Thursday, January 20, 2011

LeBron's Instant Karma

In many Indian religions, Samsara means the "flow of life," or the continuous cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. One's movement around this wheel depends on one's karma, or actions. Whether enforced by a deity or not, this belief system states that immoral actions will have negative consequences while positive behavior will be rewarded as one progresses through the many states of existence.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers' 57-112 loss to the Lakers on Jan. 11, LBJ tweeted:

"Crazy. Karma is a b----.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!"

While theologians puzzled over the significance of his evocation of both the Judeo-Christian deity and the Eastern idea of karma, veteran followers of the NBA quickly surmised that James' barb had been intended for Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who very publicly lambasted the King after he abdicated his Cleveland throne over the summer. By LeBron's logic (or belief?), the Cavaliers were rocked by a franchise record 52 points because of Gilbert's comic sans misdeeds.

The SuperFriends weren't playing that night, so it's possible that LBJ was watching the Cleveland game on television. Miami was coming off an overtime win at Portland and had won 21 of it's previous 22 games, including the thorough triumph over the Lakers on Christmas. Based on his espoused theory of karma, it would seem that James must have been pretty well behaved.

Given the instant karma that's been visited upon him in the week and half since, I'd imagine that either his self image or his belief in moral causation has been shaken. The night after James' tweet, the scorching Heat were dropped by the Clippers. LBJ sprained his ankle during the game and was forced to miss the next game in Denver. The Nuggets blew the doors off Miami in that contest. Up next? A visit to Chicago, where the Heat went down again. They hadn't lost three games in the previous eight weeks total, but they had dropped three on the bounce when they got their talents back to South Beach for Tuesday night's game against the Hawks. LBJ was back in action, yet the Heat dropped the tilt in overtime.

To sum up, that's four consecutive losses after the karma tweet after just a lone loss in 22 tries immediately before. How's that for some instant karma?


For the second time this season, WWOD? has uncovered some strange connection between a John Lennon song and James. And if you read LeBron's initials backwards then you get JL. Which are Lennon's initials!

LeBron burried Paul. Cranberry Sauce.