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Sports Arena
Miami Overcome By Heat
Another fainting spell by King LeBron.
MIAMI — In the wake of the recent upheavals in Egypt, the Food and Drug Administration has revised its food pyramid. What used to be good for you is now bad for you and vice versa. Thus spake the pyramid, the ultimate pointy-headed intellectual. This may be liberating news, if you found the old regime’s regimen too regimented. Once again, despite its own preference for herbage, the FDA is forced to ingurgitate its own verbiage. And everyone can agree it is no fun to eat your words.
One guy who is consuming a steady diet of adjectives — mostly of the pejorative variety — for breakfast, lunch and dinner is LeBron James. Yes, the same one who was said to be the Second Coming of Michael Jordan before getting his Second Comeuppance on Sunday night. He came to Miami before this season promising to deliver the championship of the National Basketball Association; he led the Heat to a 2-1 lead in the final round of the playoffs and then… disappeared.
In Game 4, with opposing star Dirk Nowitzki hampered by a severe cold, victory was in his grasp. LeBron produced a tepid eight points, none in the fourth quarter. He never recovered, playing poorly in the last two games as the season slipped away into the waiting hands of the Dallas Mavericks.
It was sad to watch him, a man of prodigious skill in his chosen sport, perhaps the best of his generation in ability. Yet he could not discover within himself the heart of a champion. He began muttering to himself like a homeless person. The look on his face was endearing, really, like a lost kid who was trying really hard to remember what he was supposed to bring home from the store.
Those who saw the great champions like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan play had to bequeath them a new set of retrospective kudos. They had what it takes to win, over and over again, with the game on the line, the series on the line, the season on the line. If it took a shot, they had the right shot, and if it took a pass, they had the right pass. And here stands this young prodigy, year after year, with bafflement pasted across his features. What do they have, he wonders, that he is missing?
We share with him that quandary, to an extent, the mystery of the mastery, the trial of the triumph. What intangible aura lights the brow of the winner?
The owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers gets to lord it over LeBron this time around. He rashly promised his team’s enthusiasts that King James would reign no more nobly in the metropolis, in the mecca, than he did in the middling market of Cleveland. James implied that Cleveland was cramping his style and the big city would elicit the last measure of his greatness. Now he sulks while his former boss gloats.
There is a lesson in all this for you and me as we plod through the chore of routine, catching only a glimpse of the ethereal. We think often that the big moment of our dream is right around the corner, that only happenstance is thoughtlessly blockading the path. That may well be true, but when the call comes, will it find us suited for battle? Or will we be confronted by a shortfall of mettle, as the deficiencies in our spirits are put on display?
It’s just a game, they tell me, and I shouldn’t take it personally, they tell me, and there is always a next year, they tell me, and everyone deserves another chance, they tell me, and don’t take it to heart, they tell me. I suppose they must know what they are talking about, all those wise counselors, and yet I cannot help but wonder: if they dig deep into my soul, what will they find? Or better said, what have I stored there for them to find?
The Miami Heat was the better team. But being the better team is not enough. You still have to go out and win….
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
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Darin| 6.14.11 @ 6:53AM
LeBron may be the embodiment of the entitlement generation. Those who were brought up to expect good things to happen to them because, well, good things were SUPPOSED to happen to them. They never learned that you have to work really hard, and even then it might not be enough, so you work even harder. The only person responsible is the person in the mirror. LeBron should take this as a challenge, because that's what it is. Players like Jordan, Bird, Magic, and Kobe were successful because they had the desire to win, not have anything handed to them. James can be as great as he wants to be, but he can also be as mediocre as he allows himself to be. My advice to him would be to apologize to the city of Cleveland for how he left them, take ownership of his lackluster performance in the 2011 finals, and see if he can light that internal fire. Doing the first two things will be a great lesson in humility and character and would show he really is serious.
Citizen Jerry| 6.14.11 @ 12:34PM
I wouldn't expect this from LeChoke. He was drafted as an NBA superstar right our of high school and has been surrounded by people who only tell him how great he is. That has turned him into a case of arrested development.
