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LeBron James, Terrible Basketball Player*, Blows Wide Open Dunk

My friend James (a Heat fan) and I have an ongoing bit where we try to figure out the most understated possible compliment for LeBron James. “He does a variety of things on the floor.” “He deserves a spot on an NBA roster.” “Certainly if he opts out of his contract after next year, he’ll be deserving of some interest.” “LeBron James will most likely be remembered as a professional basketball player.” “He presents certain matchup challenges for opponents.” “He’s a player you’d prefer to have on the court.” “The positives in LeBron’s game outweigh the negatives.” You get the idea.

Of course, though, it’s an absurd exercise. Who would really say all this stuff about LeBron? I mean, you’re talking about a guy who does stuff like this:

… so why would you compliment him at all?

*Hopefully this is obvious, but LeBron is not actually a terrible basketball player – and, all things considered, had a pretty awesome game last night, leading the Heat to an 86-67 rout of the Bulls in Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back with 26 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists in 34 minutes. On the above play… well, we’re not sure what the hell happened, but on the whole this was yet another dominant performance in a string of them that’s been interrupted only by the All-Star break.

[That NBA Lottery Pick; video by CJ Fogler]