I Can’t Play In These Conditions

In every sport and in every era there is always that one player that everyone looks to and admires. In hockey, he’s only known as the “Great One” (aka Wayne Gretzky). In boxing he’s considered to the “Greatest Ever” (aka Muhammad Ali). In baseball there was the “Great Bambino” (aka Babe Ruth), and in basketball he’s known as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time aka Michael Jordan).  All of these athletes have revolutionized their sports in one way or another.  But, there is always a defining moment in every athletes career that either makes or breaks them

LeBron James asking to come
out of the game due to cramps

LeBron James had a similar opportunity during game one of the 2014 NBA finals. With the air conditioner broken in San Antonio Arena, temperatures climbed to over 100 degrees. Then, with the game on the line and with 7 minutes left, LeBron James decided to signal Coach Spolstra to take him out of the game due to cramps. LeBron made several attempt to come back into the game but soon left with the same symptoms. The announcers of the game immediately made this the headline for the game one lost which the Miami Heat suffered. At the end of the game, even Tim Duncan from the San Antonio Spurs had to address the issue of whether it would have been a different game if LeBron would have stayed on the floor.  I’m sure Tim Duncan was thinking, “I don’t care about LeBron, I just won game one of the NBA finals. Who’s comes up with these ridiculous questions?” Well Tim, the media does. It’s the medias job to tell us the public what topics are relevant and what topic are not.”

This was just the beginning. Every media venue from the local 10 o’clock news to ESPN covered the LeBron exiting. Even the postgame recap took only 5 minutes to cover the outcome and the rest of the time on LeBron.  Everyone had his/her own opinion on what they thought he should have done or whether it was justified. In every story, the media is attempting to persuade or influence its audience to think what they want them to think. This technique is called framing.

In this YouTube clip with Steven A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas they’re all trying to influence the audience to make them think the way they think. Isaiah Thomas is trying to persuade the public that there was nothing LeBron could do in that situation. Skip Bayless was making a point that LeBron pulled himself out prematurely.  Another argument that Skip made was that everyone else had to play through the same conditions as LeBron, but no one else came up with cramps and no one else asked to be removed from the game.

After watching that clip I found myself torn between the two sides. On one hand I was a collegiate athlete and I know what cramps feel like. Fortunately I’ve never had them during a game so I couldn’t relate in that sense. Then, I thought about Skips points and thought whether I would leave the game or not. Isn’t it funny that the media can make you think and feel whatever they want? Point framing theory.

Read the entire story on SBNation here-LeBron Cramps