I'm trying to figure out whether or not it was a coincidence that A Bronx Tale was on TV immediately following Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The NBA Finals ended with a resounding thud last night, as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami heat 105-95 in what may have been the most uninspired Finals clincher since...2008.
Let me start by saying that I am complete and utter hypocrite. The thing I hate the most about the Heat losing is the absolute onslaught of web-content dedicated to mocking, celebrating and dissecting the Heat's loss. I do realize that I am adding to the landfill. Nonetheless, here are my opinions on the game, and even more so, my reactions to peoples' reactions to the game:
First and foremost, I'm happy for the Mavericks. I'm glad Dirk, who has stuck by the Mavs his entire career, played his absolute best basketball during this incredible playoff run. I'm happy for Jason Kidd who, despite some atrocious off-court acts, had an incredible career but always seemed to fall short. As a wise man put it, skill and guts beat muscle and intimidation, and that's encouraging for all of us.
I'm happy for fans in Dallas, because they are, well, fans. No team that fails to sell out more than 5 games in the regular season deserves a title or parade. I'm convinced the basketball gods just wouldn't let a "fan base" that wears white pants and flip flops 4 days a week win a championship.
 |
| Crowd at a playoff game |
Bill Simmons wrote last Wednesday: "Fact: If Miami blows this Finals after choking away Games 2 and 4, after everything that happened since The Decision and The Gratuitous Party One Night After The Decision, the Internet might explode. I'm not kidding. You're going to log on the next morning and there will just be a picture of a mushroom cloud."
But as happy as folks are that LeBron didn't win his title and that the truer "team" prevailed, I believe that people are, more than anything, disappointed.
People are mad at LeBron, like they have been for the last year. They're mad because he left Cleveland. They're mad because of the Decision. They're mad because it's Miami.
But now, LeBron James lost. Everyone got their wish. But instead of being happy for Dirk Instead of being happy that the Heat lost. Instead of being happy that LeBron lost. People are still mad at LeBron James.
Why?
People aren't mad at LeBron because he lost. Everyone wanted him to lost. They're made because he stunk. And people wanted to witness greatness.
More than anything in sports, people want to witness greatness. People want to say, "I was there when..." They want to be able to tell their kids they saw "so and so do such and such" they way their parents tell them they saw Bird steal the inbounds pass or saw the Immaculate Reception. People want to be able to say they were at the 1982 Big Game or Super Bowl 42. We want to be able to say we saw moments that will never be forgotten happen live.
And that's why beneath all of the tweets and all of the new nicknames for LeBron, the majority of America is disappointed. We had a chance to see an all-time series, an "I was watching when..." moment. And instead? We got a series that will be forgotten in about 7 years (or whenever the Heat finally win a title, whichever comes first). As Eric said last week, this series had potential to be one for the ages. And instead, it wasn't even as good as last year's.
The 2007 NBA Finals. The 2006 World Series. Super Bowl 37. Who won those? Exactly.
Now, the 1998 Finals. The 2001 World Series. Super Bowl 42. Unforgettable.
Love him or hate him, it's amazing how obsessed the sports world is with LeBron James. And again, I acknolwedge that I am here writing a post on him. I'm not saying it's good or bad, just remarkable.
His failure to win a championship each of the last 5 seasons has been just about the biggest story each and every season -- even bigger than the team that eventually won it all. Every season is a chapter in the saga of LeBron's pursuit of a title.
Think about it. LeBron's failure this year is without question the larger story than the Mavs winning the Title. Last year, LeBron's Game 5 collapse was the bigger takeaway than the Lakers and Celtics epic Game 7. With every season gone by, it's a new column on "why LeBron didn't win." It's amazing. He's the most "hated" player in the NBA, but people would rather talk about him than anyone else.
More than Dirk. More than Kobe. More than Jeff Van Gundy.
I'm uber happy Dirk won a championship, mainly bc it's good to see a "good/humble" guy be victorious.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing, people don't like hubris, arrogance, and narcissistic bullshit. They just don't, it's human nature and no matter how you twist/turn it ppl in almost any situation will be turned off by it. They don't like it when ppl are flaunting left and right making a scene about every little thing. And that's what LeBron does, and "The Decision" was the climax of that arrogance. In retrospect, I hope LeBron regrets going that route, because as much as he denies it, he CARES. He wants to be popular. He likes being popular. He won't/can't ever admit it, but I can't imagine him not caring. He's not like Kobe - who's mission is completely solo and he could give a shit what you think about him. Kobe wants rings, and rings only. LeBron? He wants rings sure, but he wants the world to love him. Well, now that part's a little harder, but he still cares about his brand, his label, his name.
