Today, there will be two types of people. There will be those who look at LeBron James and say he’s the most overrated NBA player in history, he’ll never win a title, he’s no good in the playoffs, and things of that nature. Then there will be those who look at LeBron and give him a pass for his play in this series against the Celtics, blame the series lost on his teammates who never showed up, say he’s still the King even without a championship, and so forth and so on. I’m gonna do my best to fall into NEITHER category as I try and make sense of what happened to the Cavs in the playoffs the last two years.
Even a person with a casual, passing knowledge of the NBA would be able to safely assume that the team with the league’s best record two years straight and the league’s best player would be able to legitimately contend for the NBA championship. It’s usually the way sports works. Yea there are flukes and upsets every now and again but these things usually play out, at least in part, how we expect them to. Even if the Cavs were unable to win it all this year, we’d at least expect them to MAKE it to the finals, or go down swinging in a classic battle to the death. Instead we saw the entire team standing around watching Rondo dribble the ball at half court with nearly a minute left and only a nine point deficit. Reggie Miller once scored 9 points in 8 seconds, and an entire team of NBA level talent couldn’t muster up the heart to keep fighting away at a nine point lead with a minute left? THAT’S what disgusts me the most. THAT’S what tells me Mike Brown should be fired (immediately, yesterday, etc), and THAT’S what worries me about LeBron. I despise any comparison to Michael Jordan because he’s out of this world and there will never be another, but Jordan had what I’d call the killer instinct. He will single handedly carry his team to the finish line. Whether or not he made it there before the opponent would remain to be seen, but he wouldn’t give up. Kobe, to some degree, is the same. Putting up amazing stats is only half the battle. You DO have to win the games, after all. In the final quarter, LeBron played poorly (which I have no issues with), but he also played as if he was unconcerned with the outcome. Especially in the last handful of possessions. And it says a lot about the rest of his team that they all joined him in his disinterest. You’re the league’s best team. The league’s most popular team aside from the Lakers. You’re the team EVERYONE wants to see make it to the finals. But you couldn’t even fight to make that happen. That’s worse than ANY criticism that can ever be heaped upon LeBron as a superstar who didn’t quite make it to the mountain top. He has more years to try and make that happen (and I’m certain he will, at least once). The Cavs may never be as good as they’ve been the last two years. We rarely see “Dynasties” in sports the likes of the 70’s Lakers or 90’s Bulls anymore. Cavs were almost there, but this season’s disappointment all but assures this era is through for the team. Even if LeBron stays, most of his (sometimes) talented cast of co-stars will be gone. It’s a shame, because even as a Knick fan, they were my favorite team to watch.
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