We Are All Witnesses

The Nike marketing campaign featuring LeBron James and the slogan, "We Are All Witnesses" took on new meaning in the Eastern Conference semifinals. What basketball fans witnessed was the league MVP and the team with the best regular season record in the NBA, losing in six games to the Boston Celtics. And for the first time in his career, King James' reputation as a prime time player took a major hit.

Even a triple-double in game six did little to quiet the Lebron critics, and for good reason. Along with his 27-points, 19-rebounds and 10-assists, James had 9-turnovers. He also shot a less than stellar 8 for 21 from the field. This on the heels of his uninspired game five performance, during which he scored 15-points and looked disinterested at times. So here's the million dollar question: What does it all mean?

I think the answer is simple. For all his enormous talent and commercial appeal, there's still something LeBron's missing, and I'm not talking about a grade A supporting cast. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had it...Michael Jordan had it...and Kobe Bryant has it. Haven't figured it out yet? Let me put it this way- All of those guys were/are trained killers...single minded in their focus, ruthless in their pursuit, with one goal at the end of the day...to win a championship.

Can you picture Magic, Bird, Jordan or Kobe taking 14-shots while going through the motions in a key game five play-off loss at home, or having butter fingers in a season ending defeat in game six? I don't doubt Lebron craves a title, but I do question whether he has the mindset required to get it. In the final three games of this series, there wasn't one time when James imposed his will on the opposition. Not one time when he simply said, "Get out of my way- it's the 4th quarter and I'm taking over!" LeBron has the ability to do that, but as we all witnessed, King James came up small in the biggest moments and his season got the royal flush.