basketball stream live Teenage Tiger Woods Opens Up About Experiencing Racism In Golf

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A clip from an interview with Tiger Woods in 1990 resurfaced this week. It showed the young golf prodigy opening up about his experiences with discrimination. 

A 14-year-old Woods discusses in the clip, produced by Trans World Sport, what it's like being a biracial golfer in a predominantly white sport.

“Every time I go to a major country club I can always feel it. Always sense it. People always staring at me. ‘What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here,’" Woods said. 

While he isn't the first person of color to play professional golf, Woods dominated the sport at time when a diverse cultural representation of players was far and few between. 

Woods goes on in the video to compare himself to other athletes who have had a huge impact in their own respective sport.

"Since I’m black it might be even bigger than Jack Nicklaus. I might be even bigger than him. I may be like a sort of Michael Jordan in basketball." 

Watch the entire clip below: 

 

H/T For The Win

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basketball stream live Kobe Bryant's Justification For Shooting Threes Is As Perfect As You'd Think

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Ah, Kobe Bryant -- ever self-aware, ever willing to goad the media and his haters alike.

In a season that may be the basketball equivalent of a lame-duck presidency, Bryant’s interactions with the press have shifted from the no-nonsense veneer that characterized his earlier years to an attitude that is almost jocular, as he has proved continually willing to humor the mood swings and inanities of the 20-second news cycle.

Case in point: When the 37-year-old was asked Thursday about the 13 3-pointers he shot in the Lakers’ season opener, he responded with the following:

“Thirteen is a lot of threes, but everyone bitches when I don’t shoot enough threes.”

Read: He knows that you think he’s a ball hog. He’s not blind to the fact that you believe he should pass more. He just does not care. 

Bryant’s entire career has been a case study in the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t phenomenon. When he tries to get his team back into a game by putting up a quick barrage of jumpers, he gets criticized. When he seemingly tries to take a stand by not shooting -- as what happened against the Sacramento Kings in 2004, to name maybe the most famous example -- he gets censured.

Damned if he shoots, damned if he passes. Damned if he wins, damned if he loses.

“A lot of players shoot 15, 13 threes, but I’m held to a different standard,” Bryant continued. “It’s fine. I just have a different standard than everyone else, I guess.”

Read: Find someone who cares about your deep-seated opinions on his shot selection. 

This Kobe is a fun Kobe. Bring on more fun Kobe, please.

 

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basketball stream live Julius Randle Stands Up To Kevin Garnett And Lives To Tell The Tale

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Los Angeles Lakers power forward Julius Randle was likely still in his crib when Kevin Garnett first donned a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey, stepped onto an NBA court and trash-talked his way through his first professional game. It was early November 1995, and Randle had not yet celebrated his first birthday.

While Garnett’s once-prolific offensive game may have slowed in the 20 years since, his mouth has not. So when Randle, in his second regular season contest ever, matched up with Garnett, in his 1425th game, it was no surprise that the veteran bodied up the young Laker, chirping at him only 21 minutes into the season. 

The two became tangled deep in the paint on a Lakers field goal attempt, and at the dead ball a few moments later, Garnett approached Randle under the basket, got in his face and began to talk. The referee’s whistle quickly blew, but -- to the elation of Lakers fans everywhere -- Randle responded to Garnett, chirping back before the two were separated.

 Minutes after their scuffle, with Randle taking the ball out of bounds and Garnett pressing Los Angeles’ ball handler, the power forward threw the ball off of Garnett’s back, caught it and brought it up himself. Got him!

A shrewd play? 100 percent. Intentionally disrespectful? Potentially. The end of the beef between these two big men? Not a chance.

“KG’s competitive,” Randle said later Wednesday night. “It was good to go up against him … I have the same confidence in my game, I don’t care who it is [I match up with].” 

Asked if Garnett really did talk trash, the Laker said, “Of course.”

“I like that though -- it gets me going,” Randle continued. “… It doesn’t scare me. I’m not scared of anybody. The main thing is we know that’s his thing. That’s what he does, try to get in people’s heads -- I’ve been watching him all my life, so I knew what to expect.”

