After Watching LeBron James on TV, I Quickly Found Myself in Foul Trouble

The refs caught me.

I was watching the Pistons play the Cavaliers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals last night. Suddenly, a fly appeared between the TV and me. LeBron James was driving towards the basket, and I foolishly swatted at the fly. LeBron missed the shot, but the refs didn't let the swat go. I was charged with a foul and LeBron made his two freethrows.

Sure, my swat might not have affected LeBron, to be honest I don't think I even touched him. But that's normal. You don't need to touch him. He's LeBron, so it's a foul.

I can usually watch an entire 48 basketball game without getting into foul trouble, but it's always tough against James. Late in the game, I had to jump off the couch and run out of the way when LeBron was getting an easy dunk, kind of like the Pistons players had to do to avoid the foul calls (2 free points is less than 3 free points).

Don't get me wrong, James made some truly amazing shots. He made 2 fantastic fadeaway jumpers near the 3-point line. Of course, he also airballed one.

The announcers were talking James up, but it doesn't impress me to make amazing shots when he gets so many phantom freebie fouls. He's tough to defend to begin with, but it's tough to defend anybody if everything is an automatic foul. In my opinion LeBron's performance was nothing near to Jordan-esque. I'm not saying it's his fault that he gets all those calls, although he sure does whine a lot and expect them.

NBA, please make LeBron abide by the rules of basketball like every other player. Then we'll get a chance to see just how great this guy is. Don't give him all these freebies, and I think we might see some wonderfully amazing things.

True drama is what makes sports so great. Anything can happen and anybody can win. LeBron's performance was "dramatic," or perhaps melodramatic is the better word. To me, it was more WWE than March Madness.