I am now a witness. The question is: a witness to what exactly…?

On Saturday, JB and I spent another day at the IZOD Center, this time to see the Nets play the Cleveland Cavaliers, or as I like to call them, the Cleveland LeBrons. This was the first time I’ve seen LeBron James play in person, so I figured this would be the perfect time to express my ‘frustrations’ with LeBron, from an on-the-court standpoint.

The category of this post is labeled ‘hrbl hoops’, but there isn’t much that is hrbl about LeBron James – or is there?

His whole life he has been viewed as extremely gifted from a physical standpoint, making him ‘the chosen one’. Yes, there is truly no doubting his incredible size and athleticism, but I’m not sure anyone would choose his personality.

“But Shooter, how could you hate on LeBron?! Isn’t he a fun-loving kid who is just having a good time and enjoying life?”

Yes, but does he really have to be so arrogant? Check with the rest of the NBA, and you’ll realize that he is alone in his taking advantage of being a celebrity. Why the league allows him to do what he does is totally beyond me.

Now, this was the first time I’ve seen LeBron play in person, so here is a list of things that annoyed me from the third-to-last row in the stadium:

LeBron’s Group photo before game – Seriously, it was half-interesting the first time he did this, but now it’s just childish. If anyone else in the NBA did this, they would probably be fined. Man, I wish that motivated the opposition more than it does.

The pre-game rosin thing – You know what I’m talking about, when LeBron takes the powder and throws it up in the air. Again, the first time he did it, it was cool. I’ll admit that. But now, I feel he just does it because he got a reaction the first time he did it. Also, doing it at home is one thing, but doing it on the road is disrespectful. Finally, I realized that he doesn’t even take any of it throughout any point of the game (or even before the start of the second half), so how badly does he even need this rosin in the first place? Answer: he doesn’t, it’s just a gimmick.

Delayed the start of the game – Instead of just going onto the court like a normal player, LeBron feels the need to walk around aimlessly while everyone waits for him; and it’s more than just the powder thing. This game was delayed an extra 15 seconds because he has to take so dang long get on the court. UGH!

Complaining (A LOT!) – It’s one thing to complain if you don’t get a call in you or your team’s favor (which LeBron does, often!), but he also complained in the first quarter after a foul was called in his favor. WTH!

He’s good – 23 points and nine rebounds later, him and his team won, sending me home with my head down. Not only that, but he didn’t even allow me to finish yelling, ‘AIRBALL’ before draining a three-pointer right after an aired three attempt.

-Shooter