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LeBron James shrugs off claims he’s a flopper

APTOPIX Heat Bulls Basketball

Chicago Bulls center Nazr Mohammed (48) pushes Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) to the floor during the first half of Game 3 of an NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference semifinal on Friday, May 10, 2013, in Chicago. Mohammed was ejected after this play. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

AP

LeBron James is used to all of you calling him names.

From the comment sections of this site to fans close to the floor arenas LeBron has heard it all — the stuff about his mother, about Cleveland, about how he can’t lead, how he is overrated, how he’s soft, how he can’t close, and much more.

LeBron shrugs at all of it — including the new allegations out of Chicago that he is a flopper. Tibodeau said he saw a flop when Nazr Mohammed pushed him to the ground. Combine that with LeBron saying after a regular season meeting the Bulls were too physical with him and Chicago fans have taken that to the next level talking about how LeBron whines and flops to get calls.

LeBron’s response to the AP was essentially, “whatever.”

“It’s kind of the same [as when] I heard people say I was overrated,” he said Sunday. “It’s kind of like the same response....

“I don’t need to flop,” James said. “I play an aggressive game. I don’t flop. I’ve never been one of those guys.”


History is written by the winners. We don’t talk about the three years in a row the Detroit Pistons bounced Michael Jordan from the playoffs and how people said he couldn’t lead a team to a title. Same is true of the knocks on the games of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and so on.

LeBron gets that. Keep winning, keep collecting rings and all the flopping talk will die away, drowned out by plaudits. But it’s not going to due out before Game 4, Chicago is going to let him hear it.