While Ron Artest was out racing cars, LeBron was busy playing the race card on CNN Wednesday with attractive anchor and most multicultural person on the planet, Soledad O'Brien. I didn't think LeBron was a coward for departing his hometown team after years of preaching loyalty (although that does make him a hypocrite) or for not being appreciative of his former teammates, which depressed Mo Williams (probably because he knew he'd never get an open look at a 3 again), or for shirking the responsibility of carrying a squad, but he is a coward for blaming the backlash on prejudice and even more so for having no evidence to support his statement. And even more so for letting his manager, Maverick Carter, mostly speak for him on the subject. Well, that was more moronic than cowardly.
"It's always, you know, a race factor," LeBron said. It's an absolute, yet a vague one. If it was always about race, then shouldn't it be black people upset with LeBron because he didn't select a city with a higher black population, like Washington D.C. or Atlanta? (Miami-Dade County is over 77% white). Last time I looked into an average crowd at an NBA game, the stands are fairly monochromatic and they're not the same shade as LeBron. It's not just one race that loves the NBA (even if it's usually one race that can afford to attend games).
His decision to imply that racism is the reason he has been criticized, especially when one of the most outspoken detractors has been Charles Barkley (with even the ever-neutral Michael Jordan questioning LeBron's choice), is far worse than "The Decision" was.
Take this mental note: Let your game do the talking because your mouth is doing some serious damage to your reputation.
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