With Kobe Bryant’s retirement looming and no immediate championship prospects on the horizon, Lakers fans’ mindsets have become fixated on the future. The fight Randle showed on Wednesday will only endear him even more quickly to those who bleed purple and gold.

 

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basketball stream live The Anatomy of a Dirt Track Racer

basketball stream live I'd never been to a dirt track before. Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois was the first. I was never much into NASCAR. I used to see the country boys in prison sitting in front of the Sports TV for 5 or 6 hours at a time watching the race and couldn't fathom what the appeal was. But those boys would fight to watch that race every Sunday if it came down it. I felt the same way about football, but watching races was never my thing.



If not for a movie I was acting in, Dog Days, where I was playing a race car driver, I would've never been at this track. But in retrospect, I have to say it was quite an experience. I got to meet the drivers, hang around the pits and just soak in the atmosphere as we shot the film. I listened to the drivers talk as they schooled me on the life of a dirt track racer. One was Gordy Gundaker, a 23-year-old from St. Charles, Missouri who drove car No. 11 and whose family owned the track. The other was Bobby Pierce, an 18-year-old kid from Oakwood, Illinois who raced car No. 32 and was known as the Smooth Operator.



Bobby was like the prodigy of the track. He was engaging, very well liked and hungry to win. Locals talked about how he was destined to go to NASCAR. Just like a race car driver who drove at Tri-City Speedway 30 years before by the name of Jeff Gordon. Not a bad comparison for the young racer whose dad builds engines and works as his crew chief. Tri-City was just another track to Bobby, one of many he would forge victories at as he criss-crossed the nation trying to win purses.

Gordy was more the mainstay. A laid back driver who didn't win every race like Bobby did, but finished high enough to make it interesting. He was a calm, cool and collected character who took every race for what is was. You have to understand that racing cars isn't like football or basketball where you have one winner or one loser. It's you against a whole bunch of other drivers and everyone is trying to win. It's like Ricky Bobby said in Talledega Nights, "If you're not first, you're last."

Being out there on that dirt track taking the corners at a 100 mph and sliding through them sideways, seemingly ready to flip over, you have to be a little ballsy. Gordy told me:

I race because I'm a competitor.There's nothing better then strapping into the car knowing I'll be out there with 23 other drivers who want to win just like I do. Racing is in my blood and I wouldn't have it any other way.

As an actor playing a race car driver in the film I was granted all access to the track, pits and behind the scenes action. It was different than anything I've ever experienced before. The smell of the gas and sound of the engines. The drivers hanging out between races smoking cigarettes and who knows what else. The dirt and the mud and the four wheelers everyone whips around on in the pits. And the girls. Don't even let me start.

These dudes are like rock starts for real. With their race cars and their trailers and their RV's. A roaring engine of horsepower that they corralled into a drive shaft powering them forward on the track. Being in the pits was like being in the eye of the storm with everything in constant whirling motion all around you. New heats were starting, races ending, the crowd cheering over the screaming motors. The drivers taking their cars back to their trailers. The mechanics and pit crews making adjustments, changing tires and gassing up the cars as the drivers talked about what they did wrong or right or didn't do at all during the race.

Bobby Pierce was taking it easy during the heats. Doing just enough to qualify, but in the main feature he turned it up a notch and lapped several cars on his route to victory. He told me:

At a show like this there are only three heat races. As long as I finish in the top two or three I know I have a pretty good starting spot for the feature, so I wasn't really too worried about the heat races.

But Bobby admits the competition is fierce, as every car is grinding and trying to get position to make their trip to victory lane easier.

These races, the competition is so tough. You have to start up front and if you don't start upfront it's hard to get to the front. I'm a little more relaxed and calm when I can start up front. I personally like when the track is a little bit slick, early on it's really fast and there isn't a whole lot of passing going on and later on throughout the night the track got more slick and you could move around on the racetrack go to the bottom, go to the top, even shoot through the middle.

