In the new King James version: “Now or Never,” he tweeted at 1:27 a.m. Thursday before Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
LeBron James wasn’t quoting the Bible, but maybe he was channeling the King.
“It’s now or never,” Elvis sang. “Tomorrow will be too late.”
Now, it’s now or never.
Another loss, and another sad-sack performance by James, the man who would not be king, and it won’t be the Heat, but the Humility.
Dallas will celebrate. Cleveland will rejoice. Miami will boil. And most other cities that have adopted the Mavs, not the Cowboys, as America’s Team, will dwell on LeBron’s Star Dreck journey from The Decision to The Indecision.
Oh, James did have 17 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds Thursday, but that triple-double was softer than a dolphin’s belly. He was 8-of-19 from the field — 0-for-4 from the 3-point throne.
And he gave the Heat two paltry points in the fourth quarter.
The Mavericks won again, as they did when James produced a triple-single (8, 7, 9) in Game 4. He has 11 points in the final quarters of the series.
There is something wrong with LeBron.
I don’t mean just his weak jump shot, or his inability go to his left, get inside, and draw the foul, or his efforts to post up when he becomes a Post-it Note. In crunch time, he punched out. He has become sci-fi characters — first, The Invisible Man; then, The Incredible Shrinking Man. H.G. Wells couldn’t have conceived this.
I mean there is something wrong in LeBron’s personal life, something wrong in his professional relationship with Dwyane Wade, something wrong with his body or something wrong with being on the Heat.
Since he was a kid, LeBron always has been the B.M.O.C. — Big Man On Court. He controlled everything. He scored, he rebounded, he passed, he defended, he was in the moment. In this series he has been Gabby Hayes to Roy Rogers, Garfunkel to Simon, Abbott to Costello, Alben Barkley to Harry Truman.
James is a sidekick. “Hey, LeBron, look over the rock and see if they’re chasing us,” “Hey, LeBron, you play defense on Jason Terry, and stand at the top of the key as the third option on offense,” “Hey, LeBron, get the bags.”
Early on in the Finals, LeBron told everyone not to forget he was doing a great job on defense. Forget about it. Terry has gone off in the last two games.
In five games the MVPs have been, in order: 1. Dirk Nowitzki, 2. Wade, 3. Jason Terry, 4. Chris Bosh, 5. (tie) James and Jose Juan Barea, who also scored eight and 17 in the past two games and can stand up to James on a stepladder.
A few weeks ago, Scottie Pippen was saying on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” that LeBron was a better player than Michael Jordan.
M.J.? LeBron hasn’t played better than J.J., who was moved in to the Mavs’ starting lineup for Games 4 and 5.
In the new movie “Bad Teacher” actor Jason Segel, debating a student over the comparable merits of Jordan and James, says: “Call me when LeBron has six championships,” to which the student replies: “Is that the only argument you have?” “It’s the only argument I need, Shawn!” shouts Segel.
The Dallas-Miami series is not over. A season ago the Lakers returned home trailing the Celtics 3-2. Los Angeles blew out Boston in Game 6 with Kobe Bryant finishing with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. He followed up with 23, 15 and 2 in the Lakers’ title triumph.
Two summers ago at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Jordan — who I covered from his NCAA Final Four in New Orleans to his Olympics in Los Angeles and Barcelona, his NBA championships in Chicago and his minor-league baseball stint in Birmingham — told me, over a couple of beers, that he “always saved my biggest and best for when the stage and the stakes were highest.”
Michael scored the winning basket in the NCAA championship game, 45 in his final NBA championship game.
Call us, or tweet us, when you duplicate that feat, LeBron.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