I think it was heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, after he was knocked out by unranked Buster Douglas, who said once you start thinking no one can beat you is when you get knocked on your backside.
Cosmo| 6.15.11 @ 1:06AM
Don't put down the NBA...This was a classic series that showed basketball at its best and proved that team-work, defense, and good coaching can overcome great odds....
Sean| 6.14.11 @ 7:19AM
Let's remember Michael Jordan was pretty much more of a failure than James at a similar age. When Johnson and Bird and the Pistons were at their best Jordan could not do anything to win a championship. Getting to an NBA championship is pretty impressive in itself. Let's not forget that Kobe and the Laker's were destroyed by this same Maverick's team.
Cpm| 6.14.11 @ 11:55AM
It took a few years to assemble a team around Jordan that could complement his skills and a few for Jordan to realize that he didn't have to carry the entire load. Jordan would NEVER have called up Bird and Magic or Isiah Thomas and suggest they all go to the same team. Jordan wanted to beat them, not join them.
Occam's Tool| 6.14.11 @ 12:49PM
Sean---when Jordan had the supporting cast, he won. James had a HANDPICKED supporting cast, and couldn't do it.
Shane| 6.14.11 @ 7:41AM
I don't think the Heat is the better team. They may have 3 of the 4 best players on the court, but Dallas has the better team play. Coaching also favors Dallas.
MikeBee| 6.14.11 @ 8:22AM
Shane,
You're right! The league has tried immensely to make the game more "exciting," by almost requiring teams to hire at least one superstar, like James. After Jordan, they mistakenly thought that everyone wanted to see a Jordan on their team, and that that would draw more spectators to the sport, and more money. But, the league was wrong; basketball is a team sport, and the city with the best team is the one who wins. Also, just like in football, defense is what wins games in basketball. You can put a guy like James on the court, a guy who can rack up 40 points in a game every night; but, if the other team has good defense, James will only score 12.
Ampleforth| 6.14.11 @ 7:45AM
I heard that the City of Dallas is going to have Lebron James Day. Everyone gets to leave work 12 minutes early.
beebop| 6.14.11 @ 6:38PM
Don't ask James for change for a dollar .... he doesn't have a fourth quarter.
He was raised in a single mother household -- and she is a horror to behold. He has been surrounded by boosters and hand picked sychophants. He has no sense of what a "fan" sacrifices a la bloated ticket prices to watch him play. He sold an obscene number of shirts while he was in Cleveland and they changed them frequently so that he could sucker another fool into contributing to his self agrandising disallusionment. He is going to have a tough time with this because he lacks the ability to self analyze. Too bad.
ray bob| 6.14.11 @ 8:08AM
not the King, just the court Jester!
Kilgore Trout| 6.14.11 @ 8:15AM
Who the bleep cares what this thug says or does?!
C'mon, get serious!
RustyG| 6.14.11 @ 8:21AM
Why didn't LJ go to college?
He performs to poorly on Finals.
WRTolkas| 6.14.11 @ 8:27AM
The Japanese had a name for it: "The Victory Disease." The antidote was Midway.
Bob Grant| 6.14.11 @ 8:49AM
A nice article until the last sentence
" The Miami Heat was the better team. But being the better team is not enough. You still have to go out and win…."
which rendered the entire article absurd.
In the Finals, the NBA provides SEVEN games to determine who is the better team and Dallas won it in SIX, the last one being a blowout.
Kristal| 6.14.11 @ 9:40AM
The NBA long ago ceased to be a team game, and Lebron James is simply the ultimate present day player in a game that isn’t so much about winning as it is about showing off INDIVIDUAL prowess.
I’ve been an avid fan since the 1958 season---or I should say, HAD been a fan, until recently finally getting too sick of the rapists like that Laker dude, Kobe, and the lack of real teamwork.
Besides, the game always changes, anyway.
The physical fact that we humans live in, and as expressions of, space-time, doomed basketball to become what it has turned out to be as of 2011.
