Rob's Decision

I've finally made my decision. A lot of stress went into it. After all, the two extremes of my NBA fandom were cruelly fused together  -- my love of Dwyane Wade, and my pure, complete hatred for LeBron James, together in Miami. The two tore at me. They were the two fat kids. I was the last Oreo (double-stuffed, of course). Which would succumb? The question of the summer was Could I root for the Heat this season, knowing LeBron is on the team?

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.

'Twas the Night of The Decision

'Twas the night of The Decision, when all through the bar
Not a creature was stirring, they were waiting for their star.
The jerseys were worn as people gathered in prayer,
In hopes that LeBron James would soon return there.

The Clevelandites were nestled all snug on their stools,
While visions of championships came, Oh what fools.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, her son in his cap,
Had just turned the tube to the King's big trap.

Out in the city there awaited such a clatter,
If James went elsewhere, windows would shatter.
Outside to join them he would fly like a flash,
To tear open garbage and throw up the trash.

The moon on the breast of the down-trodden town,
Gave the lustre to the James poster on the arena down.
When, what to his wondering eyes should appear,
LeBron on TV, what's there to hear?

With a jig in his step, so lively and quick,
The boy knew in a moment it wasn't a trick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers he came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called Miami by name!

After all this time he made his decision,
It was harsher than anything the boy could ever envision!

He was going to South Beach to play basketball,
Telling Cleveland "F--- you! F--- you! F--- you all!"

As reality set in things started to fly,
People meet with the police, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the boxes full of jerseys, matches and gasoline too.

And then, in a twinkling, the boy heard on the news
That owner Dan Gilbert was blowing his fuse.
As he drew in his head, and was turning around,
Gilbert and his letter came with a bound.

On the Cavaliers' website the tirade was put,
As those jerseys became nothing but ashes and soot.
A bundle of grievances he had on his back,
And he looked like a looney, ready to crack.

His words how they twinkled! his promises how merry!
The "self-titled former King" fired Coach Brown and Danny Ferry,
But now he's leaving in a "narcissistic" decision,
And thus the thrashing began with quaint precision.

"A heartless and callous action" the bastard lied through his teeth!
And the backlash it encircled James' head like a wreath.
"A shameful display of selfishness and betrayal"

Enemy number one is LeBron's new portrayal.

Gilbert was joyous and determined, a right jolly old elf,
But I laughed when I heard him, in spite of myself!
A title before the Heat! a promise! he said,
With Shaq and Antawn Jamison, I foresee losing instead.

He was talking crazy, while Miami went straight to work,
They had Wade, Bosh, and now LeBron, Pat Riley you jerk!
The King basically laid his finger on the side of his nose,
And with regards to Cleveland, the middle finger it rose!

James fled to the South, to the Cavs gave a whistle,
And away he went, the city recovering from the missile.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Cleveland you're f---ed on this very night!"

Could the King De-Throne Cleveland?

Another day, another season, another early exit for the Cleveland Cavaliers? While I am certainly enjoying the Cavs being on the verge of elimination yet again (quite thoroughly mind you), I am also a little saddened by what could possibly happen should Boston pull out a win in Game 6 or 7. Come July 1, the most talented -- and hyped -- free agency class ever gets to set sail and roam freely in the NBA waters. King James leads this class, and ever since 2008 teams have been licking their chops waiting to get their hands on him any way possible, even if it means throwing away a few games here or there (see: Knicks, New York). I never really thought LeBron would actually leave Cleveland, considering he grew up in Ohio, is adored beyond belief, wants a championship for the city, all while receiving a maximum contract. However, now I'm not so sure. Looking at the cast around him, there is no reason to believe that the Cavs will be any better next year. If the Celtics advance, I think it will be the last time LeBron James will don the maroon and gold.

