Freddie Mitchell Praises LeBron James as a Teammate Just to Shade Donovan McNabb

Because why would Freddie Mitchell not insert himself into the conversation?

On Thursday, J.R. Smith of the Cleveland Cavaliers committed what will be remembered as one of the biggest mental errors in sports history when he dribbled out the clock in a tied game to close out regulation of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 124-114 in overtime to take a 1-0 series lead and the internetcould notstop talking about Smith's unbelievable mistake.

Smith says he knew the game was tied. Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said he thought Smith figured the team was up when he collected an offensive rebound with 4.7 seconds left before wasting the remaining time and preventing the Cavaliers from getting a shot off. LeBron James said he didn't know what Smith was thinking because he is not Smith and refused to throw his teammate under the bus for the play or add any additional blame on him for the loss.

This stuck out to former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell. You remember FredEx. Or maybe you don't. He only played four NFL seasons from 2001-2004 and had just 90 catches for 1,263 yards and five touchdowns for his career.

Well, Mitchell has always blamed former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb for a rocky relationship between the two, and after seeing how James looked out for Smith in the postgame press conference, Mitchell wanted the world to know that he doesn't think McNabb would look out for a teammate in the same way.

Whether or not McNabb would actually defend Mitchell after such a crucial mistake can't be determined for certain, but Mitchell is on record about discussing his rough relationship with McNabb with strippers because it was so ugly, so he's probably certain in his own mind that McNabb would never help shield him from criticism.

At least they will always have fourth-and-26.

However, unlike Smith and James who get to play the Warriors on Sunday in Game 2 of the Finals and have already won a title together, Mitchell and McNabb only had one shot at a championship and it didn't end well.

In Mitchell's final season in the NFL, Philadelphia lost Super Bowl XXXIX to the Patriots as FredEx delivered just one catch for 11 yards while McNabb went 30-for-51 for 357 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions in the 24-21 loss.