Enough Is Enough – LeBron Is A Copycat

After Santonio Holmes’s Super Bowl-winning touchdown reception, he emerged from the mobbing by his teammates and celebrated the catch by imitating the fabled ‘powder salute’ that LeBron James has made into a cult following these days.  The Akron Beacon Journal caught up with King James and asked him about Holmes’ ‘honoring’ of his pre-game staple, and here’s what he had to say:

”It had to be a compliment,” James said. ”To think after one of the best plays in Super Bowl history, a compliment to myself, I said, ‘Wow.’ That play will be shown in football highlights forever. For him to salute me in that way was unbelievable.”

But let’s just put all of our cards on the table, LeBron.  Did you really start this ritual of gathering power in your hands, clapping them together, and raising a cloud of dust into the air above you? No.

You saw it on TV when you were a little kid when Michael Jordan started doing it.  You also watched it on TV from your couch back in high school when Kevin Garnett was throwing it up to get the crowd amped up.

While it is understandable for the media to go teenage girl ga-ga over everything LeBron does, it is somewhat awkward that LeBron himself has convinced himself that he is the creator of this act.  Does KG ever elbow him in the ribs in the middle of a game for stealing what he thought he made popular back in Minnesota?  Does MJ call LeBron searching for copyright infringement payouts?

Either way, if LeBron were truly a man who cherishes the background and history of the game of basketball, he would acknowledge the fact that he ‘borrowed’ the powder gig from the legends of the game who came before him, rather than play it off to the current generation of NBA fans as if he created it himself.