As players, over the time of generational evolution, compete and get faster and able to jump higher, etc, the simple physical fact that the rim is fixed at a height of ten feet assured that teamwork would pale when basketball finally allowed dunking. The breaking of the “Lew Alcinder rule”, certainly caused by the market of fans who would spend mucho dinero, led us here.
Also, the size of the court is a severe limitation.
Imagine if it were, say, 25 or 50% longer and wider! With the speed, quickness and strength---not to mention the years of training inherent in each new generation, built up over the years as retired players teach newbies the ins and outs---the essential space-time truth is the court size is cramping the style of the game!
Instead of “Honey, I shrunk the kids”, then, basically, with better and better athletes, it’s “Honey, I shrunk the court”.
Much the same kind of deal has happened with football, except in that game we start with a much larger (relative to basketball) “palette”.
Oh well. At least they ameliorated the allowance of dunking by choosing to let long shots earn three points. Maybe they’ll further “improve” the game, when fans get more and more bored with the predictable same old same old, over time, and award five points for shots from35 feet away, say.
That way, comebacks would still be possible, and at least give every team a chance to come back from blowouts.
OMG---can it really be 50 years since I saw this slow white guy on a Portland State Viking squad, which offered no scholarships for basketball, who could bury shots from around 30 feet away???
To really stretch the envelope, a la how golf tells us the exact distance from a shot to the hole, down to the inches, there could come a day when EACH MADE SHOT has a different value, which a computer could instantly generate when the ball swishes through the net.
For example, say about 10% of shots from 32 feet go in. Then maybe they’d be worth 6 points, at least, since close shots, even dunks, are worth 2 points.
Finally, if the NBA was truly interested in making the game a team sport, a simple rule change would do it---raise the rim to 11 feet, OR MORE---say 12 feet, so that a dunk would be impossible. This will never happen, though, eh?
Anommynous| 6.14.11 @ 9:46AM
Was Miami really the best team? The Mavs were playing the best ball throughout the playoffs. Ask the Lakers. Maybe over the course of the season the Heat were the better team, but the Mavs were clicking at the right time. They were the best team when it counted.
Bob Grant| 6.14.11 @ 11:21AM
If the final consisted of one winner-take-all game then an argument could be made about which is the better team after it's completed.
Because Miami's regular season schedule is different than Dallas' AND a seven game series was played between the two teams, an on-going argument about which is the better team is the ultimate demonstration of mental masturbation.
Doorgunner| 6.14.11 @ 10:03AM
The NBA is to basketball what the WWE is to wrestling... or, say, what clown college is to Oxford.
Let me know when any of you think the NBA champs are actually the best team in the world, or could even take a series from the NCAA champs... with NCAA officiating. You know, where they actually call the offensive fouls.
canuckistani| 6.14.11 @ 10:34AM
The same could be said for any major league sport with a strong NCAA feeder system.
The big difference in basketball is that ALL of the players on the floor are highly skilled professionals. NCAA is the platform for budding superstars to runs circles around lesser opponents, where one or two in any starting lineup MAY be considered for the NBA.
The size and speed on NBA-ers would swamp the national champs. The Olympics is a perfect example where NCAA officiating is applied and the US pros still have a significant advantage over high-quality system teams like Germany, Greece or Argentina.
Le Cracquere| 6.14.11 @ 12:34PM
The NBA is a professional organization actually designed for the express purpose of playing basketball. It is not designed for any other, nobler purposes upon which its athletic pursuits are parasitical and inherently corruptive. Permanent, inherent, prima facie advantage: NBA.
JimH| 6.14.11 @ 2:04PM
To say nothing of traveling.
johnd2| 6.14.11 @ 10:07AM
The difference between the Mavericks and Heat was not talent. It was the difference between strategic planning and individualing hotdoging.
canuckistani| 6.14.11 @ 10:20AM
It was also interesting how much Cuban had changed this time around.
Last time, he was planning victory parades and vomiting bravado into every microphone in front of him. This time, he nearly said nothing the entire playoffs. Amazing.
