LeBron James is doing just about everything for the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals and it’s not quite been enough to pull a game off the Golden State Warriors just yet. With the series now shifting to Cleveland, there’s reason for hope that the other Cavs role players will play better and provide him that support he needs on the court to get a win.
It’s hard to find much to critique about James right now, but people are still finding ways, with some questioning if he was too hard on J.R. Smith following his blunder to end Game 1. The video and still image of James yelling at Smith at midcourt immediately became a meme, while the uncut video of James, Smith, and Hill returning to the bench after the sequence was gut-wrenching.
On Tuesday, James was asked about those criticisms and whether he should’ve tried to “pick up” his teammates more in the huddle heading into overtime. LeBron joked that it was shocking to him that he would be criticized, before being taken aback by the idea that he needs to pick up his teammates more during the NBA Finals.
“We’re in the NBA Finals. How much more picking up teammates you want me to do?”#NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/x0Dk8V1MSH
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 5, 2018
Now, LeBron is talking about picking up his teammates emotionally in this clip, but it’s hard not to see it as an even larger metaphor for everything he’s doing on the court physically for this team. You’re asking a lot of LeBron to be the one clapping and telling his teammates it’ll be alright in that moment when we’ve seen that, as much as anyone the last two years, James has been a realist when it comes to the Finals. He knew that was their chance and at that moment he was trying to understand if he could’ve done more, like get the timeout he was trying to call granted to him, to preserve that chance in regulation.
