Perfect Ending for The King!

I still remember how stunned I was when I heard that LeBron was “taking his talents “ to South Beach!

Really?

I was genuinely shocked.  Like many people, I viewed LeBron as a man among boys, and the best player in the game today (or a very second close 2^nd to Kobe).  Why would he decide to give up the opportunity to be like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kobe, etc, and be “the man” for a franchise that becomes an NBA championship dynasty?

At first I was disgusted.  I wanted to believe that LeBron was not only an amazing athlete, but also a winner like the men I just mentioned.  Instead he chose to team up with two other all world All Stars?  Therefore, I have spent this season like many fans around the USA rooting for anyone who was playing against The Miami Heat!

It was like The Heat was becoming The Yankees right in front of our faces.  Let’s not bother building a championship team….let’s just buy one!  That truly made me angry and disappointed.

But after watching the last 3 games of the NBA Finals, I have changed that emotion dramatically.  Now, I am not disgusted at LeBron, I feel sorry for him.  Now I see what he obviously knew all along….That he did not have the gumption to lead a franchise to the promised land by himself.  You and I may see that he is a man among boys, but clearly he does not!

It was soooooooo obvious watching these last few games.  Where would he have been without D Wade?  Wade was definitely the one who stepped up and took control the way “The King” should have.

I have to say that it could not have been better to have a great guy like Dirk be the one who beat the Heatles (Their self-imposed nick name inferring they are the modern-day Beatles)  Dirk is the anti-LeBron.

When he could have left Dallas for Free Agency, Dirk stayed with his team, even though they were far from a favorite to win anything (as a matter of fact , all the ESPN experts predicted they would lose to Portland in the first round of the playoffs)  He did not take the path of least resistance like LeBron did!  He manned up and willed his team of overachievers to the championship!  Now that is a great story.  That is how legends are created!

So now what is LeBron thinking?  Couldn’t he have gotten to the Finals (and lost) with the Cav’s?  He is facing the longest off-season an NBA player has ever faced.  He has to view the season as a huge disappointment.  He will have to answer questions about falling short everywhere he goes.

He has really created a horrible situation.  If they won….they were suppose to because they are the bullies that stacked their team unfairly, and if they lose…..It’s a disaster!

So, as I said, this was a perfect ending for this NBA season.  Dirk is the hero!  LeBron and his buddies are failures and 99% of all the fans who rooted against them all year are ecstatic!

I have to admit that I actually feel bad for LeBron now that it’s over.  I don’t mean to demean him at all.  As I said in the opening of this post, to me, talent wise, he is a man among boys.  I think he is a class act, on and off the court.  But, he made “the decision” to go for safety in numbers and destroyed any chance he will ever have of being mentioned in the same breath with MJ and Bill Russell.  It really is kind of sad, but we all need to live with the choices we make.

I can’t wait to see how The Heatles respond next year!

Congrats to Dirk and J Kidd and the rest of the Mavs!

Pippen was a great SIDE KICK….and now….so is Lebron!

Time will tell what the fall out of the 2010 Season of Free Agency in the NBA will be.  Will Lebron create a dynasty with Dwane Wade and Chris Bosh?  Will Pat Riley end up with more championships than either Red Auerbach or Phil Jackson?

Will Cav’s owner Dan Gilbert’s prediction that his team will win a championship before his former superstar wins on come to fruition?  Will anyone ever think of Lebron again in the same way that they think of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant?

As I said, it will be very interesting to see how all of this unfolds in the next 5-10 years.  One thing is for sure.  The last few weeks’ dog and pony show has been one of the most annoying sideshows in the history of sport.  I am a passionate sports fan, as many of you know by now and I am a huge Knicks fan (one of the main teams in the whole circus), but by last night when Lebron announced his decision I had honestly gotten to the point where I didn’t even care any more.

Part of me thinks that in the era of players making staggering incomes far beyond what they really deserve, that it is refreshing to see players take LESS money so they can win multiple championships together.  On the other hand I have to be honest and admit that the Miami Heat are now the exact same as the NY Yankees in my book; they are buying an all-star team that SHOULD win the championship every year.  Because of that I believe that I will be rooting against the Miami Heat in every game they play for the next 10 years!

What about poor Cleveland?  This is a crushing blow to the entire city, the owner of the Cavs, the players and the fans.  It will probably affect the overall economy of the city to the degree that it will affect just about everyone.  I feel bad for all of them, but I honestly cannot tag Lebron as a villain for leaving them.  His owners knew what they had to do to keep him…. surround him with enough talent to win championships.  The real bottom line is that they did not do that.  I think Gilbert could have made it a no-brainer for him to stay if Lebron honestly felt he could stay in his hometown and create a dynasty.

I think that was honestly his number one desire. The problem was that Lebron lost out on the game of convincing Chris Bosh to play in Cleveland.  I sincerely believe that if he could have sold Bosh on that he would still be a Cavalier.  But D wade and Pat Riley proved to be much better salesmen that Mr. James.

Once Bosh decided to go to Miami, it appears that Lebron did not have the guts to go somewhere/stay somewhere without him.  That is what blows me out.  You would thing that Bosh was the “King.” You would think that he would do what Lebron told him to do, but it was clearly the other way around.  Once Bosh committed to Miami….The real game began.

Did Lebron stay home, like MJ did and lead his team to victory?  Did he go in to be the savior of one of the NBA’s most storied franchises and join Amare Stoudamire in NYC?  Should he be the literal second coming in the second city and join the Bulls?

All of those would have been better choices to me.  I really think Lebron is one of the greatest ever!  It seems obvious that he does not.  I cannot imagine Michael Jordan EVER doing what he just did! I think the Gods honest truth is that Lebron lacks the confidence of a Michael Jordan, or a Kobe Bryant, or a Larry Bird…..or apparently a Chris Bosh!

What’s done is done, but I am deeply saddened.  I think a tweet I saw shortly after he made his decision said it best.  “Lebron went from being considered in the same breath with Michael Jordan to being mentioned in the same breath with Scottie Pippen.” No disrespect to one of the greatest players in NBA history, but Pippen was not…THE MAN in Chicago.  He actually proved that in the two years MJ played baseball.

Pippen was a great SIDE KICK….and now….so is Lebron!