LeBron James says Kevin Love & Kyrie Irving will always be involved for Cleveland Cavaliers
Don"t try to dunk on one of the best shot-blockers in the NBA if posterizing players isn"t your game.
One of my favorite Drake songs is called "Know Yourself" from his 2015 album If You"re Reading This It"s Too Late. The title is self-explanatory: Drake raps about the virtues of being honest with oneself while chiding his invisible competitors for posturing as something they"re not. It"s an ode to knowing one"s limitations and strengths, then discovering greatness within that knowledge.
This is important because we have to ask an important question: What the h**l was Kevin Love thinking trying to dunk on Bismack Biyombo?
Ambition is an immense thing that has the power to help or harm. Combine it with the necessary talent, work and luck, and you could become one of the best basketball players in the world. Maybe you"ll even find yourself competing in the Eastern Conference Finals one day.
But when mixed with folly, ambition can kill. Just ask Icarus.
I understand that Kevin Love is ambitious. He should be because he"s a gifted and accomplished professional athlete with multiple All-Star appearances to his name. But let"s be sensible here. That"s Bismack Biyombo under the rim.
Biyombo is a walking college rejection letter -- the kind that makes you ashamed for even applying. The one where you can almost hear the laughter in the admissions office when the workers used your application as an example of dumb people not knowing their place. He was only class president for three years. Let"s laugh at him!
That"s who Kevin Love tried to dunk on.
Biyombo blocked this shot so badly that Love is apologizing in mid-air. Love took off with the apprehension of a socially awkward boy trying to publicly confess his love to the crush that is obviously too good for him. He goes in hopeful, but without much confidence because, well, there"s nothing to be confident about. He might get lucky, but that"s against the mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Just look at how Love scurries away from the rim after Biyombo publicly shames him. That"s a man that"s going to spend years repressing the hurt. The next time Love cuts to the basket near Biyombo, he might have an anxiety attack, Hodor-style. He has already seen his own demise.
While we"re at it, why is Love trying to dunk to begin with? When did that become a big part of his game? I understand that his coach called for him to be more assertive to help his team re-position itself as the true kings of the Eastern Conference. But really, come on now. He"s trying to put Biyombo on a poster with a Crying Jordan-faced vertical leap. That"s not going to work.
I wish we could hear Love"s thoughts at the exact moment he realized he made a huge mistake. You can see the epiphany in his body when he gets ready to jump. The adrenaline and momentum built from getting past his defender quickly dissipated the moment he bent his knees and realized there"s not a snowball"s chance in h**l he"s getting those two points.
But by then, it"s too late. His body"s too far into the progression for his brain to hit the fail-safe button. He knows he"s about to get laughed at and he"s powerless to stop it. I want to know if his brain formally accepted the mistake -- I"ve made a slight miscalculation -- or if it went to the simple, accepting route -- Ah, I f****d up.
There are a few lessons to be learned from this embarrassment. One, don"t try to dunk on Bismack Biyombo if you have the jumping capabilities of a pre-next generation RPG character. Two, know what your strengths and limits are, and play to them. Don"t go to the basket trying to posterize someone when the building blocks of your game are more subtle. There"s no shame in shooting elbow jumpers. There"s only shame in trying to be something you"re not and promptly being stopped by forces bigger and more honest than you.
Know yourself Kevin Love. Know that you are not dunking on Bismack Biyombo.
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Source: http://www.sbnation.com/2016/5/24/11758448/bismack-biyombo-block-kevin-love-raptors-cavs-eastern-conference-finals
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