Last night the Miami Heat fell to the San Antonio Spurs in their biggest loss of the season--a rematch of last years' Finals, no less. But was a third party responsible for the defeat?
The NBA's new short sleeved jerseys may be popular among fans and consumers, but LeBron James is not necessarily a fan. These fitted Adidas jerseys have gradually made their debut over the course of this season, with certain teams asked to wear them on certain nights.
The Heat's first experience with the new threads ended with a six point victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, but James was quick to highlight his disliking of the sleeves even before game time, saying that the new sleeves tugged at his arms, especially affecting his long range jumpers and threes. In that game, James went 0-4 from three point range.
LeBron got a second chance to try out the new design last month in the NBA All-Star Game, during which his theory of the sleeves affecting his long range shots was proved, going 0-7 from behind the arc.
But last night seemed to be even worse for James as the Heat were forced to wear the sleeves yet again. James even ditched the plastic mask he had been wearing to protect his broken nose midway through the first period, trying to figure out what was wrong with his shot. He ended up 6 of 18 on the night with 19 points.
After the game, he said “I’m not making excuses, but I’m not a big fan of the jerseys. Every time I shoot it feels like it’s just pulling right up underneath my arm. I already don’t have much room for error on my jump shot. It’s definitely not a good thing.” But James is not the only one who has complained about the new jerseys over the course of the year, teammate Dwayne Wade and other players across the league have expressed their dislike as well.
During All-Star Weekend, NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the jerseys and replied "We know that shooting percentages are virtually exactly the same for games in which we have sleeved jerseys and teams in which the guys are wearing conventional jerseys, so I'm pretty comfortable from a competitive standpoint that it's having no impact."
Honestly, I cannot say that if I were in LeBron's shoes that I would not complain about the jerseys as well. Coming from a basketball player's standpoint, I would not want to wear sleeves when I play either, but James probably should have left out the whole "I'm not making excuses" comment in his postgame interview. However, the huge deal the media has made about him scoring only 19 points is a bit ridiculous. I mean, yeah, the guy averages around 27 points per game, but everyone has an off night every now and then. Just cut the guy some slack!
http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/10566448/lebron-james-miami-heat-says-sleeved-jersey-partly-blame-night
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/03/lebron-james-sleeved-jerseys-miami-heat-nba-spurs/
http://www.nba.com/heat/stats/2013
