Letters: The heat's not off these guys yet

L.A. Times Archives

June 17, 2011 12 AM PT

It’s not often we can witness two NBA championship celebrations for the same season: the Mavericks in June 2011 and the Heat in July 2010.

Alan Sworski

Thousand Oaks

The NBA Finals decision: The Dallas Mavericks took their talents to South Beach and beat the Miami Heat.

Ron Tom

Pasadena

After a series of fourth-quarter disappearing acts, can we finally put the Kobe/LeBron and Jordan/LeBron debates to rest? The only stat that matters is that between the three of them, they have won 11 NBA championships.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

It would have been so simple. All LeBron James had to do after the buzzer was walk over to Dirk Nowitzki, throw his arms around him, whisper sweet congratulations and say, “See you next year, man.” Then big hugs for Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and all the other guys who took him down. Surely, if he had done so, LeBron James would be a defeated warrior, not a loser. The word “class” would be applied. And America would come to love him again.

Erik Spoelstra couldn’t design that play?

Michael Elias

Los Angeles

Memo to all NBA fans who did not root for the Miami Heat:

Please be advised that as of today our lives are worthless because we are not LeBron James. If you stand any chance of enjoying a meaningful existence, you must immediately take steps to be more like King James. For instance, if you are currently working in the career of your choice, please make sure that you fail miserably each and every time that your employer’s success depends on your performance. It would also help to capture your failure on the Internet so that millions can witness your futility.

Maury D. Benemie

Corona

At the start of the season, LeBron said: “Don’t think for one minute that I haven’t been keeping mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!”

And now after failing to win a championship, Mark Heisler reports LeBron said: “I pretty much don’t listen to what everybody has to say about me or my game or what I’ve done with my career.”

Which is it, LeBron?

Bryan Arias

Camarillo

“If you ain’t got that bling, you just can’t be King.”

Dirk Hennesey

Granada Hills

Bill Plaschke writes: “Imagine a basketball team whose three biggest stars have sacrificed money and ego to assemble on one team for the sole intent of winning a championship.

Dwyane Wade makes $14 million. LeBron James and Chris Bosh make $14.5 million. Together they earn 64% of Miami’s total payroll. I feel the financial pain they suffered in pursuit of an NBA championship.

Has the same delirium which sent Bill Plaschke on a journalistic fury against Jim Buss and Mike Brown led him to this fictional account of Miami’s Big Three?

Mitch Engel

Los Angeles

Bill Plaschke asserts that race is at least one reason so many NBA fans were pulling so hard against LeBron James.

Maybe he’s right, but there is a much simpler reason people can’t stand to see James succeed. It’s the same reason no one wanted Barry Bonds to win a World Series.

If you walk off the court without shaking hands with the players who beat you, you’re a jerk.

If you quit on your team in the NBA conference finals, as James did in Cleveland, you’re a jerk.

Leaving a team and city where you don’t believe you can win to go to a city where you think you can is a perfectly reasonable decision. Announcing your decision to move in a manner calculated to inflict the most possible pain on a city that loved you makes you a jerk.

Failing to make big shots down the stretch of the NBA Finals merely makes you human. Failing to take big shots down the stretch after embracing and marketing a nickname like “the King” means you’re anything but.

Reminding “all the people that was rooting on me to fail” that they still have to work for a living means you don’t appreciate how rare your own athletic gifts are and that you don’t deserve them.

Jerks are not scorned because of race. They are scorned because they are jerks.

John Purcell

Quartz Hill

The obvious conclusion Lakers fans draw from the 2011 NBA Finals is that Dwyane Wade cannot win a title without Shaq.

Roland G. Simpson

Los Angeles

Dwight lightning

What a difference a week makes. I went from almost canceling my subscription because of Bill Plaschke’s naive “the Miami Heat are the good guys” article, to renewing because of his astute “trade Bynum and Odom for Dwight Howard” article. Such is the life of a Lakers fan. By the way, make the move and make it now, Lakers!

Eddie Khanbeigi

Yorba Linda

Here’s an idea: Because Bill Plaschke always knows what the Lakers need to do, why not make him the Lakers GM? But why stop there? Bill also knows exactly what the Dodgers need to do, and the Angels and Clippers. Heck, let’s make him GM for all professional sports in Los Angeles. That would save everyone a lot of money and worry and then we’d all be comfortable in the knowledge of Bill’s unmistakable truth.

