LeBron and Miami Heat Look ‘Invincible’; Shaq Retires... -The iPINIONS Journal

LeBron James’s announcement last year that he was “taking his talents to Miami” incited a very polarized reaction among sports fans and commentators alike: some cheered as if it were the (sports) equivalent of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, while others jeered as if it were the equivalent of Judas betraying Jesus Christ.

By contrast, I reacted by affirming LeBron’s decision to leave while not only criticizing the manner in which he made his announcement, but also warning that he will probably live to regret “abandoning” Cleveland.

Here, in part, is what I wrote:

[N]o matter how many championships he wins in Miami, he will be forever haunted by the fact that he abandoned not just his team, but his childhood home to do so. Then, of course, there’s the inevitable conflict that will arise when some sports writers and commentators begin referring to the Heat as LeBron’s team, while others continue referring to it as D-Wade’s…

But God help him if the Heat does not win the NBA championship next year. Because failing to do so will turn his new “dream team” into a living nightmare.

(LeBron abandons Cleveland for Miami, The iPINIONS Journal, July 13, 2010)

Given this, I don’t know why so many people are telling me to eat crow just because the Heat looked invincible on Tuesday in defeating the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in only the first of seven games for this year’s NBA championship. After all, it’s not as if I predicted, or even wished for, the Heat’s doom.

In fact, here is what I wrote earlier this season, when most commentators were doing just that because the Heat could not buy a win:

[I]t ain’t over till it’s over. So hope springs eternal that the Heat’s marquee players will finally play up to their self-propelled hype.

(Heat on cold streak, The iPINIONS Journal, March 7, 2011)

That said, I feel constrained to remind fans now celebrating this Heat championship – like farmers counting their chickens before they’re hatched – that all Dallas has to do is “steal” one in Miami and hold home court to rain of their premature parade. Game two is scheduled for tonight in Miami.

Beyond this, I also feel constrained to remind those telling me to eat crow what the main point of my original commentary was; namely, that if he really wanted to emulate the likes of Dr. J, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, LeBron would have used his influence to bring D-Wade and Bosh to Cleveland instead selling himself out as a hired gun in pursuit of a championship ring. So eat that!

For the record, though, I was pulling for the Lakers to three-peat this season….

In other NBA news of note, 15-time All-Star Shaquille O’Neal tweeted this wholly anticlimactic announcement yesterday:

I’m retiring. We did it; 19 years baby. Thank you very much….

He entered the league in 1992 with all of the fanfare that attended the draft of some of the biggest stars in NBA history. But his glory days were long gone – highlighted by his three-peat, NBA-championship feat with the Los Angeles Lakers (2000-02) and one championship with D-Wade’s Miami Heat (2006). But it was all downhill from there.

Specifically, this erstwhile franchise player and league MVP became a journeyman player – for the Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, where injuries limited his time on the court to just a few minutes in 37 of their 82 games this season.

Talk about in with a bang, and out with a whimper….

So long Shaq.