Links To The Present: “Walk The Walk, Don’t Talk The Talk”

You’ve probably heard about Charles Barkley calling out James last week, saying that he whines too much and doesn’t want to compete. LeBron gave his response to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin by pointing out some of Barkley’s past flaws.

“I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas,” James said. “I never said, ‘I’m not a role model.’ I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying. All I’ve done for my entire career is represent the NBA the right way. Fourteen years, never got in trouble. Respected the game. Print that.”

When something goes wrong, we’ve seen LeBron make that face where it looks like he’s going to tell his mommy on you. Not saying he doesn’t own up to his mistakes or anyone else’s, but he can be a bit overdramatic. Overall, though, I agree with LeBron’s answer back to Barkley. Back in the day the retired NBA player and current tv analyst for NBA tip-off obviously wasn’t perfect either so he doesn’t have much room to judge on LeBron’s ability to play the game. But LeBron really needs to take not only my advice but the advice of many, including Barkley: stop complaining.

Even Shaq had something to say about it..

.@SHAQ & @TheJetonTNT discuss LeBron James & Charles Barkley's recent comments… pic.twitter.com/33oFGuBLP5

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 3, 2017

Is all the drama getting to LeBron?

The Cleveland Cavaliers had an easy chance this past week to beat all opposing teams, but fell short against The Dallas Mavericks. With Kevin Love absent yet again due to another slight injury, and LeBron and Kyrie not showing up, figuratively, I’m so glad January is over.

But despite Monday’s negativity, I don’t think the media affecting his game. The more perfect response to the question is the Cavs’ latest game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The boys certainly showed up and gave the city of Cleveland some TLC in the month all about love. Too bad Kevin was out to complete the sound of that story, but The Cavaliers did just fine without him.

There were many highs of the game such as the team’s season high of 37 assists and Kyrie’s season high of 14 assists which contributed big time to LeBron’s leading score of 27 points. Kyrie also assisted newcomer Kyle Korver, giving Korver his Cavalier high of 20 points in a game and also assisting on more plays with Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson and Tristan Thompson. There was even phenomenal performance from Felder while Irving was on the bench.

After the game, Korver had some positive things to add..

“Everyone in the locker room has been really positive,” Korver said. “I know there’s a lot of noise on the outside, but you wouldn’t know that if you walk in the locker room. That’s what I’ve focused on. I feel like if they’re not panicking, I’m not going to panic. I’m the new guy. If they’re OK, I’m going to be OK too.”

From the looks of it, these guys are quite alright:

With a beautiful and rare sighting of a Kyrie Irving dunk..

#KYRIEIRVING with the steal and the SLAM!#CavsWolves https://t.co/15825L75b8

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 2, 2017

To say the least Kyrie had an amazing game.

Then there was some nice passing to Korver over here..

Korver Kounter (#Trees4Threes style):

🎄
🎄
🎄 https://t.co/GuLktqWYEK

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 2, 2017

To a nasty drop from Frye.

Yammed. https://t.co/PCxti94PDi

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 2, 2017

Putting all the outside and meaningless drama to the side, you can see Lebron and the Cavs did just that and played their glutes off. I’m not asking where it came from, but that team who beat the Timberwolves 125-97 is definitely the team we fans are expecting to see.

January was almost like a bad relationship when you’re expecting something so good then you just get your heart ripped from your chest. But after a rebound, teams that look like they’re having a great time and doing what they do best are teams that are going to win. Teams that feed off of everyone’s momentum in a game, where everyone is giving their 100 percent individually,will carry themselves quite easily to the playoffs and give their fans something worthwhile in the meantime.

I thought this past month would do the Cavs good, but the team is still going through issues. Time and patience are our only friends, folks. Peak performance doesn’t truly matter till June. Will February be the month where things change and become ‘finals’ perfect again? No, we’ll still need JR for that, but things could gradually improve.

In other links:

• Cleveland Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving to Partipate in 3-Point Contest.
• Iman Shumpert flourishing as starter by ‘being very simple with his game.’ This could settle some of those trade rumors as he plays for himself and fills another by playing a J.R.
• Nebraska retires jersey of Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue.
• Nike issues new LeBron James, Kyrie Irving shoes for Black History Month.