bord de la crise et flirté avec l'élimination en play-offs contre Indiana puis Boston, mais LeBron James n'a pas tremblé: il disputera à partir de jeudi sa huitième finale de suite.

Rien ni personne ne peut mettre fin au règne de "King James" sur la conférence Est.

Boston, ses prodiges sans complexe Jaylon Brown et Jayson Tatum, se sont cassés les dents sur le mythe, alors qu'ils étaient invaincus au TD Garden depuis le début des play-offs.

Même sans son principal lieutenant Kevin Love, sous surveillance médicale après un choc à la tête vendredi, James a sorti d'affaires ses Cavaliers qui ont remporté le match décisif 87 à 79.

Il va devenir le sixième joueur de l'histoire à disputer huit finales de suite, les cinq autres emmenés par le légendaire Bill Russell --dix finales entre 1957 et 1966-- appartenaient à la génération dorée des Celtics qui faisaient la loi sur la NBA dans les années 1960.

Il faut remonter au 13 mai 2010, autant dire une éternité dans le monde ultra-compétitif de la NBA, pour trouver trace de la dernière série de play-offs perdue à l'Est (4-2 contre Boston au 2e tour) par James.

- "Du bon, du mauvais" -

Depuis, il a terminé chacune des huit dernières saisons, quatre avec Miami et quatre avec Cleveland, au sommet.

Mais il a fallu particulièrement s'accrocher cette saison.

"Conduire cette équipe avec cet effectif en finale est pour moi ce qu'il a fait de plus fort dans sa carrière", a même estimé Mark Jackson, ancien entraîneur de Golden State, désormais consultant TV.

"On est passé par tous les états cette saison, il y a du bon, du mauvais, des bouquets de roses, des épines, c'est l'une des saisons les plus compliquées de ma carrière", a admis la superstar de la NBA.

L'équipe a dû être remaniée en urgence mi-février alors qu'elle affichait un bilan tout juste à l'équilibre (30-22) après neuf défaites en treize matches: exit donc Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose et Dwyane Wade, le meilleur ami de "King James" arrivé l'été précédent.

Elle a terminé la saison régulière à la 4e place (50 v-32 d), soit son plus mauvais exercice depuis le retour de James en 2014 dans l'équipe de sa région natale où il avait fait ses débuts NBA en 2003.

Le N.23 de Cleveland ne s'est pourtant pas ménagé: il a disputé les 82 matches de saison régulière.

- 33,9 points par match -

De l'avis général, il réalise à 33 ans l'une de ses plus belles saisons et a encore haussé son niveau depuis le début des play-offs où il a renversé Indiana (4-3) au 1er tour, surclassé Toronto (4-0) et écoeuré Boston (4-3).

"Il joue à un autre niveau, ses capacités physiques, son endurance, sa compréhension du jeu sont sans égal et faire ça match après match, saison après saison, c'est incroyable", a admiré Al Horford, le pivot de Boston.

Plus encore que ses statistiques (33,9 pts par match de play-offs), c'est sa capacité à faire la différence dos au mur qui impressionne: il a conduit son équipe à la victoire dans les huit derniers matches N.7 qu'elle a disputés, dont celui de la finale 2016 contre Golden State où il a offert son premier titre à Cleveland.

Son bilan en finale est en revanche moins flatteur: il en a gagné trois et perdu cinq, quand le légendaire Michael Jordan à qui il est sans cesse comparé, a remporté les six finales qu'il a disputées avec Chicago dans les années 1990.

Cleveland ne partira pas favori contre Houston ou Golden State qui, à égalité trois victoires partout, se départageront lundi soir.

Sans surprise, "King James" croit en ses chances: "Tout ce qui est importe, c'est qu'on est en position d'être champion, je suis en compétiteur", a-t-il rappelé, un sourire en coin.