LeBron James’ pass to Danny Green was the right play yet NBA fans are still arguing about it

Don’t argue on the internet about this. It’s a waste of time.

LeBron James is 17 years into an NBA career that would have him voted into the Hall of Fame three times over if you broke it down into multiple stints.

So one would think, after playing basketball for so long at such a high level, NBA fans would have a certain amount of respect and deference for James and the decisions he makes on the court. He probably knows what he’s doing at this point, right?

Apparently not, though. In the immediate aftermath of the Lakers’ game 5 loss to the Heat, fans were bickering about James’ decision to pass the ball to Danny Green for what essentially was the final shot of the game.

And it was a great pass! James had the entire Heat squad surrounding him and you can’t get any more wide open than this. It’s a miracle that the pass even got there.

But, of course, people are still coming with all of their “He should’ve shot it!” takes.

And, of course, there were people wasting their time pushing back against this nonsense on the internet into the wee hours of the morning.

Listen, this is an exercise in futility. There’s no point in arguing with anyone who thinks James didn’t make the right play and was supposed to shoot that shot.

This has been routine over the course of James’ career. He passes out of a triple team to a wide open teammate and he’s torched the next day by Skip Bayless types for not being clutch. He shoots over the triple team and misses, he’s torched for not being clutch.

On the off chance that he actually makes this shot, cool. They’ll give him his props for a bit. But then it’s right back to it. It’s a lose-lose situation that really shouldn’t be one at all.

The bottom line is that the pass to Green was absolutely the right play. Not only did James pass to a wide open teammate, but he passed it to Danny Green. He’s not shooting well, but he’s one of the best spot-up shooters in Finals history.

You trust that player to make a shot. That’s what James did. And he’d do it again.

Great pass. Great shot. It just missed. You live with that and move on to game 6. It is what it is.