LeBron James Upset, It's not like LeBron James hasn't complained about it before.
It's just this time he was a little more straightforward in voicing his frustrations. When he was done discussing the end of the Miami Heat's 27-game winning streak, the focus was turned to a pair of hard fouls he took in Wednesday's loss to the Chicago Bulls.
"Let me calculate my thoughts real fast before I (speak)," James said. "I believe and I know that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays."
James in the past has spoke about being fouled hard. His latest rant was referring to fouls by Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich and forward Taj Gibson. He was involved in a collision with Hinrich in the first half, where he was tackled. Later, he took a hard foul from Gibson while driving to the basket.
Neither play was ruled a flagrant.
"First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground," James said. "The last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not defensive ... those are not basketball plays."
Perhaps most upsetting for James was when he got penalized for making a physical play. He lowered his shoulder when setting a screen on Carlos Boozer in the fourth quarter, drawing a flagrant foul. It was James' first of the season.
"It's been happening all year, and I've been able to keep my cool and try to tell [coach Erik Spoelstra], 'Let's not worry about it too much,"' James said. "But it is getting to me a little bit because every time I try to defend myself, I got to face the consequences of a flagrant for me or a technical foul, whatever the case may be. It's tough. It's tough. It's very tough, and I'm not sitting here crying about anything because I play the game at a high level."
Spoelstra refused to make it a big deal. He attributed it to just "Chicago and Miami basketball," a pair of teams known for allowing things to get physical during games.
"That's been three years now," Spoelstra said.
Hinrich told reporters it's easy to underestimate James' speed and power. He said on a previous possession he fouled James, but "he almost made it."
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