James had received some criticism for making a blanket statement that seemed to belittle fans who cheered against him and the Heat.

Could you explain "blanket statement"?

My comments:

James, LeBron James that is, had lost a basketball game and gotten booed and ridiculed by fans. In the post-game interview, the basketball star from Miami Heat of the NBA said something to the effect that those fans who cheered against him during the game would wake up tomorrow and face the same daily problems they had to face.

That's the "blanket statement" to which fans took exception. They felt King James, LeBron's nickname, was belittling them for having to eking out a hard living while James earns his millions from attempting to throw a ball through the hoop, hitting or missing.

A blanket statement, though, is a general statement, i.e. a vague and noncommittal statement. In other words, King James was not aiming at anyone. James was perhaps just venting his frustration after a tough loss. He said as much a few days later, apologizing to fans who took offense from his "blanket statement".

A blanket is something that covers the whole bed, just like a carpet which covers the whole floor. A blanket statement is therefore not unlike carpet bombing which destroys a whole area without specifically targeting at anything, and, yet, randomly killing or wounding anyone in its pass.

Compared to carpet bombing, of course, King James' blanket words are more or less harmless.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.