Listen, Stephen. Sometimes you can hide things, and sometimes you cannot hide things. We all have problems, but it’s how we deal with that separates the good people from the elite people. Some people find a way not just to hide things -- but to overcome them.
Skip Bayless explains why LeBron James not wearing a headband means he isn’t clutch
DISCLAIMER: Skip Bayless did not write this, but if he did, this is what he would say.
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Michael Jordan was balding. Balding! Michael never tried to hide the fact that he was balding. He shaved his head. He owned it. He made his baldness his style. He took his weakness and made it a strength.
LeBron James is balding, and LeBron James has never -- NOT ONCE! -- owned up to it.
What did he do instead? He put on a headband. He tried to make it look like less of his head was bald by putting a PIECE of FABRIC on top of his head.
He never tried to overcome his problem. He tried to hide it.
And guess what? He does THE SAME THING when the game is on the line. LeBron isn’t clutch. He doesn’t have the clutch gene. He has the male pattern baldness gene, but not the clutch gene.
Did LeBron ever try to overcome that? No. He tried to hide it. He took jumpers instead of attacking the rim, because HE KNOWS HE’S SCARED TO TAKE CLUTCH FREE THROWS. This is one of the strongest, most powerful players in NBA history, and yet here he is shooting prissy fadeaways with the game on the line, because he’s afraid of what would happen if he got fouled. Because he was afraid of confronting his weakness, and tried to mask it.
SB Nation presents: Luke Thomas is pissed about Kevin Durant
And what is happening right now with the headband is LeBron is tired of hiding. He’s tired of masking his flaws. He’s giving up. He’s saying, LOOK. LOOK AT HOW BALDING I AM. He’s not trying to conquer the problem! He’s just letting the world see, plain and clear, that he has one.
And watch him do this when the game is on the line. LeBron is tired of hiding, but he’s too weak to actually conquer his problems. Now, in crunch time, he’s NOT EVEN GOING TO PRETEND that he’s clutch, the same way he’s not pretending he has hair. He’s going to pass. He’s going to shirk responsibility.
This is what LeBron James is. A guy who has problems and either masks them or does not mask them rather than making an effort to beat them. He’s a guy with all the physical skills in the world that lets his mental problems CONQUER HIM instead of CONQUERING THEM.
That’s what this headband is. It’s a sign that he’s tired of pretending, and that he’s content to let his flaws and limitations and problems define him.
Either that, or his ego has made his head so big that it hurts to wear a headband.
