When Lebron James walked off the court after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic in last season’s Eastern Conference finals, it was thought to be an in the moment reaction; something he wouldn’t do again. Clicking through ESPN today, I see he’s saying otherwise. While in Chicago, on August 11, to promote his movie “More Than a Game,” Lebron defended his reaction, saying no one shakes hands after a loss.

“As far as shaking hands, it’s something that is not done in the NBA. If it was something like tennis, after tennis, you play, you win, you lose, you go to the center and shake hands, it happens every game in tennis.”

That’s right, like, Tiger Woods did after his loss to Y.E. Yang on Sunday.

Even though he was sick about the loss..

he gave Yang a soul clap.

Anyway, two seconds later, Lebron expanded on his ‘I don’t shake hands’ rule..

“In basketball, you look at 82 regular-season games, it’s easy, guys are gonna shake hands, the fact that I didn’t do the media session, I think that’s why the story was all blown up, and I apologize for that, but I will not apologize for shaking nobody’s hand. You never accept losing, ever.”

When the reporter reminded James that most players usually shake hands at the end of a playoff series, James bristled again. “No you don’t, no you don’t,” he responded.

“Teamwork has nothing to do with shaking hands. I’m not a poor sport at all. You can ask anyone that knows me. Who brought up the rule that shaking hands, that’s what you’re supposed to do?
No one shakes hands at the end of series all the time. No one does that. No one does that at all.”

Maybe you don’t shake hands, but at least a fist bump. In time maybe Lebron will see the flaw in his thinking.

Side note/track: look who’s back. Michael Jordan was caught on flipcam taking a minute to show a Slam basketball player that the “old guy’s” shot is as smooth as ever. There isn’t any kind of serious defense on him, but Jordan is taking fadeaways and only misses once.

At the start of the video, in jeans, jumping to grab the rim, he looks like any other guy in the gym. Funny how quick we forget - six rings/the greatest player to play the game. Another quote from the same Lebron James interview.. “As a kid, when Mike was playing, everybody wanted to be like Mike. He’s the greatest basketball player to ever walk the face of the earth.”

Hmm, I don’t remember him ever being criticized for not giving a guy his propers at the end of a playoff game. Just saying.