“I take a little umbrage to some of the things that came from people in our game who, all of a sudden, have become the moral conscious or moral authority on the decision of every team or some individual might make,” he said, probably trying to stifle a chuckle during his conference call last week with South Florida writers. “I know one thing: Our team will be ready. And I think that’s the way we can answer all the critics.”

To translate: Riley rushed to a secluded spot, leaped toward the heavens with arms raised and screamed “Yesssss” when the Heat bashing started, increased and exploded.

Added Riley to those writers, “Charles Barkley, to me, went way, way, way over the top taking these personal attacks. Calling these guys a bunch of punks is a personal attack. For him to say that is wrong.”

Yeah, well. If LeBron were Kobe, then LeBron would do something about it by going nuts on the court through the end of June while taking his teammates along for the ride. But LeBron isn’t Kobe.

Kobe feeds off the negativity.

Kobe wants the negativity.

So Lebron ain’t Kobe. That’s what we know. Riley thinks Lebron’s fire can be stoked with all the criticism. As someone that rode Lebron’s jock the last two years thinking he was the second coming, I can tell you the only thing that fan antipathy will do to Lebron is limit the number of half court shots he “wows the crowd” with before the game starts.

1 year ago