I watched all of Gordy's and Bobby's races. When you have someone to cheer for it seemed make the race that much more fun. I stood on the side of the turn, a stone wall and high fence separated me from the track. This was from the pit side away from the stand where most spectators watch the race. As the cars made the turn, literally sliding sideways through the curve, I got a face full of dirt. I learned to duck behind the stone wall when they entered the turn, but still my hair was full of dirt.



After the cars sped out of the turn they would straighten up and bolt toward the wall on the outside of the track like a demon freight train intent on crashing into the wall. But they never did. In a matter of seconds they were back in the far turn, sideways again, with the inside front wheel lifting off the track as they keep the car sliding through the turn at top speed. Bobby explains.

That goes back to how you want to follow the parts of the racetrack where there's moisture because that's where you get the best traction. Turns three and four at Tri-City on the bottom are really fast. I'm trying to keep my left side tires in that moisture, then I can come out of it and hit the gas. Shoot right to the wall and have a big old arc for the next corner whether I went high or low.

It's like being fired from a sling shot out of the curve and then having to skid through the next curve at top speed and then doing the whole thing again and again and again. Not for the feint of heart. I can't help but thinking to myself, wtf does it feel like? Gordy tells me-

It's an experience different then anything I could ever describe. The adrenaline rush is through the roof. We're racing at high speeds inches from others cars, inches from the wall, and all being side ways throwing dirt. There is nothing else like it.

The technique and skill involved in the handling of the car on the dirt track amazes me. NASCAR drivers go extremely fast, but they're not completely sideways on the turns, subject to flip and barrel roll into, through or over the wall. Bobby explains-

A lot of people that have never really drove a race car or had that experience don't know all the little techniques that it takes to race on dirt is different. One of the major keys racing on dirt is to look at the race track and to see where the moisture is on the race track. Because when you hit the slick spots on the racetrack its like hitting black ice and the car will slide. You want to hit the moisture. There's a big difference in dirt racing because when the track is fast you drive way different then when the track is slick and slow.

I can tell you that I wouldn't want to drive one of those cars. I am all about adventure, but trying to tame one of those machines that generate like 800 or so horsepower is beyond me. The cars, which they call modified, are all engine and suspension and tires with just a metal shell around it, mainly for sponsors names. And the dirt track racers are one with their cars. Sliding in and out the window, reattaching the steering wheel and belting in. It's like being in a little time capsule built for speed. It's not a hobby for these dudes, they are serious. Gordy tells me why he races:

Racing is everything I have ever known. I grew up in it and without it I don't think I would be the person I am today. It's a lifestyle. I sleep, eat and breathe it. This is a job all in itself and you get out of it what you put in it. As the night goes on adjusting to track conditions can be tough. The race track is constantly changing so keeping up with it to make sure we give ourselves the best chance possible to walk away at the end of the night with that trophy never gets any easier, but it's why we love it, for the thrill of winning.

Twenty something individuals all competing for that one spot in victory lane. Preparation is everything for a dirt track racer. They spend numerous hours throughout the week and on race day getting the car maintenance done, mounting and cutting tires and getting their engine in gear so that when race day comes they are ready to go. Because even though it's not NASCAR, the stakes for these gentleman are real.

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basketball stream live Most College Sports Fans Won't Stop Watching If Athletes Are Paid, Poll Finds

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Americans have mixed feelings about paying college athletes more than the value of a full scholarship, but they likely wouldn’t stop watching big-time college sports if the players do earn modest compensation, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of The Huffington Post, found that only 24 percent of those asked said that "student athletes should be paid for the time they devote to the team," while 56 percent believed a full scholarship was sufficient. They were more divided, however, on whether athletes should receive up to $5,000 per year for the use of their names, images and likenesses, with 35 percent strongly or somewhat supportive and an equal number opposed.

If athletes were compensated, the majority of fans wouldn't have a change of heart about college sports, the poll found. Of the respondents who at least watch college sports occasionally, 66 percent said a $5,000 annual payment would not affect their level of interest, compared to 16 percent who said they would be less interested.

