King James – (Un) Masked!
LeBron James, arguably the greatest basketball player currently playing in the NBA, has always been the one to cherish and command the spotlight. LeBron became a national obsession ever since his early days as a high school player. His success and natural talent have made him into one of the country’s biggest stars and rightly so. So when the four-time MVP decides to wear a mask to a basketball game, he is bound to raise some eyebrows.
After suffering from a broken nose following his attempted dunk over Serge Ibaka, LeBron claimed he would play the next game while wearing a mask to protect his nose. Well he did and set the online community on fire.
When the Heat turned up against the Knicks, LeBron sported a menacing bad-ass black carbon fiber mask. As expected, social media frenzy ensued, people saying he looked everything from Batman to Darth Vader. The Heat were quick to capitalize on this and even printed shirts, making decent coin in the process.
Coupled with his black beard, it looked as though James was wearing a full face mask, which gave him the look of a menacing armored tank, rampaging through the court. Needless to say, James was at his usual best, scoring 31 points, with four rebounds and four assists in thirty six and half minutes as Miami hammered the Knicks, 108-82.
Following Heat’s domination over the Knicks, NBA was apparently unhappy with LeBron’s choice of apparel and requested that he change it to a less menacing and intimidating transparent mask. Although not against the rules, according to LeBron it was more of a request, and he as a player had no issues agreeing to it.
‘It’s not a league rule, but it’s the league’s request that you don’t wear the black one,’ he said before the next game. ‘The reasons they told me didn’t make sense to me, but I’m just a player. I will abide by the request.’
The basic issue with the black mask, as our understanding goes, was that opponents could not see his face. It just makes you wonder if that is in fact a good thing, for an unmasked LeBron James coming at you is more daunting than a masked one. That’s for the fans to decide.
So King James swapped masks and donned a Bane-esque mask for the next game. Interestingly the new mask seemed to flip on his “Bane” switch as well. James almost single handedly decimated the Charlotte Bobcats in one of the most dominant individual displays of the season. He scored a massive 61 points from only 33 attempted shots, which according to his team mate Shane Battier was “Wilt Chamberlain-esque”. James thrashed the Bobcats defense pretty much like Bane thrashes Batman; he was clinical, surgical, and exuded power.
Honestly, you should have let him play in the black mask guys, because clearly he did not like taking it off. The ‘Bane’ mode is definitely more scary.
However, the most important thing to remember is that mask or no mask, even if we do not consider his 61 points in a single game, James has averaged 35.8 points over the last five games. Teams should definitely be more concerned with that particular statistic rather than what color mask he chooses to wear.
Image courtesy: By Tim Shelby (Flickr: IMG_8072) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons