LeBron James responds to critics ripping him for passing to Danny Green (Video)

From Skip Bayless to Jay Williams, the critics were out in full force when LeBron James passed up a game-winning shot opportunity at the end of Game 5 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.

LeBron James is the most criticized superstar athlete of all time and it’s gotta stop.

After LeBron decided to make the smart basketball play and pass to a wide-open Danny Green in the waning seconds of Game 5, which he missed, and led to the Miami Heat taking the win over the Los Angeles Lakers, you just knew he was going to get blamed for that.

Of course, Twitter did what it did and commentators like Skip Bayless and Jay Williams were harsh

There was no one within the same zip code as Green so if LeBron took the shot and missed, those same people would have said he should have passed to the wide-open shooter. It’s the classic move from those types so they think they’re always right and never wrong.

LeBron James explains decision to pass to Danny Green

“I trusted him, we trusted him and it just didn’t go and you live with that,” LeBron said. “I wish he could have it again. I wish I could make a better pass. But you just live with it.”

If Green makes the shot, the Lakers win the title and LeBron wins Finals MVP and we’re talking about something different today.

But all the critics saying LeBron should have taken the shot must have not remembered when Michael Jordan passed to John Paxson and Steve Kerr to win a pair of titles. They must have forgotten when Kobe Bryant passed up the game-winning shots that went to Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher. They must have forgotten about all those big shots made by Robert Horry.

LeBron did the right basketball move by drawing the defense to him and resulting in Green being wide open. He’d do the same thing over and over again. The decision was correct, the execution just didn’t work out on Green’s end.

If the same situation happens in Game 6, expect LeBron to continue trusting his teammates and make the smart basketball move as he’s done for 17 years.