The internet is full of stupid. You know this. We know this. But The Stupid doesn't shine quite as brightly as when LeBron James and the Miami Heat lose a single playoff game.
The Stupid was strong all day Thursday, following the Heat's Game 5 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Mainly because, with the game on the line and two Pacers defenders crashing in on him, LeBron decided to pass to a wide-open Chris Bosh in the corner. Bosh is very much capable of hitting that shot. It just so happens, he didn't (people do miss shots, even professional basketball people). The Heat lost, and the internet blew up.
The ridiculously asinine narrative of LeBron Is Not Clutch has inexplicably been lingering for years, despite hard evidence to the contrary.
But that didn't stop people from bringing it up AGAIN.
None more loudly than CBSSports' Gregg Doyel, who wrote a long screed about how LeBron did the wrong thing, even though it was the... right thing?
So, to once and for all set people like Gregggggg, and the rest of the LeBron Hating Brigade, straight, we present the ten reasons LeBron is not only clutch but THE MOST CLUTCH. And why you look so silly when you disagree:
10. Let's start with one of the most recent. This season, against the high-scoring Warriors VAN EXEL ALL UP IN YAAAA....
9. He's smarter than everyone on the court. Yes, even you, unathletic, slow, middle-aged white guy who gets paid to say he's not clutch. Seriously. The guy is a basketball genius. He calculates plays on the fly, before they happen. He knows what an opposing player will do before the opposing player does. He's the human analytic. That play to Chris Bosh in the corner in Game 5 was absolutely the only play LeBron had. Going at Hibbert would've resulted in failure. Bosh hits the corner three more often than not. Ray Allen was covered. As was Rashard Lewis. LeBron knew this. That's why he made that pass. AS IF JORDAN NEVER MADE A PASS TO WIN GAME. He's smarter, better, and more awesome than you.
And all the noise surrounding LeBron? Kobe Bryant says that does not faze the man.
8. Then there's this one against the Celtics Because, screw the Celtics.
7. LeBron is the first player in NBA playoff history with a triple-double and a buzzer-beater game winner in the same game. That game came against... WAIT FOR IT, GREGGGGGGG... the Pacers. MJ never did that. Kobe never did that. Wilt never did that. Larry Bird never did that.
6. He leads the world in this clutch, last-shot stuff Since he came into the league in 2003, nobody (NO. BOD. EEE.) in the NBA has made more game-tying and/or go-ahead shots in the final 24 seconds of playoff games than LEBRON THE COBRADICK JAMES.
5. Oh. Do you need to see that in STATS form? OK. Cool.
4. And he's been doing it since he came into the league. Like this memorable shot against the Magic IN THE PLAYOFFS Look how young he looks! Awwwww. Been obliterating faces since he was a baby cobra.
3. REMINDER. Yep.
2. He's even clutch when his body doesn't work Yes, it's difficult to remember a WHOLE TWO YEARS AGO in this day and age of Twitter machines and short memories. But on his way to winning his first NBA title, LeBron hit a clutch shot ON ONE FUCKING LEG.
1. He hit the nail-in-the-coffin shot to seal the greatest NBA Finals of all time In a Finals that featured Danny Green hitting the most threes in a playoff game and Tony Parker's crazy Game 1-winning layup and Ray Allen hitting The Shot, it was finally decided by LeBron James' clutch balls.
So, yeah, knock that shit off already, idiots.
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