by Ryan Isley
The lack of air conditioning really cramped LeBron James’ style in game one of the NBA Finals. And he has taken the heat for it ever since.
In what comes as no surprise, LeBron is still one of the most – if not the most – polarizing athletes in America. This is why when he was helped off the floor in game one of the NBA Finals on Thursday night after falling victim to leg cramps after the air conditioning in the AT&T Center went out – making the temperatures on the court near 90 degrees – I knew the reaction that would be coming.
Some people called LeBron weak for not playing through the cramps, saying Michael Jordan played through the flu, while some referenced Kobe Bryant walking on a torn ACL. Others compared him to Derek Stepan of the New York Rangers in the NHL, who played through a broken jaw in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals.
Of course, none of those injuries is comparable to cramping, but why let facts stand in the way of a good LeBron roast?
Even more fun were those people who said they have played through cramps in their sports careers. Because you know, a weekend warrior comparing their activities to playing in the NBA Finals is a legitimate comparison.
The real criticism – if there is any at all – starts way before LeBron came out of the game. Once the cramps started, there was no way for LeBron to continue in the game, as anyone who watched the game could tell by seeing the way he moved around the court.
The only legitimate criticism would be LeBron’s history of cramping and why he – or Miami’s staff – has yet to figure out how to get this fixed. This was not the first time it has happened to him in his career, nor even the first time it has happened during the NBA Finals. The discussion now needs to become how LeBron can avoid this sort of issue in the future, if it is possible.
There were 18 players who got minutes in game one, yet LeBron was the only one who left due to cramping. There were two players – Tony Parker (37 minutes) and Chris Bosh (34 minutes) – who played more minutes than LeBron’s 33. Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan and Boris Diaw also each played 33 minutes. The difference in LeBron’s minutes were that they were mostly in the first three quarters before the cramps hit in the fourth quarter.
So could Heat coach Erik Spoelstra have handled the situation differently and given LeBron more breaks in the first three quarters to keep him fresh in the fourth? Sure, but as Spoelstra told the gathered media in San Antonio on Friday – that isn’t a realistic possibility in the NBA Finals. In fact, Spoelstra should be praised – not criticized – for how he handled LeBron in that last eight minutes of the game. When LeBron wanted to return to the game, it would have been easy for Spoelstra to send him to the scorer’s table. Instead, Spoelstra kept his player’s best interests – and the team’s best chance at competing in this series – in mind and told him no. Sometimes, an athlete needs to have someone make that decision for them because they will always want to play in that situation.
One reason that LeBron may be more susceptible to the cramping than other players on the court is simply due to his minutes played and fatigue on the muscles. The more a muscle is used, the more it is at risk of cramping if not stretched properly beforehand and/or the athlete is not properly hydrated. The level of stretching and hydration that might be adequate for one player may not necessarily work for another, as everyone’s muscles react differently, especially depending on the use of the muscles.
During the NBA playoffs, LeBron has averaged 37.9 minutes per game over his 16 games played so far, the most minutes per game of anyone on either the Heat or the Spurs. For the Heat, Dwayne Wade has averaged 34.6 minutes played and Chris Bosh has averaged 33.6 minutes per game. For San Antonio, Tim Duncan has averaged more minutes than anyone on the team and has played just 32.6 minutes per game. Duncan has played three more games than LeBron, yet has played just a total of 17 more minutes.
In the regular season, no player on the Spurs averaged more than 29.4 minutes per game (Tony Parker), and Duncan averaged 29.2 minutes played. LeBron averaged 37.7 minutes played and had a total of 2902 minutes played in the regular season, 744 more than Duncan – or 15.5 full games. That is a lot of wear and tear on a player’s body, especially when you are playing at your sport’s highest level.
For now, game one has to be put behind LeBron and the Heat. They need to look ahead with game two in San Antonio on Sunday, a game in which LeBron plans on being 100% and one in which the air conditioning will presumably work correctly after being fixed on Friday. That means LeBron and the Heat training staff have two days between games to get him hydrated and stretched out to the point where cramping should not be an issue on Sunday. While that will be good for the Heat in the short-term, it is really LeBron’s responsibility this offseason to start looking into how he can prevent this long-term going forward in his career.
It might take LeBron and his team of people to sit down and have serious discussions about his playing time and his pregame routines, doing whatever it takes to get this issue figured out. Until he can go through and entire season and postseason without falling victim to cramps, people will have a reason to criticize and if he doesn’t take every precaution to keep it from happening, the jeers will be warranted to some degree.
Of course when it comes to LeBron, some people will criticize every little thing they can find – legitimate or not.
Comments? Questions? You can leave them here or email Ryan at ryan@morethanafan.net. You can also connect with him on Twitter @isley23.