If you thought Jim Rome simply lead Dallas Mavericks’ DeShawn Stevenson into that “LeBron checked out” soundbite played on heavy rotation earlier this week, think again.
Dude meant what he said, and he hasn’t stopped talking since.
On Thursday, he made it a point to say that most coaches in the NBA don’t like the Miami Heat either. This was when he told DallasNews.com that “a lot” of NBA coaches have turned volunteer assistant for the Dallas Mavericks recently, in an effort to see the Heat lose.
“The guys that I deal with, they say a lot of things about how to guard and the way to play them,” Stevenson said about other players whose seasons are over that he regularly talks to. “And coach (Rick Carlisle) said a lot of coaches called him about how to play the Miami Heat. I just think a lot of people want to see us win this thing.”
“I take it as they’re not liked for what happened this summer with getting everybody the way they did it and obviously the way they play and showboat, all them things,” Stevenson said. “I just think we’re – I don’t want to say clean-cut – but we’re the guys that play the right way, pass the ball and do things. We just got to worry about ourselves. We got a great team and a great group of guys. We just got to go out on the last home game and try to bring this home.”
So that’s Stevenson in one corner representing hard for the clean-cut good guys from Dallas. Of course, right? He had more this morning. On Saturday, he followed that up by scribbling on his Facebook wall that “LeBron James is Overrated.”
This from Pro Basketball News:
“Stevenson wrote on his Facebook wall early Saturday morning: “I told em Lebron is Overrated but did they listen? swag.”
Referring to James’ inability to come through in the clutch for his team and the “swag” reference is the mentality Stevenson and the Mavs are not intimidated by James whatsoever. This is a smart move by Stevenson.
He knows that Game 6 is the biggest game of James’ career and he hasn’t fared well in pressurized situations of late. Also, if past history repeats itself, the Mavs are on their way to their first NBA championship.”
It’s possible that DeShawn is still stinging from his run-in with LeBron and Jay-Z during the Cavs – Wizards series a few years ago. In what was the extremely weird NBA player + 1 rapper vs. NBA player + 1 rapper battle of ’08, Jiggaman laced a dis-track directed at Stevenson. You might have heard Bob Ley read those lyrics with inflection a couple days ago. Anyways, Soulja Boy, who was staunchly in DeShawn’s camp for some reason, never fired back with sixteen bars in defense. Plus the Wizards lost.
But even if he is still drunk on Haterade, he’s probably telling the truth in regards to other NBA coaches reaching out to Carlisle. That’s not too uncommon in general, and I imagine there is a groundswell of coaches looking to lend a hand in this case specifically. Whether he’s on to something or not in regards to the overrated-ness of LeBron James though, I guess we’ll see. Regardless, I do think DeShawn has gotten into LeBron’s head a bit with all the talking; which is probably why he’s not shutting up anytime soon.
Update – DeShawn Stevenson said that wasn’t him on Facebook, in refute of the Pro Basketball News report referenced above
From ESPN Dallas:
“Coach Rick Carlisle caught wind of that and confronted Stevenson, telling him to stop talking trash about LeBron James. Stevenson, whose history of taking verbal jabs at King James goes back several years, was confused and told his coach that the latest comment didn’t come from him.
“There’s like 37 people that are acting like me on Facebook,” Stevenson said. “I mean, if you look at me and look at all these tattoos, do you think I’d be sitting on the Internet and typing? C’mon, man. Sometimes you’ve got to look at a person. I would not be in my house on a computer typing nothing about anybody.”
Stevenson said he doesn’t know how to use Facebook. Nor does he want to learn.
“I can’t get on there because I would say something reckless,” Stevenson said. “That’s why I don’t have nothing on there. That’s why really I can’t have one.”
So to be fair to DeShawn, it looks like he didn’t call LeBron overrated on Facebook. He did say he checked out of Game Four though, and hasn’t since refuted what he said about other NBA coaches reaching out in aide of the Mavericks this series however.
What was funny to me when I read his response above, is that Rick Carlisle didn’t catch wind of the trash-talking and “ask” him about. He “confronted” him, and told him to stop trash-talking LeBron James. Like he heard it and thought yep, this is something he probably said, where’s Stevenson?!?
It’s also funny that he said if he did have Facebook, he would write reckless things. Like maybe trash-talking LeBron James in the middle of an NBA Finals Series. I also have no idea what the tattoo limit is for facebook, but apparently however many DeShawn has exceeds that number.
