More Than A Game

I just got done watching LeBron and the Heat win the NBA Finals, and it got me thinking a lot about all this hate on LeBron. I’ll be the first to admit that I was bitter after “The Decision” to leave Cleveland and take a “shortcut” for a championship. I thought it would ruin his legacy—that he would never be Jordan taking the out like that. More than that, though, I lost a lot of respect for him because of the way he handled the situation. I wasn’t a huge hater, but I wasn’t mad they lost last year. When this season started, though, I just wanted to watch him because he is the most talented guy on the planet. I figured, how can I hate on this dude? So I started to like him again. As the season went on and the playoffs began, I heard so many people that just completely hated LeBron and wanted, more than anything else, for him to fail. The thing about it though, was that it was obvious all year that this was a different LeBron. He had already said he regretted how he handled the decision. In his interviews tonight after the game, he admitted that he was going about things the wrong way last year by playing with the intentions of proving people wrong and playing that villain role. He talked about how losing in the finals last year humbled him and how he realized now how hard he had to work for a championship.

Basically, LeBron is a completely different person from the guy who went on national television to break up with an entire city and then promised 8 or more championships to Miami fans. He admitted to being immature. That’s not an easy thing to admit when the whole world is watching. The best picture that is stuck in my head about this is when Mario Chalmers was pumping up the crowd late in the third quarter tonight when the Heat were on a monster run. They were up by 19 at the time with 3 minutes left in the third. Despite all the time left, there was little doubt that the game was all but over. However, instead of letting Chalmers entice the crowd, he went out of his way to tell him to stop and to continue playing. This act shows maturity, not only as a player who understands the game situation, but also as a person. He could have jumped right in with him to get the crowd going and embarrass the Thunder as much as possible. Instead, he chose the classy route by being respectful for a young team deserving of such. LeBron was a class act this whole playoff run, even reading before and after games to calm himself, but also quietly encouraging young basketball fans that reading is kinda cool. He didn’t showboat or tell people why he was better than them.

I am by no means saying that LeBron is perfect now and should receive nothing but love from any basketball fan. If you want to say he isn’t Jordan, I’ll agree with you. He never will be Jordan. But he will be a pretty darn good LeBron James. Nobody is ever going to be Jordan. This isn’t about basketball, though. The fact that so many people genuinely hate this guy makes me sad. He made a big mistake. He arrogantly went on national television to announce a decision that disappointed a lot of people and then played a season trying to stick it to all those people. But the thing is that he really changed since then. No, I don’t know him personally, but I will take him at his word if he is publicly willing to admit these mistakes. This is about forgiveness. LeBron doesn’t need it from any hater out there. But being bitter to the extent that many of these people are is exhausting. It says a lot about a person to truly hate someone so much, especially an athlete. For your life to be so affected by the failures of another person shows how immature a lot of those people are. I understand that every little thing LeBron does is nationally televised basically, but that doesn’t mean he can’t realize a mistake and change from it. I want people to realize this and accept the dude’s apology and move on. Forgiveness is so freeing. Give it a shot—with LeBron and in life in general! 

Life Moves On

Today I have been thinking a lot about how nothing in life seems to last anymore. The more I grow up, the more I see that almost all the good things I have ever known eventually change or fall apart. I was watching Friends earlier on TV and it was the last episode of the last season. This group of friends had been together for ten years, and then a few of them moved away and everything changed. I found myself getting sad because I was thinking about similar situations in my life.

Obviously, change is needed at some points in life. Many times, we have no control over the changes in our lives, and we must come to accept them. Even though it is a natural part of life, sometimes I get sad when people that have been such a big part of my life have to move on to the next phase of life and we have to part ways. I love the guys in my apartment this year, and I am realizing that when two of them graduate in a matter of weeks how much I will miss hanging out with them all the time, and just the great people they are. It’s always hard losing seniors on a basketball team, but with me getting to know them so much more this year, it won’t be the same without them around next year.

Another thing that I am not looking forward to is when my brother and sister and their spouses move away. Both of them want to live far away from Ohio, which is completely understandable. However, I love my family and I hate the thought that I won’t be able to see them whenever I want. I think about how often my parents see their siblings and I start to get a little depressed. On top of that is the fact that my basketball career will be over in less than 11 months and my time at MVNU not long after.

With all these changes going on around me, it seems like the saying might be true, “All good things come to an end.” As sad as it is, though, to see friends and family members move on in life, I realize how lucky I have been to have the experiences with each of these people that I did. I have been so blessed to have such great people around me, and even when I am not around these people in the future and in contact at times, I will still have the moments and the things I learned from each experience with me. Plus, there are some relationships that will always be the same, no matter how much time or distance comes between the people. I have a few friends that I’ll go a long time without talking to, but whenever we are home together and hang out, everything is back to how it has always been. Then I have the group of friends I hang out with basically every time I am home. I could talk to those three people about anything at all and I know they will always be there for me. And so will my family, no matter where we all are in the world.

Maybe there’s a little hope after all………………

Old Conversation

The other day, I came across a conversation I had with somebody about a year ago, and I found it quite interesting and felt like sharing it:

Girl:
Okay... like when it comes to relationships... all I see around me here are people in loving relationships that may or may not have God the center of things. And I see that and I get so impatient and upset with God. I desire so much a relationship with a man that is more concerned with my heart than with getting in my pants. Who is more concerned with helping to repair my heart than with his own selfish ambitions. I am to the point where I feel so beaten and broken from my past. And I have given those to god but I feel like those things will keep me from allowing my guard down ever again to any guy. And by doing that I feel like I will push away any guy that is ever willing to pursue me. I have a friend that’s been dating a guy for awhile but they are going through something so hard right now. I see the love they have and right now I am seeing the pain they are going through and I wonder if there will ever be anything worth fighting for again?...

Me:
I don’t know… the way I see it (and it hasn’t always been this way) is that we have to go through all the heartbreak and all the terrible stuff to figure out what we really want and need and how to deal with the pain and everything necessary in relationships. The main reason all that happens is because we just aren’t really ready for that right person yet. As much as we want it, if we got that right person now, we would most likely find a way to blow it. Honestly, I don’t know how we will know when the timing is right or when we are ready, but that’s the joy/terribleness of life! lol. Life is a mystery. We never know what is going to happen or when it’s going to happen. That’s why we need to be ready for whatever because we could miss out on something great if we’re not! And how are you gonna know if something is worth the risk unless you actually try it? That’s what I’m doing with basketball. There’s a chance that it could make me sicker, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Because I think it is worth it. I don’t know if that makes sense or not but that’s what I think about it right now.

Looking back at this conversation, I feel like I had some good things to say. Where would we be without the pain of our past at times. And we have to take chances sometimes, even if the outcome is unlikely.