NovU wrote:Not an excuse but more like the other side of story I was offering. I am not forcing my views on anybody. If you didn't notice, the Heat have been on the target here from post 1. I never said every each one of them weren't valid.
But see, you
are making excuses. The Heat cop some criticism, so your response is to start pointing at what other people are doing as a means of justifying it. That's not telling another side of the story, that's making excuses.
"But the Mavericks are talking too!"
"They're not the only ones that flop!"
"They weren't making fun of Dirk, they were just proving a point about the media!"
"Everyone's picking on the Heat!"
Excuses, excuses, excuses. No one's buying it.
NovU wrote:Maybe the Heat are true scumbags that need constant spanking. Lebron and Wade should have never made a joke in front of camera. That ain't too classy. What foolish jokers they made out of themselves. Dirk was sick with 100 degree fever and how dare they have little fun of it. Just childish and moronic. I'm ashamed to be a Heat fan now and nobody should never speak up for it. No matter how other players and media say, they need to shut the fuck up and just play the ball. Look how much talking these two and the Heat have been doing. What they said just freaks me out in this series and series before and a series before that as well. Too much talking why can't they just play? Look at all those other players how classy they are, especially Mavericks and the Bulls. Bunch of loudmouth and classless clowns the Heat are. Hoping they were never the Heat.
Sarcasm, yes, very clever. All that post demonstrates is that you've completely missed the point and even though you've been called on playing the victim card several times already, you're still slapping it down on the table and desperately hoping it will come up trumps. It won't.
The Heat have been targeted from day one? Boo hoo. They also drew a lot of attention to themselves with The Decision, the introductory press conference and proclamations of winning multiple championships, not to mention simply being a top team with three of the biggest names and best players in the league with all the expectations that that brings. They cannot demand attention and then cry foul when it's not all positive.
As for the Heat not being able to speak their mind, that's not the argument here. It's not a case of the Mavs being allowed to talk while the Heat cannot. The reactions and the criticism being directed at the Heat is borne of
what has been said, not the mere fact that they dared to speak. To say that is to ignore the context and content of the criticism; again, playing the victim card.
DeShawn Stevenson certainly has had a bit to say since the series began. Most of us are inclined to raise an eyebrow because LeBron's one of the best in the game and he's not, but fine. If LeBron wanted to come back at him and suggest he's a far better player than Stevenson, that's fine too. After all, what's Stevenson's career compared to LeBron's? Now, such a comeback from LeBron could arguably carry a little more punch if he was doing a better job in the fourth quarter right now but at the end of the day LeBron is going down in history as one of the greatest to play the game while Stevenson is not. Nothing wrong with some verbal sparring, you do expect a bit of boasting and competitiveness to get the better of people's mouths, especially in the Finals. Eventually you do hope that
everyone will just play basketball and let their game do the talking.
Of course, the rest of us are still free to shake our heads and say "Pfft, yeah right." In the case of Wade and LeBron coughing for the cameras before Game 5, they're free to pull little stunts like that but a fan watching is also free to think "Huh, that was lame", which is basically what a lot of people have said. Following the Game 5 loss, they're now claiming they weren't making fun of Dirk, it was a real cough and they decided to play it up to prove a point about the media. Some people are bound to call bullshit on that. I'm in that camp because to me, it sounds like they're backpedaling after they rather weakly poked fun at Dirk and it blew up in their face when they didn't win the game, giving him the last laugh. They're going public with these claims, so the public has a right to believe or disbelieve it and remark upon it. Since we're all NBA/basketball fans here, chances are we're going to voice our opinions on the matter. We do that for all teams and players.
The Heat don't have to keep their mouths shut but in situations like that, it's probably best that they do as they're not doing themselves much of a service by opening them to say stuff like that. If they want to proclaim that they believe they can still win the series or declare that they will and that they're going to go out and defend their home court, so be it. You'd expect them to say stuff like that, nothing wrong with it. If Wade and LeBron want to say they're better than Terry and Stevenson and will outplay them then that's a fair enough claim too. Childish digs and making up excuses though? Meh, my two cents says come up with something better or just play basketball.
As for the connection with flopping/acting, the criticism there is that it's just a tad hypocritical to mock an opponent for supposedly faking illness when they've been doing plenty of acting themselves. At this point one might mention Bosh selling a poke in the eye like it was gouged out, along with the flops and flailing to get calls. It's not a case of "You can't talk," more a case of "Well, you're one to talk" or "Really, you're calling them out on that?"
Summary/tl;dr version: Attempting to justify something by saying "Other people are doing it" is making an excuse, plain and simple. The Heat are free to make these digs and say what they want, but at the same time an observer is free to criticise what they're saying, think it's lame, call it hypocritical, call bullshit on any explanations, whatever. To that end, one might say the Heat would be better off not saying this or that, but that's not implying they don't have the right and should not be allowed to say it.
shadowgrin wrote:As for the flopping, yes, Dirk's a flopper. But most people know that (which is strange as people now seemed to have amnesia about it) because he's been doing it for a long time already that it can be considered a part of his game (because he's white and can't play D lol) like Ginobili, Derek Fisher, Raja Bell, and Wade. They flop to compensate for a weakness in their game or to get more FTAs, like Wade does.
The 'issue' of LeBron flopping seems to have incited the hate more because flopping isn't really a part of his game, LeBron could easily bulldoze his way through 3-4 defenders, get the basket and the call.
Deal is both fans and haters hold LeBron to a higher standard because of his talent. LeBron with all his talents shouldn't settle for a bitch flop and instead take it to the basket and get the foul, which he easily did for years.
As for Bosh, he's a bitch. No other explanation for that.
The Terry and Stevenson comments didn't get much attention because of exactly that, they're Terry and Stevenson. They're not the 'face' of the team, it's Dirk or Jason Kidd because of him being the oldest in the team. If Dirk and Kidd said something I'm sure people would pay attention to it like they do with Wade and LeBron.
Exactly.
in whatever way you want to take it I guess. LeBron does need to learn to be more like Wade and keep his mouth sealed on certain things. He's gotten a little better though. You notice how Wade doesn't get criticized nearly as badly as LeBron. Just a matter of using his brain a little more.
