[This is an article I wrote originally for the Basketball Fiend blog. I thought, as Cavaliers fans, you might appreciate it. Please leave feedback. I'd love to hear what you think of this piece.]

At the moment, it’s popular to grouse over this LeBron-not-shaking-hands story. And for good reason. LeBron’s actions were childish, petty, and unsportsmanlike. In refusing to shake hands with the Magic after the sixth and final game of the Eastern Conference Finals, King James represented his franchise poorly and gave NBA-haters yet another reason to shun a league of perceived spoiled children.

He did not act in a way befitting of an MVP.

Especially not when he compounded his error by telling the media, one day later, "It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them. I’m a winner. It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that… I’m a competitor. That’s what I do. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand."

That, as Adrian Wojnarowski pointed out earlier today, was an immature, self-absorbed, bratty move.

But everybody makes mistakes. And oftentimes those mistakes are borne out of frustration. Think about it. College students, when was the last time you took a loss at beer pong well? Or congratulated someone for setting the curve in Calculus? If you answered with anything other than "never", you’re lying. I’ve been in Calculus classes. Everybody hates the person who sets the curve.

The same goes for the office or place of business.

Office jockeys, did you shake hands with the guy down the hall when he beat you out for that recent promotion? Or pat your co-worker on the back when he got a raise and you didn’t? Did you whisper words of congratulations in a colleague’s ear when she got the bonus that you’d had your eye on for months?

No. Of course you didn’t!

Why?

Because that’s not the way things work, right? You don’t congratulate someone for beating you in the corporate world.

So what about LeBron’s actions makes him so horrible?

He was a poor loser. Once. In a game, make that a series, that meant a lot to him; one that would have allowed him to cement his legacy and, yes, make more money, had he won.

How is that any different - in terms of emotional sting - than getting beat out for a coveted promotion or being passed over for a raise?

The idea that we saw "the real LeBron" on Saturday night - that he showed his true colors - is a conclusion that I think we’re jumping too quickly to.

Yes, he handled the situation poorly. He should have graciously accepted defeat, shook Dwight Howard’s hand in congratulatory fashion, and faced the music at the post-game presser. But Saturday night was an outlier for LeBron; a horrible day. (Perhaps one of the worst days of his life.)

To hold him to a standard that says, "hey, LeBron, you have to act in model fashion, all the time, even during your toughest, most bitter moments of disappointment" is to set for him an expectation that we ourselves fail to live up to.

As I mentioned earlier, in a workplace setting, when our reputation, or our pride, or our livelihood (though I don’t want to go too dramatic on the "livelihood" thing since, LeBron is, of course, making vast sums of money) is at stake, we often act in ways that are ungracious, childish, or petty. Does that make us "poor losers" or "spoiled brats"?

No. It makes us human. (Losing is difficult, especially when something meaningful is on the line.)

So to bestow this new title of "poor loser" on LeBron’s head is nothing more than a rush to judgment. It is a reputation based on one case, created on, potentially, the worst day of a young player’s career. As I said before, this behavior is the exception, not the rule.

Which is why it is surprising to me to read all of the negative press about LeBron without encountering a single voice of dissent. Have we now decided to throw critical thinking completely out the window? Have we become so robotic - so without empathy - that we can’t see past a single, isolated incident in a moment of bitter defeat?

From what I’ve been reading all day, that certainly seems to be the case. Today LeBron has been bashed today harder than anyone - rather, anything - not named General Motors. Which is disappointing. Because in our midst is one of the greatest basketball players to play the game; a player who, at the moment, has his legacy hanging in the balance.

And all we can do with that legacy is kick it, again and again, based on a knee-jerk reaction.

It’s disappointing, the way the fuel is being thrown onto this fire.

The basketball community deserves better.