Captain Dirk and Jason Kidd also changed after stinging defeats in previous finals. Watching Dirk sacrifice the way he did in game 2 was reminiscent of Celts and Lakers of old that had zero left in the tank when the buzzer went. 100% effort by multi-millionaires is rare and his Final Four-like gutsy play is remarkable.
The lesson? Even grown men can change and mature.
James will have a long summer to stew on this one and only he can decide if the reward is worth the sacrifice. No one can lead men of his talent, it has to be self-motivated.
I am not a Mav or Heat fan, but marvelous basketball and a great series.
Joe D.| 6.14.11 @ 10:24AM
Were they the better team? I think not. Just because they had 2 superstars and an overrated Chris Bosh does not mean they were the better team. Magic, Jordon and Kobe are better players than LeBron. So I hope this ends the discusion.
NoGoBlue| 6.14.11 @ 10:26AM
"The Miami Heat was the better team. But being the better team is not enough. You still have to go out and win…."
Nonsense. Nothing more than an excuse for a team that couldn't get it done. The best team did win and their name is the Mavericks.
Maddox| 6.14.11 @ 10:54AM
Money can't buy you love, respect, or happiness. It doesn't matter who you are or how much talent you are born with, it is how you conduct yourself that makes you a winner.
Brian B.| 6.14.11 @ 11:27AM
I agree with the others that the Mavs were the better team; while the Heat may have had three of the top four or five individual players. Also, LeBron's new nickname is "Trey", because that's how many points he averaged in the fourth quarter of the finals. I knew the Mavs had game 6 won when I watched one Heat possession with about five minutes left and the Mavs with a 9 or 10 point lead. At this point, it was still a game, and the Heat players treated the ball like a hot potato. No one wanted to be the guy to miss a shot. I somewhat expected it from LeBron, but not from Wade, who singlehandedly beat the Mavs in the Finals in 2006. It was a team (including the coaches) that beat a collection of individuals.
Michael L. Hauschild| 6.14.11 @ 11:36AM
Lighten up gang, I don't even watch basketball. Therefore all I see is the fact he has given two million dollars to fund community service projects. When you can jump as high as this guy and donate the same amount of money he does, get back to me.
ChocolateJeebus| 6.14.11 @ 3:16PM
This article and these comments are about the sport of basketball and an individual who plays the game, not a philanthropist. Perhaps you should find another article in which to spew your off-topic pablum.
Michael L. Hauschild| 6.14.11 @ 5:40PM
"I'm sure King James is crying into his ruby-filled solid gold cereal bowl about his lack of integrity and spine."
Follow your own advice, butthead. You are telling us a whole lot more about yourself, than you are about me, or Mr. James.
Ed| 6.14.11 @ 11:56AM
If LeBron is really serious about winning an NBA championship ring, he should see a sports psychologist (or a regular one) during the off season. He has a deep-seated block about "closing the deal", which he has demontrated at Cleveland and at Miami. His high school won the Ohio state basketball championship three times, but he hasn't shown that kind of "killer instinct" since then. At this rate, he is never going to be in the very top rank of NBA players.
ChocolateJeebus| 6.14.11 @ 3:18PM
I'm sure King James is crying into his ruby-filled solid gold cereal bowl about his lack of integrity and spine.
Dan| 6.14.11 @ 3:47PM
This should be posted somewhere so LeBron will see it every day. 1. I'm 6'8", 250 lbs and need to develop an inside game. 2. I need to develop my mid range jump shot. 3. Three point shot needs work. 4. Find a sports physcologist. 5. Hire a PR person so I don't say stupid things. 6. Tell Scotty Pippin to shut up.
Mark G| 6.14.11 @ 5:01PM
7. Work on his free throw shooting. He sucked from the line.
Any NBA player that cannot shoot at least 50% from the line at clutch time needs to spend more time in the gym.
Jach Harrison| 6.14.11 @ 9:00PM
How about one more:
8. Develop some character. Dirk Nowitiski might be a decent role model.
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.14.11 @ 4:20PM
Jay,
Who gives a damn?
Our country is going down in flames and you give us basketball scores?
