LeBron James can't have it both ways. He wants it both ways, but the world doesn't turn that way.
He can't do everything possible to draw attention to himself — then get mad when he gets attention. James doesn't have to be on Twitter, do TV shows, call himself "the King" or talk of being a global icon. He simply can play basketball in the superb way he plays, then leave things be.
He does that, to a certain extent. His Twitter photo is a handsome one of himself and his two young boys, and he had a heartfelt message to his mother posted this week for her birthday that stated in part: "You are amazing and til this day I don't know how u raised me by yourself as a single parent. I'm blessed to be your son!"
But also on James' Twitter feed is his reaction to Blake Griffin's dunk on Kendrick Perkins, a reaction that caused Perkins to tell Yahoo.com that Kobe Bryant isn't on Twitter.
"I feel (James) is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him," Perkins said.
This caused James to lament to the media after a Wednesday loss in Orlando that he's blamed for everything: "I'm an easy target. . . . You could be watching cartoons with your kids, and you don't like it, you say, ‘Blame it on LeBron.' If you go to the grocery store and they don't have the milk that you like, you just say, 'It's LeBron's fault.' "
For the record, nobody has ever blamed LeBron for the fact that Wile E Coyote has never caught the Road Runner, or that Bugs constantly messes with Yosemite Sam. The milk, gas prices and the fact there's fewer chips in the bag? That's a different issue.
Once the pity party ends, perhaps someone could tell James a rule that is as old as the hills, or the spoiled milk that LeBron ruined — for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction. James tweets something unnecessary about Perkins, Perkins will push back.
Nobody made James tweet what he did, just as nobody made him host "The Decision" on TV, just as nobody made him dance and preen on that stage that night in Miami before the Heat had ever practiced together, just as nobody made him say he wanted to be a global icon.
It's fine if he says it, but there will be a reaction. He can't claim he wants to be a global icon, and then get mad when he's singled out.
He can't appear with Jim Gray, gut a city, and then act surprised people don't appreciate it. He can't preen and pose on stage before a game has been played, and then complain when people are happy he lost. (Remember the "same problems" thing?) He can't call out a fellow player who is the unlucky part of a highlight show play, and then get mad when that player fires back.
In a sense, he's right. He is a target. But he made himself a target with his actions and his words.
You can't talk about "not one, not two, not three, not four" championships before you've played a game without being noticed. Especially when a 14-foot turnaround jumper in the biggest game of the playoffs goes over the box on the backboard — an NBA rarity. Let's also not forget that it was James and his "people" who tried to block release of the tape when Jordan Crawford (then of Xavier) dunked on James at one of his high school skills camps (named after . . . LeBron).
James does deal with a lot of scrutiny and criticism. Every great one does. Folks in Cleveland seem to have forgotten how much he brought the city. And his much-reviled show helped Boys and Girls Clubs in Akron and Cleveland buy much-needed supplies and make much-needed improvements. His Twitter account is not outrageous, by any means. It's a little ego driven, but anyone who is on Twitter has some ego involved.
That's all part of the picture.
But James should understand that the way he left Cleveland for Miami (not an illogical move, by the by) left a stench that may never go away. When something stinks, people notice. Just drive by a landfill. That show was either the most revealing moment in James' life or the most colossal mistake.
James statements about Perkins reveal Perkins was right: This is a guy who desperately wants to be liked. And he really doesn't understand why he isn't. He wants so badly to be liked that when he's not, he acts like a 7-year-old who can't understand why he can't have all the toys he sees on commercials. Perkins couldn't care less that people think he was embarrassed about the dunk. James gets upset that Perkins criticized his tweet.
James can't want the money, the fame, the global icon status, the LRMR Marketing Group (a walking conflict of interest for the NBA if one ever existed) and not accept what goes with it. You can't make yourself the center of the world — real or imagined — then act surprised when you are the center.
Charles Barkley often made a statement about the Heat last season and it still applies: Get over yourself.
That might be the best thing LeBron James can do. Get over himself. Because global icon or not, great basketball skills or not, there are still people in the world with real problems, real issues, real concerns, and they don't need to hear a millionaire basketball player dismissing those problems after his team loses.
It's really simple: As long as James puts himself in position to be noticed, he will be noticed.
