LeBron James found an unlikely defender last week in Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Boston Celtics, long James' biggest rival.
When asked about the level of criticism LeBron received, Rivers was surprisingly sympathetic: "Some of it was self-inflicted, some of it inflicted by everyone else. After Game 3, someone asked LeBron, 'When are you going to step up'?. The problem is that he answered, when he should have said 'Go screw yourself'."