Of those who said they would be less interested, 41 percent said they’d stop watching altogether -- though that amounts to about 7 percent of the respondents who said they watched collegiate sports at least on occasion. 

Whether compensation for athletes would turn fans away from college sports has been a subject of contention, albeit not the only one, in the antitrust lawsuit former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon brought against the NCAA in 2009. In 2014, a federal district court judge ruled that the NCAA had violated antitrust laws by denying players a share of revenues generated from the use of athletes’ names, images and likenesses. Judge Claudia Wilken ordered schools to put up to $5,000 annually into a trust for each player.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, struck down that part of Wilken's decision in September. Though the appellate panel found that the NCAA could not rely solely on “amateurism” to justify its rules against compensation, the court decided againts the $5,000 payments in part because “offering them cash sums untethered to educational expenses is a ... quantum leap" that "would transform NCAA sports into 'minor league status,'" Judge Jay S. Bybee wrote in the opinion.

This, the judges determined, could dampen consumer demand for college sports, giving the NCAA the sort of "pro-competitive benefit" it needed to justify restricting compensation in this instance.

That echoed studies NCAA attorneys cited to argue that compensating players would reduce the appeal of college sports to fans. During the case, the NCAA argued that television ratings would drop 15 to 20 percent if athletes were paid and touted a poll that showed that 37 percent of respondents would quit watching if athletes received $20,000 per year.

O’Bannon’s attorneys, meanwhile, countered that fans hadn’t stopped watching the Olympics after it began allowing athletes to receive compensation, or Major League Baseball despite distaste with rapidly rising salaries. That's an argument economists have made in the past, but the attorneys did not produce a study to rebut the NCAA’s claims, a mistake that "likely cost them the case," Marc Edelman, a law professor at City University of New York’s Baruch College, wrote after the decision.

The issue could return during potential appeals of the decision or in future cases. The NCAA is facing another major antitrust lawsuit from former players represented by labor attorney Jeffrey Kessler. That case seeks an injunction that could create a free market for athletes' services.

Consistent with other surveys, the YouGov poll also found that support for paying college athletes is split along racial lines. Nearly half of black respondents said they either strongly or somewhat supported compensation, compared to just 14 percent who are opposed. White respondents, however, were more likely to oppose the payments than support them. A majority of players on Division I football and men's basketball teams are black.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Oct. 13-15 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls' methodology are available here.

Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov's reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.

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basketball stream live New York Giants' Victor Cruz Reveals His Secret To Staying Sane

basketball stream live Dwyane Wade Hangs Out Onstage With Pop Music MVP Taylor Swift

basketball stream live Reigning MVP Stephen Curry Hasn’t Missed A Beat

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Backdoor layup, pull-up three -- and repeat. A deep two, another pair of treys and a couple more acrobatic lay-ins later, and the first 12 minutes of Stephen Curry’s NBA season were over.

The Finals ended four months ago, but don’t tell Curry that -- on the opening night of 2015-2016 play, Curry picked up right where his MVP season left off, tallying a personal-best 24 points in the first period of the new season. In the minutes after the Golden State Warriors’ 2015 championship ring ceremony, Curry’s barrage of off-the-dribble triples and slicing, floating lay-ins surely gave Golden State fans a premonition of a second consecutive parade come June 2016. 

While he was on pace for a ridiculous 96 points after the opening quarter, Curry finished the contest with a respectable 40, as he and the rest of the boys in blue and gold lit up Oracle Arena in a 111-95 win over the up-and-coming New Orleans Pelicans. The reigning MVP clocked in shooting 14-of-26 for the night -- a nice 54 percent field goal clip to start off his team’s quest for a second straight ring. 

Curry fell short of only G.O.A.T.s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain for most points scored by a reigning MVP in a season opener -- Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain had 41 and 42, respectively.

Not bad company to be in with 3,888 minutes left in the regular season.

