Let me start off by saying I really dislike the Miami Heat. I don't hate them, but I really really dislike them. And being a huge Bulls fan, last night was pretty hard to take. That being said, you can take what I say with a grain of salt, I could care less.
The Miami Heat closed out the Chicago Bulls last night on an 18-3 run, advancing to the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
Now I didn't watch the game, so I won't comment on the officiating (though I hear it was atrociously in favor of Miami once again in the second half), and to spare you the game's boring details, which will be shown and talked about on ESPN for the next 24 hours, I'll only say this. Lebron James came to play. Congrats.
I've never liked Lebron. I've always respected his greatness as a player, I mean hell, he may be the most gifted athlete ever. Ever. And not just in the NBA, in any sport. I've never liked him because of his arrogance. I'm all for showmanship, sports is entertainment after all, but most of his antics drive me nuts. He hasn't won a damn thing, and personally if or when he does, no matter if he wins 10 rings, I will never respect him. Not everyone has to stay in one city to be great, the world of sports and the NBA in particular are so much different now than in the Magic/Bird/Jordan era of basketball.
Those players saw it as a failure if they couldn't get it done on the teams they were drafted to. Jordan didn't bolt after his sixth year to play with Magic on the Lakers did he?
Now I fully understand Lebron's decision. He took less money to be on a better team (golf clap). But Lebron could have EASILY gotten Wade, Bosh, or both to come to his hometown of Cleveland to play for his hometown team, the Cavailiers. Lebron took the easy way out and......I digress.
Anyway, Lebron was huge once again in the fourth quarter and for that I can't hate. It truly is an amazing thing to see someone tap into that full potential when it comes to sports and Lebron is starting to do that late in games, but anyone who is prematurely giving him the "clutch" label is an idiot. How many championships and game winning shots did Kobe hit before he he was considered "clutch"? That I don't know, but I'm guessing it was more than a handful of postseason crunch time performances. So for the time being, I'll chalk Lebron's crunch time performances as "luck," (better lucky than good right?) and I'll even say "driven," but I'm not ready to put him in the same category as Kobe and Jordan just yet.
So now the NBA got what it wanted. With the Lakers out of the picture they needed someone to highlight that NBA Finals that is truly hated by many in the sports world because, shit, who doesn't want to see the Heat lose? The finals will be loaded with star power and I'm happy for that, say what you will, but the Heat have been good for the NBA this season. I can't remember a team so unanimously hated, or with so many fans popping out of nowhere like I've seen with this team. Fans and anti-fans make sports great, so for that, thanks Pat Riley.
Now to my Bulls. I never at any point in the season thought they were ready to make the jump to the finals. They were too young, had too many roster holes, and were putting in a brand new system with ten new players. Still, when you get as far as they did it's hard not to believe.
This team will go down as one of my favorites ever. I've never seen a team so focused on winning. There were no outside distractions with this group, and now that I think about it, more importantly no internal distractions. Every night they fought hard and kept their mouths shut (except for the occasional Joakim Noah two cents) and there aren't many teams that do that anymore. They composed themselves with character and class and that starts at the top and goes all the way down to Brian Scalabrine at the end of the bench.
Believe me people, this team will be back, and I cannot wait for next years Eastern Conference Finals.
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