NBA Finals?
For starters, while the lovefest for LeBron James will go on forever considering King James delivered Cleveland its first championship since Jim Brown was in his late 20’s, the second marriage seems to have only a year remaining. LeBron the GM and head coach has built a team that he no longer considers a “super team,” even if they traded for Kevin Love and boast another No. 1 overall pick, Kyrie Irving, after LeBron bolted the most Pre-Fab Three in South Beach.
You heard it here: if LeBron leaves for LA, he’s resigned to the idea of catching Michael Jordan in the ring department and is coasting into his post-basketball career. Let’s face it: leaving for Los Angeles and teaming with Magic Johnson would be a symbiotic relationship where Magic would get the title(s) that eluded him after his premature retirement, would solidify him as both a player and GM, and bring the Lakers back to being the show in the NBA. And for LeBron, he could pretty much run the show the same way Kobe Bryant did in his later years, as the Buss family–sans Dr. Jerry–has proven that star power and titles are almost the same as long as the TV revenue keeps flowing and the stars continue to sit courtside.
Then, with Jerry West heading south to the Clippers, there may be enough maneuvering to pull LeBron to break another curse. But, that’s considering another super-team, albeit an aging one if it includes the ball-hogging Chris Paul.
However…
If LeBron heads southwest to San Antonio, he wants nothing more than those rings.
Can you blame the guy for any of the above? He’s the only hoopster expected to be the next Michael Jordan when he was still in high school. And fans in general are lazy and simply want to point to the ring discussion (Jordan, 6-for-6; James 3-for-8, though he’s played in seven straight), even if his game is more Magic Johnson. LeBron can’t win even when he tries to win.
He’ll be killed for leaving Cleveland, the same place he brought it’s lone championship since the 1960s, even though in the process he demanded his buddies stay, commanding a super-saturated salary cap that only allows room for mid-level free agent exceptions. Unless the Cavs find a haul for Kevin Love and a few other players from the past year that didn’t play defense, we’re staring at Warriors-Cavs IV–another year older.
That’s encouraging for the NBA, huh? Look, the ratings have proven they will follow LeBron wherever he goes, but if the fanbase already knows the ending, the season and the playoff push leading-up to the Finals will prove to be just seven-month prelude to a fourth-straight foregone conclusion. It makes fans actually consider rooting for injuries to either James or Finals MVP, Kevin Durant, or two-time league MVP, Steph Curry, just to make things interesting.
And fans did that earlier this season when Durant went down, but only to chalk the Western Conference runners-up–the Spurs–into the Warriors slot.
Durant healed, and the Warriors super team–who a year ago choked a 3-1 series lead after beating Durant himself to get to those Finals–avenged last year’s loss.
This is not a good look for the league, but there is nothing anyone can do about it. Commissioner Adam Silver fought the premise the league is too top-heavy publicly, using the flimsy argument that the Warriors won their first title in 40 years in 2015, while the Cavs won their first last season.
Right. No wonder very team that has LeBron James has made it to the Finals in each of the last seven seasons. Best player in the league, right?
The Warriors did build a team from scratch and even swapped coaches, and then had to swap coaches within their own staff in consecutive seasons thanks to Steve Kerr’s chronic back and health issues. Durant was signed to put them back on top, and good for him, and good for the Warriors. They didn’t assemble a super-team; they just did what the Yankees did in the late 1990s and paid for the arms and ammo to bring them back to the land where nothing is promised.
But, the NBA still has issues. One, nobody expects anyone to beat the Warriors next year, even James, Irving and Cavs head coach, Tyronn Lue, who each admitted as much by offering resigned quotes after the Game Two loss. If they were waving the white flags halfway through the series, one where they actually blew Game 3 at home before winning Game 4, you have to wonder what the rest of the league thinks–and its fans.
Another issue? Other than the loaded 2003 draft where four of the first five picks became superstars (sorry, Pistons fans), the NBA Draft is a bigger crapshoot than any other in pro sports. Wanna build a team? You need years, development, cap space, patience and a change of coaches.
And luck.
Oh, and can’t play in the same conference as The King. Or, the Warriors, for the forseeable future. Heck, even Celtics fans are talking about 2020 as “our year.” Damn. But, that’s the EARLIEST the other 29 teams may have any hope in taking home a golden globe.
The league needs to develop more stars besides James, Durant, Curry, James Don’t-Play-Too Harden, anyone from the overrated Clippers, or that stiff at MSG who thinks gold medals and national championships are the same thing as Larry O’Brien Trophies.
But, who do you thank for that dearth? Oh, the NBPA, of course, who loves the idea of one-and-dones coming from a semester of college only to get squashed like the AAU punks they are when they face, um, grown men. Commissioner Silver has said he wants to make it a two-year college commitment, but good luck getting that by the players association at the bargaining table.
So, back to James for the time being. Heavy lies that proverbial crown (which he welcomed with open arms and palms before leaving high school) which has weighed him down in chasing Michael Jordan. To say it’s about rings oversimplifies the argument. Bill Russell had 11. Wilt Chamberlain had two. Who was better? Basketball people all say Chamberlain, ackowledging Russell’s Hall-of-Fame supporting cast.
James, in many ways, is MacBeth. One who stole the crown and now has to do everything within his unchecked power to maintain it, and fails because of his own success. And this is a guy who statistically had a better Finals than Jordan ever did–and lost in five games. But there’s a difference between the LeBron the player and LeBron the King of The Land.
Jordan answered to Phil Jackson. Shaq and Kobe answered to Phil Jackson. Shaq and Dywayne Wade answered to Pat Riley, as did Magic, Kareem and company in LA. LeBron answered to Riley through his man-puppet, Eric Spolestra, and had enough of not getting the ringless life he enjoyed in Cleveland and decided he could do it himself if he left Miami.
And he did. Once. And it was tremendous. But the greatest of men didn’t have absolute power.
LeBron has too much talent. And too much power. He’s too good for his own good. And now, before entering the twilight of his career needs to make a decision.
Will he opt for chasing down Jordan, or will he opt-out like his Game 2 presser and admit defeat, and head west?
He might win in LA. But the odds are better in San Antonio with Gregg Popovich. One thing is for certain–it won’t be Cleveland. And LeBron will play both sides of the discussion when he signs with the Lakers and say he’s all about winning, much like A-Rod was when he signed with the last-place Texas Rangers in 2000. And he may actually think he can bring the Lakers back to greatness and get his number retired next to those Laker greats, and perhaps even a statue outside Staples Center–perhaps the first as a Clipper, even.
But deep down, he’ll know.
And now, you do, too.
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