 

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basketball stream live Harlem Globetrotters And Stomp Make Incredible Music... With Basketballs

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The Harlem Globetrotters took a break from beating the Washington Generals to join a theater group known for beating on anything that happens to be around. 

Performers from the New York production of "Stomp" joined the one-of-a-kind basketball team to make a one-of-a-kind music video in celebration of the Globetrotters' 90th anniversary. 

The clip features basketball theatrics from Bull Bullard, Cheese Chisholm, Firefly Fisher and Handles Franklin, who are joined by members of "Stomp" as they work together to create a rhythm using basketballs and handclaps. 

"For years, we've had a basketball routine as part of 'Stomp,'" the show's co-creator, Steve McNicholas, told the Associated Press. "But what these guys can do with basketballs is stunning. A different league."

The video was done in one take -- but it took seven tries to get it right, the news agency reported.

Check it out in the clip above. 

 

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basketball stream live Obama Watches Bulls-Cavaliers Game On NBA's Opening Night

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Noted basketball fan President Barack Obama on Tuesday made time to catch a basketball game featuring his beloved Chicago Bulls on the NBA season's opening night. 

According to a White House pool report, Obama's motorcade arrived at the United Center around 6:30 p.m. CT, where the Bulls took on the Cleveland Cavaliers, last year's NBA finalists. Obama took his courtside seat toward the end of the first period, accompanied by his longtime friend, Chicago resident Marty Nesbitt.

President Obama takes his courtside seat at Cavs-Bulls with 2:40 left in the first quarter. http://pic.twitter.com/ofkg2d9p16

— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) October 28, 2015

Barack Obama is in the house for Bulls/Cavs http://pic.twitter.com/PUacH51722

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) October 28, 2015

Obama was in his hometown on Tuesday to deliver a major address at the annual conference of International Association of Chiefs of Police. He also attended several Democratic fundraisers.

Tuesday was the opening night of this year's NBA season. Earlier in the day, Cavaliers star LeBron James hinted that Obama may make an appearance, telling reporters it would be "an honor" for the president to see him play at the NBA's opening night. There were also reports of Secret Service agents surveying the United Center before the teams practiced.

Obama is a devoted Bulls fan, but he is also a fan of James, who donated to Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, helped promote the Affordable Care Act and has worked with first lady Michelle Obama on charity work.

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basketball stream live LGBTQ Sports Fans: Lots of High-Fives and No Limp Wrists

basketball stream live Dick Vitale owes me a working eyeball.

Dick, if you are not familiar, is the loudest basketball announcer in the world, according to a poll of ESPN viewers, audio specialists and the recently deceased. When he gets going, according to SB Nation, the guy can hit 180 decibels, louder than a gunshot, and equal to the explosion of Krakatoa.

This is not the type of person you should be listening to when you're putting on your drag makeup.

But that's what I was doing last spring: Listening to ESPN hoops while getting ready for a party. I was in mid-eyeliner application when Vitale saw something -- a slam dunk? A buzzer beater? Air? -- and I stabbed myself. It hurt like hell and I spent the rest of night winking at everything. Somewhere in Salem there's a very confused barista at Dutch Bros.

Not for the first time, it occurred to me that I shouldn't listen to sports when I'm painting my face, and not because I'll go blind. (Mainly a football fan, that sport moves so slow I can plan ahead.)

No, it's because that just doesn't seem like something a drag queen does. Indeed, every queen I've ever been around has music playing when they're getting prepped. Everything from Lady Gaga to Screamo, Madonna to Nirvana -- but never Maradona.

It's no secret that LGBTQ people don't like sports; the Internet is full of explanations why this is so. And -- on the rare occasions when LGBTQ people are viewing -- they're merely watching to check out all the sweaty bodies.

Makes perfect sense -- if you're into stereotypes. If you're not, well, it's crap.

"Gay and lesbian adults are 51 percent more likely than the average adult to watch sports-related videos online and 28 percent more likely to boot up their computer to get their sports news." This According to a 2013 Nielsen survey. Why anyone would find this surprising I don't know.

