After months and months of struggling, pondering, cerebrating, if you will, with this choice, I've come to my conclusion: I will root for the Miami Heat this season.
To recap, here was my dilemma:
Ever since his senior year at Marquette, I had been a Dwyane Wade fan. Quiet, lets his game do the talking, not a lot of people talking about him. He got drafted by the Heat, joined by my favorite player at the time, Shaquille O'Neal, and next thing you know, I'm a Heat fan. On the opposite end of the spectrum was James. The second coming was hyped to historic degrees ever since his junior year of high school. He was seemingly already better than Michael Jordan, was going to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, and he was going to win them a lot of championships. Spare me. He never got any support, gave a couple of lackluster playoff performances, and when he became a free agent, suddenly it is The Night of the Decision. He chose Miami, and made me angrier than the guy who got hit with Brandon Jacobs' helmet -- and couldn't keep it. How could I possibly root for a team with my second least favorite athlete?
Ultimately, however, I can't root against Dwyane Wade, a guy who donates 10% of his salary to a Chicago church, who's foundation promotes education, health and social skills to children, who bought a house for a family on Christmas Eve 2008, who donated $25,000 to keep a public library open in Illinois. Oh, and he can do this, too. His Wikipedia page has an entire section devoted to his charity work. LeBron? Well, he has one about his tattoos and public image.
So, yeah, I decided to be a Heat fan this year. But that doesn't mean the decision comes without a few provisions. Here is what I decided is going to happen. The Heat will roll to the #1-seed in the Eastern Conference, get home-court advantage, win 65 games, and all that jazz. LeBron will nearly average a triple-double (say, 28 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists), and finish second in MVP voting behind Kevin Durant. Come the playoffs, though, in a seven-game battle with Boston, James will choke and Wade will come through with a 20-point fourth quarter performance. James will go on to struggle in the NBA Finals as Wade thrives in crunch time. Yeah, the King has a ring (finally) but he gets criticism not because he did it with help (that horse has already been beaten to death and repeatedly hit post-mortem), but because he was ineffective. That's the best I can do. After all, I can't wish for the team to lose, so that would be the second best option (that, or if LeBron got injured and babied it during the playoffs LaDainian Tomlinson-style, but I don't see it happening).
That's my wish, but obviously I don't expect it to come true. But more importantly than my far-fetched hopes and dreams, what will fans do if the team doesn't win a title within two years? To fans, the team appears to be so loaded that the only team with a remote chance to beat them is the Lakers. Realistically, add the Celtics to this list for at least this season, and if Dwight Howard improved his offense even a little bit the Magic could be darkhorse on the list since I don't think Chris Bosh is that good and is not a top-flight forward (seven seasons, one All-NBA Second Team appearance. Not impressed). This is the team everyone loves to hate, and anything short of an NBA title will be seen with the most criticism the sports world has seen since the 18-1 '08 Patriots. There is an enormous amount of pressure if the Larry O'Brien Trophy doesn't take its talents to South Beach multiple times within the next few seasons.
Conversely, if the Heat do go on a title run (consecutive titles, two in three years, per se), then people will be quick to forget all about The Decision, all about the criticism LeBron faced, all about the summer of 2010 in general. When the Yankees spent loads of money but went a decade without a World Series, people were quick to talk. But last year, after spending $423 million on Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, the critics went away for the most part because the team won a World Series. There is no reason to think an NBA title will be any different for Miami.
The team has two of the three best players in the league, plus an All-Star caliber forward, plus a decent bench full of players who will know and accept their roles. Will the team win a title this year? Who knows. If I were to put money on it, it wouldn't be a terrible bet. And I'm going to be rooting for some to some extent. But if they weren't to win, I wouldn't exactly be heartbroken.
Conversely, if the Heat do go on a title run (consecutive titles, two in three years, per se), then people will be quick to forget all about The Decision, all about the criticism LeBron faced, all about the summer of 2010 in general. When the Yankees spent loads of money but went a decade without a World Series, people were quick to talk. But last year, after spending $423 million on Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, the critics went away for the most part because the team won a World Series. There is no reason to think an NBA title will be any different for Miami.
The team has two of the three best players in the league, plus an All-Star caliber forward, plus a decent bench full of players who will know and accept their roles. Will the team win a title this year? Who knows. If I were to put money on it, it wouldn't be a terrible bet. And I'm going to be rooting for some to some extent. But if they weren't to win, I wouldn't exactly be heartbroken.
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