The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the new world champion Golden State Warriors in six games last night. Check that, LeBron James fell to the new world champion Golden State Warriors in six games.
I know LeBron is now 2-4 in the NBA Finals. I know that his record alone would pale in comparison to the all-time greats. And I also know that one of those Finals he wet the bed in the worst way (vs. Dallas).
And while LeBron is sub-.500 in NBA Finals, I am not going to clown “The King”. In fact, I think his performance in the 2015 NBA Finals enhanced his legacy.
Think about it for a minute.
His Cavs already went into the Finals two men down: a great offensive player in Kevin Love and a defensive stalwart in Anderson Varejao. And while the Cavs played well in Game 1, star point guard Kyrie Irving fractured his knee cap in overtime and would miss the rest of the series.
As soon as Irving went down, everyone (including yours’ truly) thought that the Warriors would sweep them. After all, how in the world would a one-man band win a game against the deep, young and powerful Warriors?
Well, not only did the short-handed Cavs win won game, they pushed the Warriors to six hard-fought games. Ya know how they did that?
LeBron James.
If we took LeBron off of that team, it would be a lottery team capable of being owned by my sorry-ass New York Knicks. Hell I could form a crew of four “all-DNP” NBA bench players and be competitive against that bunch.
Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, Timofey Mozgov and the Johnny-come-lately Matthew Dellavedova pushing the likes of regular season MVP Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Finals MVP Andre Iguodala (Curry should have won it), and Draymond Green? Really?
That’s a testament to LeBron and his leadership. He got every last ounce of grit and determination from that rag-tag bunch.
Unfortunately, he eventfully wore himself out and conceded the chip to Curry and his crew.
LeBron is feeling down in the dumps for not delivering the chip for NE Ohio. He was despondent as hell during the post-game press conference.
But he has nothing to be ashamed of. His performance in the Finals has created a new-found respect with me and many sports fans.
Man’s game LeBron. Much respect.
Categories: NBA
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