Now that Aaron Rodgers is officially a member of the New York Jets, it may be time for ESPN’s Mike Greenberg to embark on a darkness retreat.
Greenberg promised he would head into the darkness if his favorite team acquired the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback. They did. So, perhaps it may be time for him to clear his mind because he’s starting to say some very strange things.
On Tuesday, the Get Up host suggested that LeBron James, who dressed in comfortable attire in a postgame press conference following Monday’s loss, should watch Game 5 of the Lakers’ playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, from the comfort of his own home.
Yes, he did actually say that. The same Greenberg who bemoaned about how much of a problem load management is in the NBA on his own ESPN Radio show is suggesting that James do that exact same thing. In the playoffs.
“He shouldn’t even go to San Francisco,” Greenberg said. “I’m gonna make this point again and I’m gonna use a baseball analogy. I’m going down with the ship on this theory. The Lakers have no chance of winning Game 5 of this series. The Warriors are going to be playing for their dynasty, at home, with the crowd; they’re going to win. Don’t waste any of LeBron and [Anthony Davis’] energy on this game.”
In somehow drawing a comparison to baseball, Greeny posed the question to the panel: “If you had one game with your life hanging in the balance in baseball, who are you giving the ball to?”
Before Greenberg could finish his sentence, Brian Windhorst said Pedro Martinez.
“You can either bring Pedro back on short rest to try and close it out in Game 6 or save him for full rest in Game 7, which are you doing?” Greenberg asked.
“Game 7,” he said, answering his own question. “Don’t try and win five games in a best of seven (series) when you don’t need to. You only need to win one more game. I’m being somewhat facetious when I say, ‘Don’t even bring them.’ But, I guess what I’m saying is I would be very judicious about how much I use LeBron and AD in Game 5, understanding my best chance to close out this series is at home in Game 6. I just did it to Memphis.”
Greeny makes some viable points that could be argued one way or another. At the same time, the one argument he didn’t think of is if the Lakers, who are up 3-1 in the series against Golden State, win Game 5, James and Davis would have a chance to rest, as they waited for the Nuggets-Suns series to conclude.
The Lakers would much rather close out this series in five games than allow Golden State to regain momentum and a chance to even the series in Los Angeles. And as we know, all bets are off when it comes to a Game 7, which would be a home game for Golden State. Resting James and Davis just isn’t going to happen, especially when considering that the Lakers have already won a game on the road in this series.
[AA on Twitter]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.