I feel like a Twi-hard all done up for an advanced screening of Eclipse. Funny, considering I’ll probably be wearing mesh shorts and socks for tonight’s tip-off of the most anticipated NBA season ever.
Full disclosure: I’m a Lakers fan. Or at least I am when there’s a worthy adversary. At the beginning of the decade, I couldn’t help but root for Yao Ming and Manu Ginobili when Shaq and Kobe Bryant smashed their international entrails into the hardwood during the Lakers’ dominant run. This year, the team tries to three-peat again. But this year, there’s a beast in the East in the Lakers’ way, and it’s not a green monster with arthritic tentacles.
LeBron James on the Miami Heat is good for a fan like me. The superstar-studded Heat is good for you, too, and good for the NBA. Here are five reasons why:
You’ve heard it before. Every good story needs a good villain. Sport isn’t just simulated war or US Weekly for dudes. Every game, every season, every upstart dynasty is a story played out over time in front of our eyes. James, once the white prince (he was never a king in anything but name), has gone to the dark side. There’s a new hope for drama in the NBA.
Bryant is too old to hate. Maybe this is a corollary of the above, so let’s go Sports Guy and stick with movie analogies. It was preposterous that Liam Neeson could hold his own against Christian Bale in Batman Begins’ runaway train finale. Dennis Hopper might’ve been the bad guy, but I was rooting for the gray-beard to blow Keanu‘s body parts across the LA basin in Speed. Unless he’s got his finger on the button of a nuclear arsenal or Death Star beam, the old guy, in my mind, is the good guy. James has father time on his side. Bryant, finally, deserves NBA fans on his.
Only the greatest dynasties three-peat. It’s never been done in the NFL. In Major League Baseball, the Yankees did it several times and the Oakland A’s, once. The Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Islanders have all won three consecutive Stanley Cups. And in the NBA, the Bulls, Celtics and Lakers have three-peated. On paper, this Lakers team doesn’t look like one of the greatest of all-time. All previous “dynasties” rostered at least two shoe-in Hall of Famers. Pau Gasol might not get in even if the Lakers win this year. If they do, and if James never signed with the Miami Heat, future fans would look back and say this Lakers squad is the exception among the great teams that won three in a row. If, come June, the Lakers take down the Heat, they’ll be recognized as exceptional, and we really all will be witnesses to something great.
James is an incredible playmaker and his teams are tremendously fun to watch. Often compared to Magic Johnson at just 15 years old, James has displayed a once-in-a-generation combo of selflessness, strength and vision that allows him to lock onto impossible passing lanes and create opportunities for others on his team. He did it in Cleveland, averaging seven assists per game (APG) during seven NBA seasons. Last year, he averaged 8.6 assists, smashing the previous APG record by a forward (Larry Bird averaged 7.6 assists per game in ’86–’87). There’s a very real chance James averages 10 assists in 2010–2011. The stats will be phenomenal, but with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the receiving end of many of those dimes, the show will be even better.
Parity is for America’s other major sports. Rangers vs. Giants in the World Series? Saints as reigning NFL champs? Small market team X drinking from the Stanley Cup on a yearly basis? I want logic in my athletics, proof that one team (or a select handful) really is better than all others. In a parallel universe, Peyton Manning had a cup of apple juice before Super Bowl XLIV and the Colts hoisted the Vince Lombardi trophy. That kind of chaos doesn’t exist in the NBA, where star power, teamwork (hello Pistons) and logic reigns supreme. James’ move to South Beach was logical. He pushed his chips into the best hand to win the pot, if not to maximize shoe sales or endear himself to the world. The Heat will meet the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Unless, of course, they don’t. And wouldn’t that be awesome, too?
Photo 1 by katesheets via Flickr; Photo 2 by PR Photos.