No offense Lebron, I know you are a great basketball player but I am calling you out, right here, right now. Down to Clown supports most sports, and the all-stars of those sports. Without these stars who would watch? But I have one problem, one little tiff with Lebron James.Clearly, James is no Greg Oden type, he doesn’t send inappropriate pictures to current love interests, and he doesn’t bring unlicensed weapons into the locker room. I know that for the most part he is a good role model but there is one thing that needs to stop. (Listen up Tiger Woods)
When he gets called for a small tick-tack foul, he needs to act like a professional. I watch the games when I can, I see the plays he makes and I see him run down the court whining when he gets called for a foul. Then I go to my nephew’s basketball game. This is the same game being played out there but on a completely different level. Instead of 6’7’’ 25-year-olds you have 5 foot tall 12-year-olds.
Most of these kids will not play sports past grade school, so as you could imagine the skill set is not always there. But without fail every single game there is a kid that has some skill. Maybe they have an older brother that has taught them to play, maybe they just have good genes. These are the kids that you see copying every move James makes.
They have the shoes, the wrist bands, the arm bands, the tech fit shirts, all of it, because in case you haven’t heard these things will make them better ball players.
I blame athletes like James for the way these youngsters react to called fouls. I was at a game recently and after throwing a fit, much like James did the other night against Miami, a young opponent from the other team was forced to sit on the bench and calm down because of his actions. Little did he know at the time that this was just a regular season game being played by seventh graders and not the NBA. But honestly, where do you think he learned to react like that?
These athletes are being paid millions of dollars to play a sport, they need to grow up. Showing your displeasure with fouls is one thing, but kicking a water bottle? Is that really what we want are kids watching? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Ty8gRjXoU – The kick occurs at the end of the video) What is this saying to the youth of today? “Hey thanks for coming to see me play, especially those of you sitting behind the bench, here, here’s some water.” $25,000 is hardly enough of a fine, how about apologizing for acting like a child.
Play the sport the way it’s intended to be played and remember how many kids you have watching you. This goes for you too Gilbert Arenas, contesting a foul is one thing but bringing a gun into a locker room and pulling it on a teammate over a gambling debt? Is that really who we want our children looking up to? This isn’t the streets of Compton, you are being paid to be an entertainer. Lines need to be drawn and people need to be made examples of so this type of thug behavior stops.
Fining James $25,000 and suspending Arenas indefinitely is a start but more needs to be done. We don’t need our youth acting like this.
