LeBron's handling of his coach, David Blatt is unbecoming

ESPN ^ | 06/18/2015 | Marc Stein

[SeekAndFind]

I have a question for LeBron James that I really hope he'll field someday.

A question that can be asked a variety of ways:

What kind of coach do you want?

Who out there is a coach for whom you'd actually like to play?

Who could ‎the Cleveland Cavaliers hire that would earn your backing?

I don't have the answers to any of those queries.

I know this much, though: James is too brilliant as a basketball player, too truly great, to behave the way he did toward David Blatt during the NBA Finals.

We literally saw "Peak LeBron" and the corresponding "LeBron Nadir" over those six gripping games with the Golden State Warriors. He had staffers from the 67-win Warriors almost quaking at night in fear of havoc he was wreaking, such was his genius in controlling tempo and carrying a skeleton of a roster to a 2-1 lead that actually made you think the Cavs could win it all with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and his beloved Anderson Varejao all sidelined.

And we likewise saw LeBron emasculate Blatt in ways that are simply unbecoming of a player of James' legend-in-the-making stature.

I saw it from close range in my role as reporter through the Finals for ESPN Radio. James essentially called timeouts and made substitutions. He openly barked at Blatt after decisions he didn't like. He huddled frequently with Lue, often looking at anyone other than Blatt.

There was James, in one instance I witnessed from right behind the bench, shaking his head vociferously in protest after one play Blatt drew up in the third quarter of Game 5, amounting to the loudest nonverbal scolding you could imagine -- which forced Blatt, in front of his whole team, to wipe the board clean and draw up something else.

[SmokingJoe]

Ummm.... No. He's never put up them kinds of numbers with Irving and Love in the team. Irving regularly put up more points than LeBron during the regular season. With people like J R Smith playing carp during the finals, he simply had to take up most of the load. Kobe Bryant often did the same thing and put up insane numbers when the rest of his team was playing rubbish. Only difference is, Kobe was called selfish for doing that.

[Borges]

He. Tried passing the ball around but there was no one to pick up the slack. That was the worst team to ever play in the finals...worse than the awful team Lebron carried to the Finals early in his career.