Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Mostly so far we’ve seen everyone getting at LeBron. Â Alex Rodriguez is coming to LeBron’s defense & Jason Kidd compliments the guy that everyone is blaming for the Heat taking that L. Â Check what they both had to say after the jump…
A-ROD STORY:
New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez says fans should get off LeBron James’s back over his failure to lead the Miami Heat to the NBA title.
“Winning a championship is not an easy thing to do regardless of talent,” Rodriguez said. “LeBron is a once in a lifetime player, especially the last year.”
Rodriguez asked for patience in judging James. “We need to remember this kid is 26 years old, and celebrate his talent,” Rodriguez said.
If anybody knows the public beating James is taking for the Heat not winning, it is Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was blamed for the Yankees’ epic collapse against the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS when the Yankees spit out a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven affair.
A year later, he batted a pitiful .133 in the ALDS against the Angels. In 2006, Joe Torre hit him eighth in the final ALDS game against the Tigers and he finished that series with a .071 average. In 2007, the Yankees lost to the Indians in the first round for the third straight one-and-done.
In 2008, the Yankees failed to make the playoffs and the burden vanished off Rodriguez’s back the next season when he helped carry the Yankees to the World Series title.
Then Rodriguez and the Yankees were ousted in the ALCS last October when he batted .190 against the Rangers.
Rodriguez said the Heat not winning should not take anything away from Dallas.
“Let’s not take the Mavericks as an afterthought,” said Rodriguez, who lives in Miami and played in Arlington, a suburb of Dallas. “They did everything they had to do to raise a championship.”
JASON KIDD STORY:
LeBron James admires Jason Kidd, his elder 2008 gold-medal winning Olympic teammate, as a mentor. That’s a good thing because the newly crowned NBA champion has some advice for the scrutinized Miami Heat superstar coming off an underwhelming Finals performance.
The Dallas Mavericks point guard finally won his first title after 17 seasons, ensuring that James remained ringless after his eighth season and first with the Heat after last summer’s controversial “Decision.”
“I will reach out to him. He’s a good friend of mine,” Kidd said Tuesday during the team’s exit interviews. “I want him to have success and be successful. But, I think right now, it’s just being patient and all the great ones had to be patient. They had to take their bumps or lumps, however you want to look at it.
“But, at the end of the day, they all found a way to win a championship. And I think at the end of his career, he’ll have a couple championships.”
Kidd said James was the first to congratulate him on the floor of the AmericanAirlines Arena after the buzzer sounded on Sunday night’s Game 6 and the Mavs began to celebrate the franchise’s first championship in their 31 seasons.
“He said that if there was anybody to lose to,” Kidd said, “that it would be me.”
On Tuesday, James, who averaged a playoff-low 17.8 points in the Finals and scored just 18 points in the fourth quarters of the six games, congratulated the Mavs on his website.
WRITTEN BYÂ Jeff Caplan covers the Mavericks for ESPNDallas.com.
Follow Jeff Caplan on Twitter:Â @espn_caplan
& FULL STORY HERE