He calls himself the King.
I'm more happy Dirk won than LeBron losing. But yeah, I feel pretty bad for LeBron b/c he's created this world for himself. Look at KD, he's a current top 5 (okay maybe top 10) NBA player but his approach is 180 degrees of LeBron. I bet you a lot less ppl hate KD than LBJ.
And I disagree, I think this was a very good series. For America, it was like a "good" vs "evil" and "good" prevailed. It was nice to see Dirk/JKidd win a trophy. I would argue that for the NBA fan that's not associated w/ the Lakers/Celtics, this matchup was refreshing simply b/c it didn't involve those teams. Come on, the past 3 NBA playoffs was basically Kobe vs Celtics (yeah ok Celtics didn't play in the 2009 finals but almost did) and Kobe's pursuit of his 4th, 5th, and possible 6th ring. You're telling me that didn't get old to read either? Or the fact that the Celtics Big 3/team in general have good defense? No way, Mavs winning is a nice change of pace.
Grizzlies/OKC for next season will be interesting to follow too.
I completely agree about LeBron "caring." That's really well said. As much as he tries to hide it and play the "bad boy", you can see it in his eyes that he really just wants to be adored by everyone, like he was in Cleveland.
ReplyDeleteKobe is just a cold-blooded winner. It's all he cares about, reputation be dammed. He wants to be the absolute best.
I do think it's interesting, though, that the world labels LeBron as being "egotistical." I understand it in terms of his "brand" and business, but in a basketball sense, he isn't egotistical enough! He took less money to be one of three superstars on a team, rather than insisting on being THE GUY. That's what he's missing -- that killer instinct that Kobe has. That desire to be the absolute best and to have the last shot no matter what.
I also think it's interesting that people (included myself) use the "all Kobe cares about is winning and doesn't care what people think about him, whereas LeBron cares what people think and isn't hell bent on winning" train of thought.
By going to Miami, didn't LeBron essentially say, "to hell with what people think, I just want to surest path to a championship?"
I also agree, it was a good series. I just think it had the potential to be about 10 times better. It was a perfect matchup. Veteran team from the West against the hot-shots from South Beach. That's not even including the fact that it was a Finals re-match and lots of Mavs players last crack at a ring. Games 2-4 were great, classics even. But I was just waiting for the Heat to launch some sort of rally in Game 5 or 6. And they blew it. Maybe I was expecting too much, but there was a whole level of untapped potential late in that series. Had the Heat rallied in Game 6 and forced a Game 7, now we're talking a real classic.
Good point. It's important to separate basketball-LeBron and non-basketball LeBron.
ReplyDeleteBasketball LeBron is a fantastic player. Absolutely fantastic. During the regular season + playoffs he can be just a monster. This finals series was questionable, and it was very apparent that he struggled at times, when it's really up to him (or D-Wade/Bosh) to close out the game for the team. So yeah, on the court, LeBron is not selfish and perhaps not selfish enough at the most critical time of the season.
As for going to Miami, I don't think that was him trying to say "to hell with other ppl." He saw two all-stars and wanted to play with them fine, but I have a strong gut feeling that if he had done that without an ESPN 1 hr special, the backlash would've been much smaller, and perhaps confined to just the Cleveland fan base. Yes, perhaps the casual fan would've been disappointed, but no, the casual fan would not have been vindictive and "celebrate" his "failure" to win the trophy. It would've blown by after a few months, and the only thing left at this point in the season would've been the disappointing loss/performance, but not the overall hatred that appears to perfuse through American bball fans. People used to go to games just to see LeBron play, even when he was playing against their team. Now they go to root against him.
I don't think it was allegiance switch - it was the way he did it. And the flaunting with the whole "party" and proclamation that followed. He just should not have done that, plain and simple (in my eyes).
Taken directly from Simmons article...Pretty much sums up my opinion
ReplyDelete"...By all accounts, he's a genuinely nice and happy guy who just wants to be liked — he was never meant to be a villain, and as much as he tried to feed off the heat (no pun intended), once it piled up past a certain point, he broke. Maybe he felt that happening against the 2010 Celtics as well; maybe that's why he chose to play with Wade in the first place.
And maybe that's why, right now, he's in total denial. Even in the postgame presser, when he should have been devastated the same way Magic Johnson was distraught after coming up small in the 1984 Finals, LeBron was doing the Frank Drebin "Nothing to see here, please disperse" routine, bristling at the notion that he choked and taking shots at anyone who rooted against him. That's what you do when you're surrounded by enablers — you blame everyone else, and you never look within. He never understood that people only rooted against him because that's what you do when someone boasts before they've ever actually done anything."