It's About Damn Time

(Note: This will most likely be my last post on this website due to the editing bug below that decided to turn a couple paragraphs into white on its own. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Those were the first words out of LeBron James's mouth as Stuart Scott gave him the mic after the Miami Heat dismantled the Oklahoma City Thunder Hurt Locker-style in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to give James his first championship and the Miami Heat franchise their second.

This phrase that LeBron so genuinely stated was the sentiment that most if not all of NBA fans should have felt as well. Note I said "NBA fans." Not "Heat fans." Not "LeBron fans." NBA fans. What we as basketball fans just witnessed (4 years after this commercial was aired but still) was one of the single greatest playoff and Finals performances that we will ever see. 

For the playoffs: 42.7 minutes per game, 30.3 points per game, 9.7 rebounds per game, 5.6 assists per game, 50% Field Goals Made, 73.9% Free Throws Made.

In the Finals: 44 MPG, 28.6 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 7.4 APG, 44.2% FGM, 82.6% FTM

Bask in the glory of those statistics. And if you are not a believer in pure stats go back and re-watch the games or highlights if you are in need of some context. He was BY FAR the best player in the Finals in every single game. The only sensible argument is Russell Westbrook's 43 point "I Put the Team On My Back" performance in Game 4 in which LeBron had a ho-hum 26-9-12 statline.

That's another thing: if a player is scoring 28-9-8 on a nightly basis and your reaction is just "Meh" you know you are truly watching something special unfold. I've never watched a player in my lifetime be this ridiculously consistent game after game after game and yes that includes Kobe Bryant, who throws up a 8-24 shooting performance once in awhile. It is such an advantage as a team when you know exactly how someone will play every single game, no matter the opponent, or situation.

But then there was that whole situation last year and that's where doubt of LeBron James's abilities were born. It then grew up and became pure unadulterated hate toward him. And believe me when I, a LeBron fan since he was in high school, saw that something was wrong, something was REALLY wrong. But all of this hate and criticism, in reality was a statistical anomaly. In his previous 5 playoff appearances, critics have conveniently forgotten that James averaged 29.7 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 7.3 APG. Pretty in par with his playoff averages this year right? Oh and not to mention he was playing with the likes of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, Jeff McInnis, Ricky Davis, Larry Hughes, Flip Murray, Boobie Gibson, Delonte West, Mo Williams, and Antawn Jamison. The only All-Stars on that list when they were on the same team as LeBron? (Drumroll please)......Ilgauskas twice and Williams once. Not exactly the help he was looking for. So instead of wallowing away in Cleveland, LeBron joined up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

And here is where the distain for the self-crowned King really began and grew, and grew, and grew until it turned into something positively sinister in nature.

The Decision was bad. The fact that Kevin Durant announced he was signing an extension with the Thunder over Twitter a day before The Decision didn't help LeBron either (Funny how it all came full circle for this series). People also forget that, no matter how awful this was in the public image for LeBron, this disaster raised $4 million for the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Also that James joined forces of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach majorly irked NBA enthusiasts. But what other options were there? Stay in Cleveland (no way, nothing changed), go to New York (join Amare Stoudamire), Chicago (join future MVP Derrick Rose, I still think this was his best pure basketball option, but then again there was that number 23 guy in Chicago before him), New Jersey (would have to get pieces later, run by secretive Russian billionaire, not a good mix), or finally, take his talents to South Beach, join up with his best friend (Dwyane Wade), get whatever Chris Bosh will give, and enjoy the weather and no sales tax. Sounds like a well thought out business and basketball decision to join Miami right? Well according to a vast majority of people this was "cheating" to join up with two other All-Stars.

When was the last time a team with the makeup of the Cavaliers (Superduper star and really no one else) wins a championship? Definitely not the Mavericks, Lakers, Celtics, or Spurs from the last decade. The 03-04 Pistons didn't have someone who would belong in the same sentence as LeBron in terms of dominance. None of Michael Jordan's championship teams. Not a single Laker, Celtic, Detroit team from the 80's. Starting to get the picture here? Basketball is a team game and it takes a team to win a championship no matter how great the star player is. James was never going to win one in Cleveland unless Mr. Comic Sans was going to bring in talent, which didn't happen. Gilbert's declaration that Cleveland would win a championship before LeBron would was at the time an absolute joke so you can imagine what he is feeling like now.

What I'm going to say next is going to anger many people: I have never been happier for someone to win a championship, in any sport. He and his publicity crew (aka his best friends from high school with no clue what they were doing) made a mistake. These are still kids we are talking about. LeBron was 25 years old at The Decision. This also goes hand in hand with their elaborate Welcome Party declaring "not one, not two, not three...etc." championships will be won. Did he actually believe they would win 7 championships or was he just pandering to his new blood thirsty fans? That only he knows. But the pure hatred that he played with last year affected him greatly and would have affected any person with a heartbeat and a conscience in the same situation. Imagine basically the entire country except the state of Florida flat out detests you as a human being for moving and wanting to succeed. No athlete ever has ever or will endure what LeBron James endured and ultimately conquered.

