LeBron James proves the already known, he’s not a winner

It must be really good to be LeBron James.

That’s not sarcasm, just hear me out.

Imagine if you held a job as a carpenter and have been employed for eight years.

While we’re doing this, imagine that you have built some of the most amazing and beautiful homes across the Tri-parish area and because of that, you’re now regarded as hands-down the best carpenter in the area.

You’re the go-to guy or gal for mansions and architectural perfection across all of Lafourche, Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes.

Imagine if in your eighth calendar year on the job, a storm rolls through the Gulf of Mexico and heaven forbid, it actually strikes Louisiana.

As evacuees return to the area in the aftermath of the storm, they notice a strange pattern.

All of the homes you built are destroyed, leveled to the ground. All of the homes built by someone else. They are all standing without so much as a shingle lost.

At that point in your career, would you have the gall to call yourself a ‘King or a ‘Chosen One

Apparently the world of basketball isn’t similar to real life, because that’s exactly what LeBron James does and he magically has about 70 percent of the basketball world fooled into thinking he’s telling the truth.

Granted, hurricane season is far more serious than basketball, so please don’t mistake me comparing the two as apples to apples. I’m not doing that at all.

But the point remains the same, when a storm rolls into the Gulf of the NBA, James does exactly like that carpenter’s homes he collapses, folds like a popup tent, then disappoints all of his loyal subjects, who make endless excuses about his failures.

And he’s done so now for eight-straight seasons. At some point, we have to call a short-term trend a long-term nightmare.

History shows that great players elevate their game in the biggest situations. Michael Jordan did that. So did Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Reggie Miller and any other NBA legend you’d like to insert into this sentence. Heck, Kobe Bryant still does that today.

Does LeBron James do that.

Nope.

In the 2010-11 NBA regular season, King James averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game for the Heat. Those numbers were hands-down the best statistical line in the league this season.

When the NBA Finals came around and the heat was on (pun intended), LeBron’s rebounds and assists remained the same, but his scoring average dropped to a measly 17 points per game marking the largest drop-off in NBA history between a regular season average and an NBA Finals average.

The sad part is that I only know such a stat even exists because the last time LeBron was in the NBA Finals, he made the list, too, dropping from 27.3 points per game in the 2006-07 season to 22 points per game in the 2007 NBA Finals.

Now LeBron apologists (and there are literally hundreds of millions in this world) like to point out a litany of excuses to forgive their King’s misgivings in big moments.

The first six years of his career, they’d be sure to tell you that Michael Jordan didn’t win a championship until year seven. So that obviously meant that LeBron was just following the course of history.

After year seven came and passed, they’d be sure to tell you that the King was only behind pace because he didn’t have any legitimate help with the Cleveland Cavaliers and not even a King can win a title alone.

Granted, last year’s Cavaliers’ roster had three other players who have been NBA All-Stars at some point in their careers let’s not let facts skew our biased and ridiculous love for our King.

So now that LeBron has taken his talents to South Beach and joined a virtual NBA All-Star team, what is the excuse now.

Because trust me there WILL be one.

I speak to several dozen LeBron supporters daily and I can assure you they are deep in thought trying to think of some sort of justification for his statistical failures.

Maybe now he has too many good players on his team. Or maybe Miami isn’t cold enough in the winter and that means the King isn’t able to hibernate in the winter and thus has to hibernate in the fourth quarter of NBA Finals games

That last example sounds stupid, I know but it’s not quite as stupid as giving someone an automatic free pass for a decade of failure.

My theory is this the guy’s just not a winner.

He has no drive and has probably the smallest work ethic of any superstar in the NBA.

It’s been eight years now what does LeBron James do significantly better today than he did when he was a fresh-faced 18-year-old rookie

The answer is a slightly better jump shot and then the same exact skill set.

Oh, what a luxury that must be to show up at work and fail. Then show up the next day and fail again.

All the while have everyone in the world call you ‘King and consider you the best in the world at what you do.

Man, what a life that must be.

It’s good to be LeBron James.

He just might be the best loser in the history of sports.