Rhys Thomas

Valley Glen

Mr. Plaschke, I am sure the Lakers appreciate your advice to trade Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard. But why stop there —- how about Derek Fisher to the Bulls for Derrick Rose and Luke Walton to the Clippers for Blake Griffin? I can also assist the Angels — Scott Kazmir to the Phillies for Cliff Lee and Kendrys Morales to the Reds for Joey Votto. If any other GMs in the area need similar help, they should contact me. I’m in the phone book.

Joseph Argenta

Los Angeles

Local GM dealers

Trying to grade the general managers of professional sports teams [June 12] is like comparing apples to oranges. How can Mitch Kupchak be compared to Neil Olshey when Kupchak inherited a championship team and an owner who is committed to winning and Olshey inherited a disaster and Donald Sterling? How well would Kupchak do if he were GM of the Clippers?

Unless the playing fields are level, any comparisons are useless, and in L.A., the fields are not level.

Jack Allen

Pacific Palisades

I wish my boss was as forgiving as Helene Elliott seems to be in her evaluation of Kings GM Dean Lombardi. For more than five years, Lombardi has failed to land the scoring winger that the Kings so obviously need. Yes, it is great to be strong in net and on defense, but goals win games. Our core of young players is getting older while the patience of Kings fans after consecutive first-round playoff losses is wearing thin.

I am unsure what is more surprising — that Lombardi thinks Dustin Penner is the answer or that there are actually four other local GMs who are ranked lower.

Megan Mackinney

Westchester

Still blue

As a Dodgers fan for more than 60 years, I firmly believe that they can field a champion team this season without adding to staff or payroll: Put Donny Baseball at first base, Davey Lopes at second, Tim Wallach on third, Rick Monday in left, Manny Mota pinch-hitting and Fernando on the mound.

A team with those players on the field would deserve to wear Brooklyn uniforms.

J.J. Volpe

Upland

Does anyone care about Chad Billingsley’s batting average [June 17]? He is paid to pitch, something he is doing very poorly right now. He looks more like Barbara Billingsley out there on the mound, without the pearls, of course.

Alex Fernandez

Lakewood

I’d like to get a “Steve Soboroff: Vice Chairman, Los Angeles Dodgers” business card. I figure it will be a collector’s item.

Ted Lux

Playa Del Rey

Bush leaguer

So Brett Butler wants to manage in the big leagues [T.J. Simers column, June 15] and says one of his big qualifications is that he is “a man of character, a man of integrity and I want the best for my family.” Yep, he sure showed a lot of character and integrity when he led the charge to ostracize fellow Dodger Mike Busch back in 1995. Butler will always be that petty little man to me.

Patrick Mallon

San Luis Obispo

Floyd avoids

After a career of running from his adversaries in the ring, and picking his opponents carefully, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has compiled an ostensibly impressive record of 41-0, but no respect. Like a kitchen roach, he ran from most he fought. Flicking in retreat, his feeble jab, compiling points, until their opportunity to catch this flitting weasel vanished with the ringing of the final bell. He has avoided Manny Pacquiao, who would crush him like a wormy apple, like the plague, conjuring excuses that would strain the naiveté of a 5-year-old.

Michael E. White

Burbank

Nice on ice

When will the day come when a member of the Kings or Ducks is unable to post on your Fabulous Forum blog as a guest during the Stanley Cup finals because they are actually participating?

Anna Warren

Sherman Oaks

Not Scott free

Let’s connect the dots: (A) Angels GM Tony Reagins is bamboozled by the Tampa Bay Rays in the trade for Scott Kazmir; (B) Kazmir flames out; (C) Arte Moreno (Reagins’ boss) is obliged to pay the remaining $14.5 million of Kazmir’s contract; and (D) Reagins, announces that he has “no regrets.”

It follows that either (E) Mr. Moreno is a much wealthier man than we’ve been led to believe, or (F) Mr. Reagins’ definition of a bust defies conventional imagination.

Konrad Moore

Bakersfield

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