Now comes the fun part. LeBron learned that he could go to the paint any time he pleases or post up anyone he pleases. When he realized this, I realized it and nearly relieved myself right there on the couch because I knew what this meant for him and his game. He has this knowledge and the championship that has eluded him is now his. It can only get easier for him. That seemingly asinine statement he made at the Welcome Party about the amount of championships now seems more plausible than a complete farce. As for next year in the Eastern Conference, Derrick Rose will be coming off a torn ACL, Dwight Howard doesn't care about winning in Orlando, Ray Allen won't be on the Celtics and Garnett may be retiring (Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo will pose a legitimate obstacle though). As for the Western Conference it looks like it's Oklahoma City's to lose for the next 5 years at this rate.

3-plus more championships and more MVP's doesn't seem that farfetched now does it? It's about damn time.

Their Time is Now

It begins tonight with the tip-off and will end with one team who should feel good about themselves and one team saying "Well, better luck next year."

The only problem is that both of those emotions will be held by the Oklahoma City Thunder when after the Miami Heat defeat them in this year's NBA Finals.

Now I know what you may be thinking: the Heat are coached by Erik Spoelstra, Chris Bosh is still coming off an injury, Dwyane Wade has looked certifiably awful on many occasions these playoffs and he's also leading the team in blocks per game, Mike Miller might as well be walking on the court with the aid of one of those walkers with tennis balls on the bottom, Shane Battier is old, and oh yea it's LeBron James in the Finals, how do you have them winning?

My answer is simple: it's just their time.

No person has ever done so much but accomplished so little. Of course I'm talking about the most unfairly treated athlete in professional sports history, LeBron James. Think about it for a second. He has made it to the Finals two years in a row and won three of the last 4 regular season MVP trophies. He is averaging 30.8 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 5.1 APG, and 1.9 SPG in these playoffs, leading the Heat in each of those categories. Reread that last sentence again and let those numbers sink in. As far as I'm concerned that is one of the best playoff performances of all-time. He has single-handedly carried this team to where they are now, and yes that means Dwyane Wade too. If I was Doc Rivers in the last series I would have pleaded for Wade to take as many shots as he could in the first half of all of the games. That's how poorly he played.

This is LeBron's time to finally silence his critics, with a ring on his finger when this is all set and done. But would a ring really be the answer? I'm going to say no. I do not think anything short of scoring the game-winning basket of every game plus winning AT LEAST two or three more titles will silence these, for all intents and purposes, idiots. LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of our generation and he's playing against the second best in Kevin Durant (before all Kobe Bryant fans start popping every vein in their bodies, let me state that in the NBA timeline, Kobe is the past and LeBron and Durant are the present and future of this league. You can't run from Father Time...well unless it's to Germany).


"At the end of the day in this series I'm going to play my game and try to do whatever it takes on both ends and make plays," James said at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "Whatever the results, I'm going to be satisfied with that. I'm going to be happy with it because I know I'm going to give it my all."

This is what he has been doing that has been the difference between this year's playoffs and last year's playoffs. Having said that there are still improvements to be made, especially with free throws and three pointers (Is Dwyane Wade shooting basically the exact same percentages for both categories? Yep. Is he being lambasted in the media every day for it? No, that would just be silly.) If LeBron plays the way he has played the entire playoffs and the Heat lose the series, a very real possibility, I would bet that most blame would still be put on LeBron. Remember folks, basketball is not the 200 meter freestyle. There is a team involved. LeBron took his talents to South Beach to form a Big 3, not Iron Man with Hawkeye and Black Widow from The Avengers (side note: go see The Hunger Games, anyone can be good with a bow and arrow, and all Scarlett Johansson did was martial arts. When did those become equivalent to controlling thunder and lightning, becoming a radioactive green monster, and creating a kick-ass suit that can fly?) The teammates around him need to show up and show why the team and not just LeBron want this championship so badly.



The pressure that has been put on LeBron James to win this title has been debilitating at best. It mystifies me how someone who performs so well can be criticized so much. Watching ESPN First Take this morning, they were debating whether they were more sympathetic for LeBron trying to win a title or Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open. I couldn't believe this was a legitimate question. James left a team on national television and the sports media has never stopped to look back at the wreckage they have caused while Woods cheated on his wife with multiple women but all of that has seemed to vanish Houdini-style into thin air. It boggles the mind.



James is 27 years old, Wade is 30, and Bosh is 28. There is no better time than the present for this team. The Thunder are all still extremely young (Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka are 23 and under) and haven't felt that feeling of losing in the Finals yet. Miami felt it last year and knows what it takes for them to not feel it again.



The Oklahoma City Thunder will have many, many more opportunities to capture it's first NBA title (Yes their first. Nothing from Seattle carries over on my watch.) Their time will come. Now though, is LeBron and the rest of the Heat's time. And after this is over the pressure will be off the Heat.



Now that is an utterly frightening sight.