2012 NBA Finals Preview

You'd have to dig in the crates to find an NBA Finals quite like this where you have the two best players in the league facing each other, in their prime, for an NBA championship.

Jordan's Bulls vs. Magic's Lakers in '91? Maybe, though the argument could be made that Magic was getting long in the tooth.

Hakeem's Rockets vs. Shaq's Magic in '95? Probably a better example, though Shaq wasn't quite the dominant machine he would become with the Lakers.

The 2012 NBA Finals not only offers the two best players in the league going head-to-head for their first championship. It's the two best players in the league, playing the same position, guarding each other with everything at stake. This series is about more than LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant but try telling that to those amping up this NBA Finals. To them and, really, to all of us, this is the basketball version of Pacquaio-Mayweather. This is Jerry Rice being defended by Deion Sanders. It's Bob Gibson on the mound facing Hank Aaron. After years of championships being won by historically great teams, it's the individual matchups that will draw all the attention when the series tips off tonight. Beyond James vs. Durant, there's Dwyane Wade vs. Russell Westbrook, Chris Bosh vs. Serge Ibaka, James Harden vs. Shane Battier. It's a collision of two young, supremely athletic teams where the best six or seven players on the court are either in or nearing their prime(with the exception of D-Wade, whose prime is starting to slip).

It's just what the doctor ordered after the season the NBA just had, which brings me to the other reason these Finals are significant.

The NBA lead off last fall with the same PR nightmare the NFL tried and, inevitably, did avoid: A season marred by labor strife-related work stoppage. Fans were quick to turn on the NBA after the league had to cancel nearly the first two months of the season while trying to hammer out a new CBA. When it was announced that basketball would return on Christmas, many who watched how the lockout took a toll on the NFL in terms of injuries and overall sluggishness(especially on defense) were scared that the NBA was in for the same damage. We expected a season filled with costly injuries and high scoring affairs where defense was as common as a Harlem Globetrotters show.....and matters were about to be made worse.

As if being embroiled in a labor strike wasn't enough of kick to their public relations groin, the league really opened the door for conspiracy theorists laying in the woodwork when it completely botched the Chris Paul trade. Time will tell whether the league, then operating under the best interests of the New Orleans Hornets, made the right move by nixing the win-now trade agreed upon from the Lakers in order to take a Clippers offer that had more future perks. The fast-paced entertainment of the shortened NBA season eventually took some of the attention off of the Paul debacle, even though CP3's MVP campaign in L.A. still left a sour taste in some people's mouths. Still, even throughout the season, the league was hampered by another trade mess: the on-again, off-again trade demands of Magic center Dwight Howard. When Dwight finally lost his game of chicken with Orlando and foolishly agreed to not opt out(a move he now admits he regrets), the league seemed to steady the ship the best way it knew how and got a lift from a surprisingly entertaining postseason highlighted by the emergence of the 8th-seeded Philadelphia 76ers(yet scarred by the torn ACL of last year's MVP Derrick Rose). This year's playoffs saw the return of the old Heat-Knicks rivalry, the return of the San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics and teams like the Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers making their case as sneaky teams to watch going forward. Yes, all was finally well in the world of hardwood.

Then, the NBA lottery happened.

When the still-league owned Hornets won the NBA lottery and the chance to acquire the Draft's only franchise-changer in Kentucky forward Anthony Davis, everyone still salty over the Chris Paul deal sharpened their pitchforks and lit their torches and headed back towards league offices for David Stern's head. If that wasn't enough, every great playoff game seemed to be hamstrung by some questionable officiating. When the Miami Heat came back from down 3-2 to win the Eastern Conference in 7 games, cynics threw up their arms in disgust and were dead set that the fix was in(another lucky break for the NBA after the Heat advanced: Boxing signing its death certificate with one of the worst scoring decisions in the sport's history, awarding Tim Bradley a win over Pacquiao after Pac-Man dominated Bradley for 12 rounds. To say that the Internet was on fire after the split decision was an understatement. Suddenly, LeBron James making his second straight NBA Finals didn't hurt as much.).

