Tim Hardaway made a lot of headlines with his appearance on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast. When speaking about the Los Angeles Lakers and Luka Doncic‘s chances in the playoffs, Hardaway randomly took a shot at LeBron James for not making clutch shots like other legendary players. Hardaway added that James turned to Kyrie Irving for help to win a championship.
“I’m taking OKC over the Lakers… Luka can’t stop you from making shots. If you have a team that can stop you from making shots and you go on the other end and you know you have that one guy who can make shots like Luka, like Kobe, and like Michael.”
“You see how I didn’t name LeBron because he can’t do it. Like Kyrie Irving, like Steph… I’m just telling the truth. When I need a basket I can’t go to you. he couldn’t go to himself. Who did he go to for game? He had to go to Kyrie Irving.”
This is such a tired narrative against LeBron James. The former four-time MVP has hit several clutch shots and made big plays in key moments during his career. However, because he chooses to pass the ball to open teammates in the final moments of games on occasion, he is labeled as ‘not clutch’ and ‘afraid of the moment.’
James has consistently maintained that he will make the best play for his team and trust his teammates. When the team loses, James gets slandered for not taking the shot himself. And when his team wins off the back of a teammate’s shot that he set up, James’ influence on the game is completely discredited. The legendary forward is in a can’t-win situation.
The idea of being a clutch player has become so narrowly defined that all people think of when talking about clutch plays is scoring. There are so many notable passes, steals, blocks, and rebounds that James has gotten in late-game situations that it is hard to keep track. On top of that, James has also made several late-game shots.
James is tied for third with Paul Pierce on the list of the players with the most buzzer-beaters in NBA history with seven. Only Michael Jordan (nine), Kobe Bryant, and Joe Johnson (tied for second with eight) have more buzzer-beaters in the NBA. Yet, for some reason, James has to deal with the allegations of not being clutch.
It is difficult to understand how being just two shots behind Michael Jordan and one shot behind Kobe Bryant for buzzer-beaters means that he isn’t clutch. For James, winning is the priority. And he doesn’t care about who makes the last shot as long as it goes in.
But no matter what James does, he is criticized for his efforts. This isn’t to say James is above being criticized. However, the criticism should be warranted and based on fact rather than player perception.
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