A Letter To LeBron James

LeBron,


Good morning LeBron.  I wanted to make sure that you are aware of the fact that you have a great opportunity ahead of you this coming week.  I suspected that it was very possible for your basketball team to go into Oklahoma City and 'steal' a win in the first two games of the NBA Finals and that has happened.  Now your team is tied 1-1 with the Thunder and you have 3 home games in a row waiting for you in Miami. This exact scenario is the reason that I picked your team to win the NBA Title in five games.  You are playing a team that lost two games in San Antonio and barely won the third game there in the Western Conference Finals.  Saying that the Thunder were the beneficiaries of questionable officiating in the last round of the playoffs would be a MONUMENTAL understatement.  For some reason Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker do not seem to get the same calls from officials that you do, even though you have never won anything - I factored that into my prediction for the current series.  There was no way that Mr. Wade and yourself were going to get jobbed by the officials to the extent that the Spurs did.  I have to be honest with you LeBron - I want to see the Thunder win this series, but I did enjoy seeing Coach Brooks complaining to the officials last night when his team didn't get the same calls that they received against the Spurs - enjoyed that just a little I must admit...  Your repeated contact on Kevin Durant when he attempted to tie the game without a whistle - priceless...  Now you have a young and inexperienced Thunder team coming into your arena for three games.  If you take care of business, they won't make it out of the state of Florida for another basketball game this season.  The pressure is on them because they were inexplicably tabbed as the favorites for this series, with most of the 'talking heads' predicting that they would take the trophy, and now Russell Westbrook has to explain why he took 26 shots last night to score his 27 points when he's sharing the floor with Durant.  Oklahoma City has to deal with your team's outside shooting ability, which is opening a lot a room up for drives to the hoop.  Of course you must realize that the pressure is on you and your teammates also LeBron, in large part due to your bad decision to be part of an hour-long, self-centered spectacle called 'The Decision'...  The smokeshow and the dancing on the stage in Miami when you hit town didn't help you out a lot either.  Not expressing your appreciation to the fans in Cleveland and in the state of Ohio while putting them through 'The Decision' didn't help you out either.  "Taking your talents to South Beach"... - that didn't help you out a lot either...  I would suggest that if you and your teammates are successful in winning the title in the next week, you might want to show just a little bit of class in doing so.  There is no question that you are a very talented basketball player LeBron - you might want to work on taking your compassion to the next level.  Just remember that there will be people like me out there who will continue to say that you have NEVER WON ANYTHING if your let this opportunity slip through your hands, and I would be happy to do so for the reasons I just stated.  If you do manage to hoist the trophy, handle it with class.  Right, I've already covered that...  Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday.


'Coach'