Cramping The Miami Heat's Style

LeBron James is one of the most physically gifted athletes in the world. He possesses a chiseled body like a bronze sculpture. So, when leg cramps stops the world’s best basketball player in his tracks, it makes you wonder how this could only happen to him during the NBA Finals. It was not a well-known fact that LeBron is susceptible to leg cramps. According to LeBron, he has experience leg cramps since high school. However, the cramping problem became noticeable during Game 4 of the 2012 finals against the Oklahoma Thunders, where LeBron had to leave the game in the 4th quarter during a crucial part of the game. Fast forward to this year’s NBA Finals and the problem reoccurred for King James. The twitter world was in an uproar over LeBron’s decision to stay out the final four minutes of the game. Fans and the NBA pundits unfairly criticized LeBron for leaving. In fact, many fans have created internet videos emulating King James in despair and coining it “LeBroning.” People who had severe cramps understand the pain and agony LeBron was going through. When you have leg cramps, your mind says walk but your legs do not get the message, and you become stiff and cannot walk. According to the Heat training staff, LeBron receives preventive treatments to alleviate his leg cramps. Unfortunately, the training staff and LeBron did not know that that the air conditioning system will malfunction at the AT&T Center and the temperature would be 90 degrees. As a Miami Heat season ticket holder, I have watched numerous games for the past four years, and I can not remember LeBron having cramping problems during the regular season nor during the early rounds of the playoffs. This problem only occurs during the NBA Finals. Therefore, the only criticism I have for LeBron and the Miami Heat training staff is that he seems to be prone to cramping during the NBA Finals and the training staff needs to investigate the correlation between cramping and playing in the NBA Finals. I am not a physician, but it’s safe to assume that players are a little bit anxious and nervous regarding playing in the NBA Finals. Consequently, stress may impact an athlete’s ability to relax his muscles. Therefore, the pregame stretching and muscle treatments are very essential for someone like LeBron. Let me reiterate, I am not a physician but someone in the Heat organization needs to investigate because you don’t want to have your best player sitting on the bench during crunch time and cramping the Miami Heat’s style.