Miami Heat forward LeBron James certainly has detractors after his classless exit from Cleveland and continued postseason failures.

But that didn’t prevent James from coming to the rescue of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who is facing criticism from ex-NFL running back turned ESPN commentator Merrill Hoge.

Hoge was just flat-out brutal in his assessment of where the second-year quarterback’s skills are as Tebow competes against Kyle Orton for the Broncos starting job.

"Sitting watching tape [of] bronco offense from last year," Hoge tweeted Wednesday. "Orton or Tebow? It's embarrassing to think the broncos could win with tebow!!"

Hoge also went on the air and described Tebow’s accuracy as awful among other things.

James jumped to Tebow’s defense later Wednesday on his Twitter page.

"Listened to Merril Hoge [Wednesday] on SC and he was just blasting Tebow. The man hasn't even play a full season and its only his 2nd year in," James tweeted. "Guys get on that TV and act like they was all WORLD when they played. How bout encouraging him and wishing him the best instead of hating!!"

But James, who is probably still smarting from his new label, LeBrick, wasn’t finished as he then resorted to pumping up Tebow.

"Tim Tebow will succeed in the NFL. He's a hard worker, a student of the game, a natural born leader and most of all a WINNER! It takes time and he'll be nice."

Contact Terrance Harris at terrancefharris@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @Terranceharris

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