LeBron, Rafa & Tiger: Three for the road

By Al S. Mendoza

THREE athletic greats have just traveled identical roads that somehow became grist for sports copy.

Basketball’s LeBron James, tennis’ Rafael “Rafa” Nadal and golf’s Tiger Woods, take a bow.

Despite your recent debacles, defeats if you will, you remain dear in our hearts.

We just don’t drop stars like hot potatoes, right?

LeBron won the 2009 NBA MVP plum but not the NBA crown for his team, the hard-luck Cleveland Cavaliers.

He went home to Akron, Ohio, sulking after the Orlando Magic mangled LeBron and the Cavs with telling blows to pocket the Eastern Conferencecrown.

But the magical ride to the NBA Finals ended in a surreal 4-1 Orlando defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, who stashed away their 15th NBA crown in 30 finals appearances.

LeBron put a dash of bizarre twist when he showed his immaturity again by refusing to face the media for the usual post-game interview after the Cavs’ defeat.

He was slapped a huge fine and a barrage of criticisms centering on his unsportsmanlike conduct of not being able to handle defeat graciously.

Kobe Bryant, the man LeBron had dislodged as MVP this year, led the Lakers for his fourth NBA ring that he called “the most important thus far” as it came without his sidekick, Shaquille O’Neal, by his side.

Rafa Nadal, still hurting after he got bundled out by an unknown Swede to lose the French Open crown he had won the last four years, abdicated his Wimbledon throne due to tendonitis in his knees.

Called the Spanish Armada, Nadal, the winner last year in the longest ever Wimbledon finals against Roger Federer, quietly boarded a flight from London to Mallorca, Spain, where he will possibly undergo surgery shortly to repair his knees.

Without Nadal, Federer, already being ballyhooed as the greatest tennis player of all time, is expected to waltz (possibly tonight, June 28?) to a record 15th Grand Slam title, barring any major upset.

Should Federer succeed, he will eclipse the 14 Grand Slam titles won by the American and now-retired Pete Sampras.

It’d be a shock if Federer, 28, would fail.

It wasn’t much of a shock though when Tiger Woods failed to win the U.S. Open on Tuesday, June 23.

Two double bogeys in Round 1 gave him a 74, a slip that he found extremely too difficult to rise from as he was 10 shots behind the leader.

By the end of the rain-delayed second round, Tiger was 11 shots down.

Then, in typical Tiger fashion, he rallied in the last round after middle rounds of 69-68.

An uprising was in progress but after Tiger’s 14th birdie in the tournament at 14; his brewing comeback was stalled by a bogey on 15 that put him 4 shots off the leader.

With 16, 17 and 18 left to play, he needed 4-under in his last three holes to forge a playoff.

It didn’t happen, even missing all three makeable birdie putts, including a 3-footer on his 71st hole, for a final round 69 and an even 280ù4 shots behind the champ.

Lucas Glover, whom the elite-studded field never knew from Adam, slipped through and won the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.

Glover, 29, carved out the win on sensational rounds of 69-64-70-73 in the rain and mud and after being merely a qualifier in Columbus, Ohio.

Sports is really mostly funny. But golf is cruel and a soap opera, at times.

Ask Glover.

He missed the cut in three of his four previous U.S. Opens. The fourth one, he withdrew.

What could be more absurd than that?

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