Pro basketball: LeBron needs to be careful "Karma"

LeBron James made some comments about the return of “karma” against the Cleveland Cavaliers following his former team’s 112-57 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. If he’s going to make those kinds of comments, now would be the time to do it. In that game, the Cavs never scored more than 16 points in any quarter, and none of their starters scored in double figures.

As of a couple of days ago, the Cavs had lost 26 of their previous 27 games, and one of them was probably the loss that rocked them, as they were beaten by LeBron’s Miami Heat team by a score of 118-90 in a game that built as the franchise’s biggest regular season game in quite some time.

Of course, “King James” has had some pent-up pain within him; he blames the Cavs for not finding out about an alleged affair between his mom and Delonte West (I wonder why his mom didn’t find out first) and it affected negotiations during the free agent period to the extent that he really there was none. He also affected LeBron’s play in the playoff series against Boston last season. He supposedly got the news about his and West’s mom after Game 3 of that series; prior to that, LeBron had shot 57.5% from the field during the playoffs, but since then he has only made 18 of his 53 shots (34%). Yeah, he may have quit, as Cavs owner Dan Gilbert suggested.

The “karma” statement, of course, involves Gilbert’s tirade after LeBron left. That was the wrong path for Gilbert, who should have had a more upbeat message for his fans. Even if: LeBron is in fact a self-absorbed jerk and not quite a team player, you really can’t crucify him for making a free agent move.

However, you have to be careful when you talk about “karma”. Shortly after making his comments, LeBron suffered a sprained ankle in a game in which the Clippers snapped his team’s 14-game winning streak, which scored 44 points in the first quarter. The Heat went on to lose four in a row, in the process losing their spot as the No. 1 team in the NBA from a defensive field goal percentage perspective. Now there are questions about how good this team is when one of the “Big Three” is not at 100%.

Because so many gave the Heat the NBA title before the season started, I’d say anything less would be a disappointment. So it remains to be seen which way the “karma” pendulum will end up swinging in the end.