For one thing, look how often major league football, basketball, baseball and soccer have penalized their players during the last few years for anti-LGBTQ remarks. And though some would say it's had mixed results, even the WWE has teamed up with GLAAD to fight homophobia. (2) Duh; It's bad business to insult those who support you. (Donald Trump apparently notwithstanding.)

More importantly, however, I consider this: I know lots of LGBTQ people and most of them like sports. Even the ones that don't live in my little college town, where being a homer seems almost a legal obligation.

Perhaps it's because when LGBTQ people celebrate their team they don't "look" LGBTQ. We high five each other with just as firm a wrist as anyone else. We drink cheap domestic beer by the vat just like everyone else.

Yes, when our football team does some weird freaky Nike thing with their uniforms we do kind of flip out. Just like everyone else. (Seriously, gay or straight, who's in charge of those things?)

I say all this with authority as a result of watching a Ducks game at my favorite LGBTQ watering hole. Their back room equipped with a 100-inch projection TV, it's a great place to watch college football, even if you're not wearing a bright green and yellow dress as I was.

Gay, lesbian, trans: Every letter on the LGBTQ spectrum was there. All the while cheering when the Ducks completed a pass, cursing when they didn't and complaining about both during the commercials. (Note to Vernon Adams: No matter what you do, you're not Marcus Mariota and you're screwed.)

For those few hours at least, my favorite LGBTQ space became part of the world's smallest demographic: LGBTQ sports bar, second only in miniature stature to El Salvadorans named Sven Steenstein. A fact that would be depressing -- if it wasn't irrelevant.

There are sports bars all over my town -- and probably yours -- that are LGBTQ friendly, even if it doesn't say so on their door. Two of my friends particularly like the place down the road from our house. They like the beer, the food and the fact that the crowd calls out "Lesbians!" when they walk in the door, sort of a rainbow "Norm!" in a post-Cheers world.

Even brightly attired drag queens would be welcome, she says. I might even be able to get away with wearing the colors of the local team's arch enemy. (What can I say? It's a beautiful Marie Antoinette ensemble.) "We never have to hide who we are or who we love," my friend says.

Sounds perfect. Now if they could just do something about Dick Vitale.

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basketball stream live Test Your Stephen Curry ‘Jeopardy!’ Knowledge

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We're serving up STEPH CURRY DISHES today on J! RT this so @StephenCurry30 knows he'll be on J! today. http://pic.twitter.com/gSNrbMPewD

— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) October 26, 2015

This is 82 games long and begins tonight. If you guessed the NBA season, you’re right, and you -- like Alex Trebek, apparently -- can hardly wait for the hoops season to tip off this evening.

On Monday night, Trebek and his friends at "Jeopardy!" celebrated the start of NBA play with an entire category dedicated to league golden boy Stephen Curry. Think you know more about basketball, the Golden State Warriors and their MVP than the show’s trivia aficionados? Let’s see if you can answer all five "Double Jeopardy!" questions that fell under the label of “Steph Curry Dishes” on yesterday’s show. Correct answers (well, questions, since this is "Jeopardy!") are below. 

$400: Steph dishes out thank yous to cafeteria workers who he thinks made a special meal for him in an ad for this network

There's a Jeopardy category called "Steph Curry Dishes". Here's the $100 question http://pic.twitter.com/gzfv2UlVzi

— Luke Kerr-Dineen (@LukeKerrDineen) October 26, 2015

$800: When Steph is making an assist, aka “dropping” this coin, he’s dishing it to someone else for the score

#TheNewsClub Here's every question from Stephen Curry's 'Jeopardy!' category last night https://t.co/soy7C9oun2 http://pic.twitter.com/7hXLfi0d4q

— The News Club (@TheNewsClub_US) October 27, 2015

$1200: If Steph dishes out 10 assists along with collecting 10 points & 10 rebounds in a game, he achieves this coveted feat

$1600: One of Steph’s best dishes at the 2015 All-Star Game was to this Maverick big man, aka the Dunking Deutschman

"Steph Curry Dishes" was a category on Jeopardy just now. http://pic.twitter.com/mAvf7d4vVx

— GoGSWs (@GoGSWs) October 27, 2015

$2000: Steph dished & dealt in the NCAA, leading this southern state’s Davidson College to the Elite Eight

@Jeopardy clue tonight from @StephenCurry30 category. @DavidsonCollege @DavidsonMBB http://pic.twitter.com/BbtgSpXZKB

— Brittany Worsham (@brittworsh) October 26, 2015

Answers: ESPN, a dime, a triple-double, Dirk Nowitzki, North Carolina. But you knew all that already, didn’t you?

