Finally!

As a big LeBron James fan and supporter, the Heat victory last night gave me a feeling of vindication surpassed perhaps only by LeBron’s own similar emotions. His transcendent performance in the playoffs, unlike last year, continued through the Finals – and seemed to be a product of him enjoying winning rather than desperately trying not to lose. The Thunder had no chance after Game 2, when it became clear that LeBron’s play would not mirror that from twelve months ago. Basketball fans, rejoice: Finally, no more “experts” claiming LeBron is not clutch. No more turning on the TV to hear Skip Bayless incessantly and idiotically knocking LeBron at every opportunity (It seriously got to the point where he became so annoying and ridiculous that I began to question my stance on euthanasia). No more haters trying to convince us that, no matter what LeBron does on the court, titles are the only thing that can make a player truly great. This is bogus, by the way, as Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Steve Nash – four Dream Teamers and the best point guard of this millennium – can attest. These are the same haters who point to Kobe as the LeBron antithesis, as the archetypal “winner,” when the fact of the matter is that the last Lakers championship was won in spite of him – it took a Celtics choke job and Pau Gasol’s brilliance to bail Bryant out of one of the most painful game 7 performances in recent memory (6 for 24 shooting, 4 turnovers).

Just as these Bryant fans have attempted to fit facts to pre-existing theories when it comes to Kobe, rather than fit theories to facts, so too have the LeBron bashers hated him with their hearts rather than their brains. Loathe “The Decision” all you want, but it has nothing to do with his skills on the basketball court. But now, none of that matters anymore. LeBron has silenced the doubters and ascended to a new level in the eyes of the basketball-watching world. He has set the stage for an incredible Heat-Thunder rivalry for years to come. He single-handedly forced Jeff van Gundy to change his underwear four times during last night’s game. The haters should be happy – they can finally relinquish their doomed quest to convince us (and themselves) that LeBron is not for real, and can now instead simply enjoy watching the best player of our generation continue to churn out virtuoso performances night after night, season after season.

Given that I just wrote the above, what I am about to say might surprise you: this year’s Finals were about Dwyane Wade. Or, rather, they were about Dwyane Wade because they were NOT about Dwyane Wade (side note: who the shit decided to spell his name like that? Spellcheck is hating me right now). To me, the story of the Heat’s success in this year’s playoffs centered on the fact that Wade finally accepted that he and LeBron are not equals. That made all the difference between last year’s Heat and this year’s team. Last year, even though it was obvious that LeBron was the better player, Wade still viewed himself and his pal as 1 and 1A on the team (in his defense, even LeBron might have viewed things that way as well). This created serious problems, as the two of them never meshed and instead basically took turns being the man on offense. With no clear floor leader, last year’s team had worse chemistry than my second grade science project. Not only did LeBron and Wade not work well together, but Bosh never really found his role on the team and the non-Big 3 players didn’t seem to know whether to trust their basketball instincts or simply get out of the way. But this year, most notably in the playoffs, those problems disappeared. It became obvious that LeBron was the team’s leader and best player – partly because his performance dictated as much, but also because Wade gracefully stepped aside to allow him to become the clear number 1.

For the sake of the team Wade needed to adjust to playing off of LeBron, because, when it comes down to it, the two of them have very similar skill sets – athleticism, running the floor, perimeter defense, attacking the rim, rebounding, and passing – with LeBron being a little bit better in each of these areas. Because of their similarities, they could never complement each other on the court without one of them having the defined leader role. This made Wade’s seamless transition to the Pippen role of the utmost importance, and he played the role beautifully. At times we almost forgot about him because the Heat’s whole game plan was run through LeBron (How many times was the offense run through Wade last night? A handful at most.). He quietly averaged 23 points per game in the finals, rarely forced the action, and was there for big baskets and rebounds when they were needed. He was able to accomplish all of this without taking away from the play of LeBron, which happened all too often last season. Wade is an amazing player; LeBron is a superhuman one. Wade realizing this – and adjusting his game accordingly – allowed the Heat to take what was theirs.