The truth is this, and this has been pointed out on several different websites so I'm already aware that I'm not breaking new ground here, the NBA was going to deal with people crying foul regardless of who won the lottery. Could you imagine if Cleveland won, two years after LeBron left and a year after winning the #1 pick with the draft choice they acquired from the Clippers? Or how about Brooklyn, just a few months away from opening its grand basketball cathedral in Brooklyn? What if they won the right to draft Davis and give the Big Apple ANOTHER potential big star? If the league was going to rig the lottery, why would they agree to send Anthony Davis is New Orleans of all places? I mean, I'm a Hornets fan and I have a hard time understanding that one. A team with the 4th-worst record last year that's a cluster of bad contracts and role players that's 12 months away from losing the centerpiece of the Chris Paul trade in Eric Gordon? THAT'S the team the league hand-picked to send it's next big thing? Why? If the league somehow forces the Magic to give Howard to the Hornets for Gustavo Ayon and a future 2nd-round pick, then I'll be the first to smell something's up but, until then, I'm not buying it. I'm always looking for reasons to be skeptical but.....this? I just can't see it. You can call it bias, but I think there were more entertaining options if the league wanted to screw us.

Regardless, all of that negativity gets washed away thanks to the NBA Finals matchup we all wanted when these playoffs started. Durant and James have whet our appetite for this showdown by putting on some phenomenal performances in these playoffs. There was LeBron's Game 6 against Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals, which was almost matched by Durant's Game 6 to close out the Spurs in the Western Finals. Still, there's more interesting points to these Finals besides the fact it might save the NBA or we get to see two superstars battle it out.

Here's some other things to think about:


* This series comes down to more than just LeBron vs. Durant. I reiterate, this isn't a one-on-one showdown. For starters, if we learned anything from the two most recent Lakers-Celtics Finals, it's that the toll of having to carry the load offensively and then get back on defense and guard the opponent's best player inevitably wears you down. Tonight's Game 1 might be one for the ages and we may even get a couple other back-and-forth affairs between "The Akron Hammer" and "Kid Dynamite" but it's not going to be the made-for-TV movie we all dream it will be. The team that wins this series will be the team whose bench steps up the most. Obviously, that advantage goes to Oklahoma City as Miami doesn't have much beyond their Big Three. Oklahoma City has Derek Fisher, who may be washed up but has a reputation for coming up huge in big postseason moments. The only guy with those kind of clutch tendencies on the Heat is Mario Chalmers and I think we can all agree he's no Derek Fisher(although Derek Fisher wasn't Derek Fisher until he BECAME Derek Fisher. Confused? You should be. If Mario Chalmers is going to sharpen that buzzer-beater resume from his Kansas days, he's going to have to start somewhere. What better place than these Finals?). Beyond Fisher, there's forward Nick Collison, defensive stopper Thabo Sefalosha and young center Cole Aldrich. The Heat will combating that trio with guys like Joel Anthony and Norris Cole. That's not exactly a reason to get pumped in South Beach. So, yes, Durant vs. LeBron will be the main event and Wade-Westbrook is a great undercard but this series is going to come down to guys outside of the respective Big Threes.


* At the risk of stating the obvious, Dwyane Wade needs to come up big in these Finals. It's amazing how quickly Dwyane Wade morphed from an MVP candidate who owned Miami to a guy some have fantasized about trading in the offseason. D-Wade's postseason hasn't been terrible but it's been bad enough to wonder if he's lost a step. Skeptics are quick to point out the fact that he's 30. So? He just went seven games against a Celtics team that's two years from collecting Social Security and they were thisclose to facing a Spurs team lead by a guy in Tim Duncan that fans were reading the last rights to before the season started. Win or lose, Wade's going nowhere but it has been interesting to watch him wither under LeBron's spotlight. Lest we forget, we all thought LeBron would be the sidekick when he decided to take his talents to South Beach two years ago. Now, South Beach went from Miami-Wade County to Miami-James County. Wade isn't washed up by any stretch of the imagination. He just hasn't looked like the 2006 tour de force we remember. With that said, if people were ready to bury Flash before, a series against the younger, faster, more explosive and more athletic Russell Westbrook will do Wade no favors. Wade is one of the game's best two-way players and he's proven he can lock guys down but Westbrook will be the best guard he's faced all postseason and if having to play both ways is destined to wear down the much younger Durant and James, it's bound to be even worse for Wade(who seems like an elder statesmen among these young pups). LeBron's made it this far with Wade being underwhelming but he's also been lucky. The best team he's faced to this point was Boston, who was without its budding star in Avery Bradley and was just too old to be able to win its second straight seven-game series against a younger, more athletic opponent. This time around against a heavily-favored Thunder team, Wade needs to be James' Pippen and take some of the load off LeBron to keep him from tiring. James is coming off putting the team on his back for seven grueling games against the Celtics. It's asking way too much for him to do the same thing again in the Finals while also having to shut down the game's best scorer.



