Last night, the gorilla jumped off the back of the Mavs and landed on top of the huge gorilla that was already sitting on LeBron James’. In fact, the way this season and NBA Finals played out, there may be an entire family of apes congregating on The King’s back.
LeBron and the Miami Heat gave everyone outside of South Beach a reason to celebrate. A heavy favorite going into the NBA Finals, the team squandered a two games to one series lead and stood by and watched as the visiting Dallas Mavericks hoisted the NBA Championship trophy on their court.
Jason Terry lead all scorers with 27 and Dirk Nowitzki added 21 after a cold start to take Game Six 105-95 and win the first title in Mavericks’ history.
After LeBron labeled himself “The King” in Cleveland then ran off with his “Loyalty” tattoo to South Beach without a title, he later announced he was ready to win “not five, not six, not seven…..” in Miami.
Striking out in his first attempt with All-Stars like Chris Bosh and Dywane Wade by his side will make even more fingers point in his direction. While people like to compare LeBron’s talents and abilities to Michael Jordan, the huge difference is Michael has too many NBA Championship rings to fit on one hand, literally.
We don’t have to beat the dead horse on how and why America hates LeBron and the Heat. What makes sports entertaining is having villains and the Big Three in Miami had become just that.
Most couldn’t have scripted it any better than it played out.
After winning Game One, LeBron’s Heat had a 15-point lead late in Game Two and he was on a run that looked certain to lead to his first NBA Championship. That’s when he and teammate Wade started the chest-bumping and celebrating in front of the Heat fans and Mavericks bench.
That’s when the wheels fell off and the saying “It ain’t over ‘til the Fat Lady sings” came into effect.
The Mavs found the strength to overcome that 15-point deficit on the road and pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in NBA history. After a Game Three loss, they put together a three-game win streak to close out the Heat 4-2 in the series.
To the delight of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and a majority of basketball fans outside of Miami, LeBron was almost non-existent in the fourth quarter of the entire finals. He did have a solid defensive performance in Game Three, the last game the Heat would win this season.
We discussed prior to the season how there’s only one ball and for three stars like Wade, Bosh and “The King” to keep it in their hands often enough to get into a rhythm would be a greater task than it may have seemed.
Although Wade found his rhythm throughout much of the series and the other members of The Big Three had their moments, when it was all said and done, it was proven that you cannot always “buy” an NBA Championship.
MORE LeBron:
Photo of LeBron James “Loyalty” tattoo – Sports Climax
Cleveland Laughing as LeBron loses – CNN Sports
Dan Gilbert Spanks LeBron – Sports Climax
Originally from Detroit, Tom is an Atlanta-based sportswriter whose work has been published in the New York Daily News, Washington Times, Detroit Free Press and national hockey mags including The Hockey News (Canada) and USA Hockey Magazine. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomFerda
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year’s NBA Playoffs. This time, surrounded by NBA All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the jerseys were different but LeBron again took it on the chin.