Derrick Rose last week missed one game, distraught and leaving suddenly without telling anyone after Knicks practice to attend to a family emergency back in Chicago. He returned the next day to team practice and to play the next game, was fined $200,000 and made public apologies to his teammates, the fans and organization.
LeBron James, we think, informed his team during his first season back in Cleveland he needed some time off. Though it's not like they would have said anything if he didn't after James' celebrated return.
So for two weeks in mid-winter with the Cavaliers losing seven of eight games after being on their best run of the season, James went to Miami Beach to hang out with buddies and sit in the sun while his team slogged through those losses back in Cleveland, on the East Coast and even a few games on the West Coast in a grueling stretch of travel. James decided to return two weeks later when his team was going to Phoenix and Los Angeles.
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