Just how dumb are you?
Sir, you are a dumb SOB!
gary siebel| 6.14.11 @ 5:01PM
Dirk was the better player. Heat couldn't stop him driving to the hoop when he really wanted to.
Nobody is crediting the Mavs defense, they are just ragging on LeBron. But the defense prevented most of LBJ's drives to the hoop, which he was not accustomed to and it rattled him, and he had no alternate plan of attack. His 3 point attempts were way off the mark at the end of both of the last two games; they were also inadvisable shots at that particular moment, which revealed his lack of mental depth.
The media is part of the problem -- worshipful couch potatoes who have no clue how to actually play the game, but elevate people to hero and celebrity status for their own ends, then blame the person for failing to deliver. Great dunks do not a great player make.
JustJim| 6.14.11 @ 5:56PM
I beg to differ. The Heat were not the best team, not even close. At best, you could say that they had the greatest collection of individual talent in the playoffs.
The victory and the title go to the best team; the one that played as a team, the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs showed that basketball is still a team sport and that true teamwork can overcome individual talent in any given game. Even when the other side has three of the "best" players in the league.
juan zorro| 6.14.11 @ 11:07PM
Poor Jay Homnick!
It is obvious he fell victim to MSM Groupthink - a liberal disease. He soaked up all the Heat Hype and the premature escalation of James to Champion. Very little was written about the lowly Mavs.
Was the Heat a better team? Uhh, no. Mav starters matched up with and usually beat the Heat starters. Mav bench contributed more than Heat bench. Heat was outscored when The King James was on the floor. Ex audio visual coordinator Heat coach was outcoached by Mavs Coach.
Dallas Mav's Hardwork, Guts and Humility - 1
Obama-like arrogance in tda' Heat - 0
Gotta love it!
weddingdresses | 6.15.11 @ 4:27AM
Article is very interesting,thanks for your sharing.I will visit this site.
Jack| 6.15.11 @ 9:27AM
"The Heat was the better team." I don't think so. I watched the game last night with friends and the thing that amazed me was the broadcast--the commentators just couldn't say anything positive about the Mavericks. They were still talking about Wade's "amazing athletic ability" as the final seconds ticked off the clock and the Mavericks realized they had won the championship. I'll take Dirk's passion and work ethic over LeBron & Wade anytime!
Richard Baker| 6.15.11 @ 9:17PM
If he's meant to be a Champion then he will. Remember folks, whether it's a Mickey, Willie, or Jordan or any other sports star, it is still a game and not life itself. James will succeed if it's meant to be. Period. Leave the guy alone.
Claudia Monteverdi| 6.16.11 @ 1:24PM
Dear Jay,
I am utterly vanquished by this paragraph which thou spake.....Maimonedes? Montaigne? Mackiavelli? they dwarf in comparison, so very diminished by you words..
BRAVISIMO MAESTRO
"..........There is a lesson in all this for you and me as we
plod through the chore of routine, catching only a glimpse of the ethereal. We
think often that the big moment of our dream is right around the corner, that
only happenstance is thoughtlessly blockading the path. That may well be true,
but when the call comes, will it find us suited for battle? Or will we be
confronted by a shortfall of mettle, as the deficiencies in our spirits are put
on display?...."
Claudia Monteverdi| 6.16.11 @ 1:32PM
again Jay, on another subject, you bulls eyed the problem " ....Yet he could not discover within himself the heart of a champion......"..We have had a quite recent exhibition of this "Heart of a Champion" in the performance of SHACKLEFORD in the Preakness. Here was this rather non-distinguished beast, 3 years old and never a distinguishing moment, the scion of a quite average "family", little to commend him in his breeding, and what's more a nervous critter who was finally coaxed, or forced into the starting gate by 6 stalwart grooms. In a trice he found his heart of a champion, took the lead and never looked back at the fine thoroughbreds in his wake.
In doing so, against all reaso and odds, he showed us how the spirit of the Creator must be in one, man or beast, in order to experience that magig moment which Jay so eloquently defined.
Yours,
Claudia