LeBron James and the Miami Heat headed into Wednesday night’s Game 5 with a chance to make quick work of the Pacers and close out their Eastern Conference Finals series. A victory would have punched Miami’s ticket to their fourth straight NBA Finals appearance, no big deal.
Johnny Manziel and LeBron have been noted supporters of each other (LeBron was spotted wearing Manziel’s Browns jersey the day after the quarterback was drafted) so it’s no surprise that Manziel uploaded the following photo to his Instagram account just prior to tipoff on Wednesday:
The photo, which features LeBron doing the former Texas A&M QB’s infamous moneyfingers while wearing a “Money Manziel” shirt, also came with the caption “Finish them tonight @kingjames !” A nice little bit of encouragement from the NFL rookie.
But not only did the Heat drop Game 5, LeBron proceeded to have the worst playoff game of his career – scoring a career-low seven points in just 24 minutes of action – in the Pacers 93-90 win. James got in early foul trouble and never really managed to find his game, a big reason why the Pacers were able to stave off elimination and extend the series.
Could this be the Curse of Manziel? Did Johnny steal LeBron’s basketball talents like the Monstars in Space Jam with a simple upload to Instagram? Probably not, but he should probably refrain from uploading a picture before Game 6 tomorrow just to be safe.
