Limpag: Online battle

LEBRON James single-handedly won Game 7 for the Cleveland Cavaliers, playing for 48 minutes, yet most of his haters poked fun at his looks, flopping or what-have-you.

The Golden State Warriors, playing true to form, used their signature third-quarter run to pull away from the Rockets, yet we’ve all seen how some chose instead to focus on the ref’s missed calls or perceived bias.

It’s the NBA, and in basketball-manic Philippines, everything else will take a back seat, even politics.

I like the online banter between fans and I know some are posting with a specific person in mind, who in turn, will post something back should his or her team win.

LeBron’s case, is a little unique, though. Ever since his much derided The Decision a few years back, his legions of haters have grown and these guys see nothing good in whatever he does.

This reminds me of what I told a colleague when it was highlighted that nobody really hated Michael Jordan the way they hated LeBron now. Jordan’s peak was in the early 90s, and the stories fans have heard or read about their favorite player was through traditional media.

If social media existed then, would Jordan’s image still be the same? Wouldn’t his haters also grow? Let’s say if the stories of his casino and golf gambling spread under a present-day social media set-up, wouldn’t he have become a hot topic?

Another player who’s derided often is Kevin Durant, whom haters say took the easy way to an NBA title by ditching Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma Thunder for a 73-win team.

But LeBron sort of did that first when he jumped ship from Cleveland to Miami, right? Making him the target of so much hate that up to this day, he has to deal with.

4-1. This early, fans are predicting a 4-1 win for the heavily-favored Golden State Warriors, and that token loss in Cleveland will mean, of course, that the Warriors will get to celebrate their title at home instead of on the Cavaliers’ court.

The online banter has started, of course, and it’s going to make our social media pages interesting in the next few days. I just hope, though, that we keep the banter to just that, banter. Let’s not follow that fan who sent a text message via a radio program, naming a time and place and challenging fans of the other team to show up and settle their basketball issue via boxing.

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