 

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basketball stream live Here's Why We Need To Stop Criticizing LeBron James

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LeBron James will always have his detractors. That's the nature of being an elite, generational type of player, who also happened to leave Cleveland for Miami in the way he did. But times are changing, and with James' 31st birthday just a couple of months away, it's time for us to turn the page on the unjust criticism of one of the game's all-time players. Keep reading to find out why. (And you can see more NBA previews here and here.)

Mr. Clutch

Five straight NBA Finals appearances is something that not even Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Magic Johnson have accomplished. In fact, in the nearly 70-year history of the league, LeBron is only the 10th player to have achieved the feat, and the first since Bill Russell in 1966. For a guy whose clutch gene has been incessantly questioned for a decade, it's hard to argue with such standout numbers. Go back to his first stint with Cleveland, when James' second-best player was Mo Williams and he was flanked by Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson in the backcourt.

Whether or not you agreed with his decision to join Miami in 2010, you can't argue the facts: James has been sensational in the finals, and maybe at no point more so than this year, when he became the first player ever to lead his team in points, rebounds and assists, according to ESPN Stats & Info. In addition, James has now made four go-ahead shots in the "final seconds" of playoffs games, per ESPN Stats & Info. Over the past 15 years, nobody has made more. He is clutch -- there's simply no reasonable way to argue otherwise.

Minutes Machine

Before last season, James altered his entire diet and workout regimen in the belief that he needed to be leaner and, in turn, put less stress on his body. What came next was the lowest minute total of his career, but also his second-highest assist clip. At just 30 years old, the four-time MVP has already logged more minutes than Johnson, Larry Bird, Jerry West, Clyde Drexler or Steve Nash, per HoopsHype. Moreover, when compared to Carmelo Anthony -- another member of the infamous 2003 draft class -- James has nearly 11,000 more minutes. To be fair, James has enjoyed significantly more postseason success -- hence more games and minutes. At some point, he'll have the opportunity to surpass Abdul-Jabbar for most minutes ever played. And it's not as if James doesn't take a massive beating: His 8.5 free-throw career attempts per game slot him near the top of the previous decade.

Changing A Culture

Personnel matters -- nobody disagrees with that -- but so does culture. How many guys can legitimately change the culture of a franchise? We've seen it with Dan Quinn, head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. For a player, it's even more of a lift. But James is precisely that guy. Amid the Cavs' 1-2 start to last season, I wrote about the team needing to discover its identity. And James spoke about it as well.

"We have to understand what it takes to win," he said. "It's going to be a long process, man. There's been a lot of losing basketball around here for a few years. So a lot of guys that are going to help us win ultimately haven't played a lot of meaningful basketball games in our league."

It's not merely the wins and losses with James. He is also the definitive leader of any team he plays on. His presence alone changes the culture. When his relationships with both Erik Spoelstra and David Blatt were under fire, his teams suffered. When those relationships improved -- e.g. the second half of the season -- the result was sustained playoff success. The same can be said about 2015: The Cavs enter year two under Blatt, and the second year of their Big Three. How James handles Blatt and how he handles his massive leadership responsibility is only trumped by the culture change. The Cavaliers have never won a world championship. Maybe they do this year and maybe they don't, but having LeBron as the definitive face of the organization might be equally important.

Email me at jordan.schultz@huffingtonpost.com or ask me questions about anything sports-related on Twitter @Schultz_Report, and follow me on Instagram @Schultz_Report.

 

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