When Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word...

I was driving to work today, listening to Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio as I always do, and I finally found a direct comparison between athletes and everyone else.  It has to do with apologies, clarification statements, etc.  As everyone already knows, LeBron made some, umm.... "questionable", comments in his post-game press conference.  It angered a lot of people, and a lot of people shrugged it off, but it mostly angered a lot of people.  The damage was done.


And then came Tuesday, during the exit interviews with the Heat players.


LeBron (courtesy of Brian Windhorst): 

"Basically I was saying at the end of the day this season is over and -- with all hatred -- everyone else has to move on with their lives, good or bad. I do too," James said.

"It wasn't saying I'm superior or better than anyone else, any man or woman on this planet, I'm not. I would never ever look at myself bigger than anyone who watched our game. It may have come off wrong but that wasn't my intent."

Now let me first say... really?  I get the whole, "I didn't give myself this nickname" for being called the Chosen One and The King.  But to refer to yourself as that, to put it on license plates, to wear a wrist band that says "King James" rather than "Livestrong," that kind of seems like you look at yourself bigger than everyone else.  But that's not the point.  Let's say we give him a pass, and take the apology for what it is.  We also have to couple this apology with his congratulatory message to the Dallas Mavericks, posted on his webpage:

"Congratulations Mavericks on the championship ... especially Dirk, J. Kidd, & Terry who have done so much for our league and worked so hard to get here. They deserve all the credit for what they have accomplished ..."


That's pretty nice, isn't it?  When did the Mavericks win the championship?  Sunday.  When did he do all this?  Tuesday.  When did he further damage his image?  Sunday.  Ooooohhhhhh. So when Mike Greenberg brought up the fact that we, as a public, refuse to give guys we have decided to dislike a pass, it made sense.  But anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows that there are ways to help yourself, especially in today's social media age.


Have you ever done something that you didn't think was a big deal, but your significant other did?  And you refused to believe that you had done anything wrong, although it clearly upset him/her?  And then it finally hit you, when you were sleeping on the couch for the second night, that maybe, it was a big deal.  So when you go to apologize, you get into even more trouble because you waited so long to apologize?  Timing is everything.  If you had just seen that he/she was upset to begin with and apologized for it right then before it soaked in to either of you, everything would have been fine, and your back wouldn't hurt.  But you waited, you're in trouble, and your back is crooked.


Now look at LeBron.  How many times, in the past 12 months, has he clearly done something to upset his significant other (the fans), but refused to believe it was wrong.  It started with "The Decision," which took him until the end of the regular season to apologize for.  10 months?  Really? Then the celebration, "Not 2, not 3, not 4..."  (I can't blame all of that on LeBron, because whoever the genius is who works for the Heat that thought a championship celebration was a good idea needs to be fired).  LeBron wasn't scripted to say that, he chose his words.  And then there were the tweets... the Karma tweet... the making a list tweet.... he used "it wasn't even my tweet, I just repeated it" for the Karma tweet.  If that worked in anything, then it would be fine to tell everyone what you thought of them, and then just say somebody else said it.  "Hey George, you're fat, stupid, and you smell like bleu cheese..... Oh you're mad about what I said?  Don't worry, I didn't originally say that, I just repeated it to you."  If you repeat something, without saying "He/She said," that means you said it.  And then on Sunday, after he failed to start his tally of championships that he started last summer, LeBron called out hi