Coach K Sympathizes With LeBron. Sorry, I Don’t.

Over at Sports Radio, coach Krzyzewski gave them a few minutes of his time to talk about U.S. basketball and Duke’s 2011 Tournament loss. They also discussed LeBron James.

Coach Krzyzewski had this to say about LeBrons’ season:

"He just went through, I think, as crazy a year as I think anybody in any sport ever has gone through. People can say, certainly some of it is of its own making, and it is. … But a lot of it wasn’t. To come out where you were two games shy of winning the whole thing, I think you have to keep it in perspective how close you were. … He learned a lot; he’s a good learner. He just needs to take some time away, work on his game and I think he’ll be fine.”"

First, ALL of the crap LeBron took was of his own making. “The Decision” was one of the worst “decisions” a person could make.

The fact that he waited until the end of free agency to make his “decision” even though he admitted to knowing what he was going to do for a long time (possibly since the 2008 Olympics) makes it ever worse. A real man would have let his team know in private and not leave them hanging until the end.

There is nothing wrong with leaving via a free agent. Sure it was disappointing to see him leave poor suffering Cleveland, but that wasn’t the tragic part. The tragic part was when he acted like some high school teenager who takes over the school gym, placing hats on the table for all the cameras.

You know all those decisions were made by handlers. You know when he said, “I’m taking my talents to South Beach,” his boys had come up with that months ago, locked into a marketing campaign. James is no longer a player, he’s a marketing gimmick.

On top of that, the whole Heat team took a ton of sh*t for that crazy championship-like celebration after the signing. Seriously, Dwayne Wade is one of the most liked and cherished basketball players for his football-style mentality on the court. Yet, this rally even killed his image (along with Bosh, who was never really respected).

As for whether he’ll learn from all this…I think over time he might and over time I think people wil again cheer for LeBron. We love champions in this country. We love our dynasties. If LeBron hits 30 with no title, he’ll get sympathy.

However, based on what he said after losing to the Mavericks, I don’t think he’s learned much so far.

"“All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point.”"

Thanks LeBron. The next morning I woke up with my beautiful wife and played with my cool son. Meanwhile, “The King” has won the same amount of NBA championships as I have…none.