How LeBron went from 'King' to court jester
OPINION - In the end, James will ultimately be the scapegoat as to why the Heat lost...
Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7, but none.
Zero. Zilch. Nada.
The dynasty that LeBron James hinted at when he signed with the Miami Heat last July will have to wait at least one more year.
The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship for the first time in their franchise history, knocking off the Heat 105-95 in Game 6 of the Finals.
Sadly, this NBA Finals won’t be remembered for Dirk Nowitzki cementing his place in NBA history or 17-year veteran Jason Kidd winning his first ring.
Instead, we will look back at the 2011 NBA Finals as the implosion of LeBron James and the Heat.
There hasn’t been a team in recent NBA history that was more despised by not only casual and hardcore fans but also the opposition than James and the Heat.
Click here to view a Grio slideshow of NBA legends who never won an NBA title
The hate was so evident that the Mavericks’ front office were receiving advice from coaches past and present on how to slow down the Heat.
“I take it as they’re not liked for what happened this summer with getting everybody the way they did it and obviously the way they play and showboat, all them things,’’ said Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson.
Before you call the Heat frauds, let’s not forget that nobody (outside of The Big 3) had Miami winning the NBA Championship this year. It wasn’t until the Boston Celtics got old overnight and the world realized the Chicago Bulls were nothing more than the 2010 Cleveland Cavaliers before anyone thought the Heat had a chance to come out the Eastern Conference.
The mass exodus to South Beach was great and all, but look who James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had as teammates — the likes of Joel Anthony, Juwan Howard and Eddie House. The Heat’s next two best players, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem, combined to play only 54 regular season games due to injuries.
In the end, James will ultimately be the scapegoat as to why the Heat lost. He was tossed under the microscope following “The Decision” last July and the pressure eventually got the best of him. To say James handled the pressure of the NBA Finals poorly is an understatement. On the court, James averaged 17.8 points per game in the Finals after netting nearly 27 a night in the regular season — the largest drop off in NBA history. Off the court, James acted more like a jester than a “King” as his lack of maturity showed its true colors on more than one occasion. Following shootaround the morning of Game 5, James and Wade were caught on camera mocking Dallas Mavericks’ forward Dirk Nowitzki and his Game 4 illness.
“If you guys want to feed into everything that not only myself or D-Wade or the Miami Heat do, I think that’s a non-issue,” James said. “There’s bigger issues in this series than that.”
Nowitzki wasn’t as quick to brush it off, however.
“I just thought it was a little childish, a little ignorant,” Nowitzki said. “I’ve been in this league for 13 years. I’ve never faked an injury or an illness before. But (the video) happened. It’s over to me. It’s not going to add anything extra to me.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, James went out with a bang Sunday night following Game when asked if he was bothered by the fact that so many people were happy to see him fail.
“Absolutely not,” James said. “Because at the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.”
Yes LeBron, I’ll wake up Monday morning still owing Sallie Mae more than I make in a year, but I wouldn’t trade my life (or hairline) with you any day of the week. Just like the LeBron haters having to get back to the real world at some point, so does James, who faces months of criticism and what-ifs while the NBA prepares for a July 1 work stoppage.
The multiple championships for James and the Miami Heat will come eventually.
Until then, hats off to “America’s Team.”
