This championship series got off to a thrilling and promising start when the Miami Heat effectively stole game two from the San Antonio Spurs, in San Antonio, to even their best of seven series at 1-1 heading back to Miami.
But after the Spurs froze the Heat out to win games three and four in Miami, last night’s game five back home in San Antonio seemed anti-climactic. And the Heat played that way, effectively giving up after losing a 16-point first quarter lead early in the second quarter and allowing the Spurs to cruise to a relatively easy 104-87 win for the championship.
In fact, the most exciting part of watching the Spurs humiliate the Heat was marveling at revenge being served cold. After all, they were clearly determined to avenge their heart-breaking loss to the Heat in last year’s championship – after the Heat won the decisive game seven with a Hail Mary shot with just seconds to play.
No less exciting, though, was watching the dethroning of the Heat’s upstart triumvirate of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh by the Spurs’ seasoned triumvirate of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker and thinking it could spell the premature end for the upstarts. After all:
Not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven and hey I’m not just up here blowing smoke at none of these fans … I’m about business and we believe we can win multiple championships….
(YouTube, July 10, 2010)
That was the bold, if not presumptuous, promise LeBron made when he joined the Heat four years ago as a hired gun. But I’m sure even die-hard Heat fans are thinking today that he was just blowing smoke (or shooting blanks, as the case might be) at them.
I was among those who ridiculed LeBron James after he failed to deliver the Miami Heat a championship in his first season three years ago. After all, this was hardly an auspicious start to the run of seven or more championships he so famously promised.
(“Heat Repeat. Defeat Spurs!” The iPINIONS Journal, June 21, 2013)
Granted, winning two championships in four years is nothing to be ashamed of. Except that, having been nurtured in this narcissistic, instant-gratification age of Twitter and Facebook, LeBron and crew do not have the emotional maturity or historical perspective to rebound from this humiliation. This is why they did more sulking than playing at the first sign of real adversity … when the Spurs were routing them, yet again, in game four.
More to the point, each one is probably already posting selfies and tweets advertising himself as a gun for hire by the highest bidder. I’d be shocked if the Heat’s triumvirate returns intact next season.
What mattered most to Dr. J and Michael was not the spectacular feats they performed but the championships their teams won. It is instructive in this respect that Dr. J suffered six years of playoff frustration before his team, the Philadelphia 76ers, won the first of two championships (in 1982); and, even more so, that Michael suffered seven years of similar frustration before his team, the Chicago Bulls, won the first of six (in 1991). This brings me to LeBron…
I fear that winning for LeBron will be bitter sweet. Not least because, instead of being hailed as a basketball savior in Miami, where the Heat won a championship just years ago (in 2006), he’ll be regarded as nothing more than a hired gun who was brought in to help them win a few more.
Even worse, no matter how many championships he wins in Miami, he will be forever haunted by the fact that he abandoned not just his team but also his childhood home to do so…
(“LeBron Abandons Cleveland for Miami,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 13, 2010)
By instructive contrast, the reason the Spurs’ triumvirate became the winningest trio in NBA postseason history last night is that Duncan and crew never saw themselves as hired guns. They saw themselves as a team, come what may. And, sure enough, what came over the past 17 years were five NBA championships.
What’s more, given the way they dominated the Heat this year, chances are very good that the Spurs will remain intact to win one, perhaps even two more championships; ironically, fulfilling for the Spurs’ loyal fans the upstart promise LeBron made to the Heat’s fair-weather fans.
Incidentally, the Spurs’ quest for revenge was probably fueled with more than a little resentment. After all, the media have always covered the Heat as presumptive heirs to the NBA preeminence once enjoyed by teams like the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Chicago Bulls; whereas the Spurs are clearly far more worthy of such coverage.
And, oh, did I mention that I’m not a Heat fan. My team is the perennial also-ran Washington Wizards. So I trust you’ll forgive my unbridled schadenfreude.
Congratulations San Antonio!
Related commentaries:
Heat repeat…