Watch the highlights from Game 5 on Monday night. There were times where James was nowhere to be found. For a team with Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison, 38-year-old Shaq, and Anderson Varejao, that equates to bad things. There was one sequence where a Cavalier drove as LeBron stood in the far corner, a non-factor in the play. After not charging in for an offensive rebound, he lackadaisically jogged back on defense, didn't know who he was guarding (he asked to guard Rajon Rondo before the game, but didn't here), and stood there as a shot was missed. He started to jog back in anticipation of a teammate getting the rebound, although the ball was right where he was standing, which allowed the C's to grab the ball and swing it to Ray Allen for an open 3-pointer. It was like that for 48 minutes. There was no ferocity, no will to drive to the hoop, nothing. His shot selection was poor, the form was lazy, and he just looked dazed. His first field goal didn't come until the 3rd quarter. In retrospect, how this performance could affect the league is mind-blowing. Now there's a good chance he'll leave Cleveland for a max contract somewhere else. The entire landscape of the league just changed, and it could have happened in one night, because I honestly do not believe he would have left before Monday night. I can't say I would blame him for leaving, but I don't want it to happen (more on that later). But a good question to ask is, was that performance essentially writing his own ticket out of Cleveland?I mean, he has been THE guy since he was drafted 1st overall in 2003. He has had no Pippen to his Jordan in his seven years there -- not even a Derek Fisher to his Kobe, for that matter. Except for that two-game stretch in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals when Daniel Gibson played out of his mind, it has been all LeBron all the time. Shaq was supposed to be the force down low to replace Zydranas Ilgauskas, give it his all for another season and go out on top, winning one for the King. He missed almost 30 games, averaged 12 points during the season, and is grabbing only 5.7 rebounds a game this postseason. Then Antawn Jamison was supposed to be the guy to catapult the Cavs into the Finals, a sweet-shooting #2 scorer. But he has disappointed, too, being streaky at best and shooting only 29% from long range in the playoffs. Having to play an entire regular season, then get all hyped up for another 20+ games for the playoffs does get tiring.

(Ok, that was my rational argument. Truly, I think his performance Monday was unacceptable for a player of his caliber. He rested at the end of the regular season just for this, and probably could have more efficiently expended his energy to be fresh for now considering they clinched their division on March 17. Does Kobe ever take a night off like that? Sure, he has nights where he'll jack up 30 shots because he can, but he doesn't take games off in crunch time. Jordan would never in a hundred million years have done that in the playoffs. If he had lost a playoff series like James did last year to the Magic, he would have averaged 45 a night the next playoffs without a doubt. Dwyane Wade has had to go 100% every game for the past 4 years because, like LeBron, he is the only one on his team with any talent. After a grueling, non-stop regular season in which he had to fight every game, what did Wade do in Round 1? He single-handedly kept the Celtics from winning all 4 games by 35 points by averaging 33.2 points per game. That drive is partly the reason Flash has a ring, Kobe has 4, and Jordan has 6. The best player on the planet needs to go into that game with the mindset of "I'm taking over this game from the opening tip" and rip their hearts out. The other reason the players I mentioned all have rings, by the way, is the fact that all them had at least one other person who could either play or at least had the drive to show up when it mattered.)

But, like I said before, while I am enjoying this more than A-Rod when he looks at himself in the mirror, I am still a little saddened by what is likely to now happen. If the Akron Hammer leaves Cleveland, that means there is a very real chance he will sign with a team with enough money to get a Joe Johnson, Chris Bosh or Amar'e Stoudamire, too. That means a real possibility of LeBron James winning an NBA Championship. To me that would be nearly as bad as when A-Rod won a World Series last year, and the only reason that was worse was because it was with the Yankees. I want James to stay in Cleveland, keep playing with a bunch of nobodies and one or two "it" guys who never come through, continue to do his thing, all without ever winning a ring. I'm not sure why exactly I hate him, but I'm not too concerned with finding the root of the issue. I am perfectly content with my deep, passionate hatred for him, and will be as he continues his climb up the ladder of NBA greatness without the hardware all the others have.

It's bad enough Wade is probably going to leave Miami for somewhere else this summer. Can I at least get LeBron James to stay in Cleveland. I don't ask for much (in my mind I don't, at least). It would please me greatly if I had the honor -- no, no, the privilege -- of witnessing another few historic performances like the one King James gave on Monday. In terms of basketball, nothing would please me more.