Since the NBA is currently locked out and there most likely won’t be a season since the commissioner, owners, and players do not believe it is a priority to resolve their Collective Bargaining Agreement issues anytime soon, the players have a lot of free time on their hands. For instance, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries just hosted a mock wedding with blotchy E! personality Kim Kardashian. Eventual free agent Delonte West even teased that he wanted to work for Home Depot or Sam’s Club.
But what about the guys we actually care about, the superstars? What about Dwyane Wade? Well, he’s still crying. In an interview with ESPN 540 in Milwaukee, Wade told the story of three victims.
“Obviously we went through a lot last year. It was unfair some of the stuff that we had to endure but we grew from it. That’s over with. We move on to whenever we play basketball again and we will be a different team.”
So unfair. Looking back, I feel like a real jerkhole for taking so many shots at the Miami Heat. It was wrong of us, as fans of other teams or just people who believe in humility, to chastise the “Three Kings” for their lavish welcome party in Miami. It was wrong of us to punish LeBron James for saying they would win 7 NBA Championships when all was said and done. It was cruel of us to question James and Wade for making fun of Dirk Nowitzki’s cold in the NBA Finals. And it was just flat out mean of us to ever boo the Heat for walking into our arenas.
Wait, they were actually fine with that.
“We played in hostile environments which we love as competitors. We love to hush everybody up and we were able to accomplish that all the way to the end of the year when we didn’t win. Then they became right again. At the end of the day that’s not what you play the game for. You play the game because you love it and enjoy doing it.”
Yes, you see? You play the game because you love doing that. You don’t play the game because it’s something to do in between throwing yourself lavish birthday parties over a two month span in every city that you play in. You play it to entertain the fans that pay their money to see the product that your team provides on the court. You don’t play it to question the fans for having opinions about the way that certain players handled their business, and whether or not it was cold and arrogant. I’m glad these guys get it.
Also, we’ve been completely wrong about James, too. He really isn’t the guy who was recently voted the most hated man in basketball and ranked with Charlie Sheen, Tiger Woods, and Donald Trump on a list of the most hated celebrities.
“LeBron is one of my best friends. A lot of the things in life we have similar from an upbringing and some of our beliefs. He’s human. He makes mistakes like all of us, like every other human being, and he’s going to do a lot of great things as well. I don’t know anything that no one doesn’t know. He’s a big kid man. He’s giddy, he’s goofy, but at the end of the day he’s a great teammate. He’s one of those guys that will bring everybody on the bus coffee in the morning, he’s one of those teammates.”
See? Coffee! Haha, he’s the greatest guy. And if the barista’s lucky, maybe he’ll even toss a shiny new nickel in her tip jar.