* Chris Bosh is Miami's only advantage in this series. We've mentioned the Thunder have the better bench. We'll agree that Durant-James is a wash and we'll also agree that, if you had to lean one way or the other, you'd take Westbrook over Wade right now. The other advantages for Oklahoma City? First, Scott Brooks is exponentially a better coach than Erik Spoelstra. Coach Spo looked lost at times against Doc Rivers and company in the ECF and even in some spots in the two series prior. He's been especially befuddled when it comes to drawing up a late-game gameplan and the alleged rift between him and Wade will only stand to get worse if the Heat start off slow. Meanwhile, Brooks' men love him and he's solved the main problems that plagued them last season: inexperience and the Durant-Westbrook alpha dog debacle. Now, everyone knows their role in OKC. This is Kevin Durant's team with some help from Westbrook and James Harden. However, if there's a plus in Miami's column, it's Chris Bosh's matchup against Serge Ibaka. Ibaka is one of the premier defensive big men in the game and he's proven to be able to guard stretch-fours like Bosh, but Bosh is crafty enough offensively to be a factor. Yes, Ibaka will have games where he throws Bosh's jump hooks into the bleachers. There will also be games where Bosh drops 30 on him. Bosh's return is what helped swing the Conference Finals in Miami's favor and his three-point shooting in Game 7 was a huge reason Miami is playing for the title again. Unlike Wade and James, Bosh doesn't have to worry too much about his opponent on the offensive end. Ibaka's big offensive output against San Antonio in Game 4 was a fluke. You're not going to see that again in these Finals. What you will see is Ibaka hustling on the boards and contesting shots. Bosh needs to keep him guessing and make life easier for James and Wade.



* Before you paint the Thunder as the good guys, remember the people of Seattle. Oklahoma City has embraced the Thunder and have proven to be one of the sport's best and most loyal home crowds. That being said, it's hard to get excited for the Thunder without feeling bad for fans of the Sonics. Remember, these people loved their team, too, and they had to sit back and helplessly watch them skip town and are now forced between rooting for them or the most hated team in the league. That can't be easy. Yes, it's unfair to hold what happened to the Sonics against Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who seem like two of the game's best role models and genuine good guys, but it's also unfair that Miami gets to wear the black hats by default. Many may disagree with how this Heat team was assembled but they did it by the book and they made the moves that fans clamor for their teams to make every summer. Every fan wants their team to sign the best free agents. Miami signed the best three of 2010. It's just as much a matter of business as the Sonics becoming the Thunder. We may not like it but it's crazy to think that one team deserves to be on a higher moral ground just because they built their team through the draft as opposed to throwing money at mercenaries. Dwyane Wade was Miami's draft pick. He chose to bring his friends to his house. There's nothing in the rules against that. There's nothing in the rules against moving your team to another city. It's just a matter of ethics. Both teams have reasons to draw ire. You can choose to hate whoever you want but, before you make the Thunder into heroes, think about how this must feel for the guys sipping vanilla lattes from Starbucks while watching the Finals in their Shawn Kemp jerseys during a rain storm in Seattle. Dwyane Wade could have took the party elsewhere and left Miami in the dust much like ownership did to Seattle. He didn't. He brought the party to his table. Sure, he robbed Toronto and Cleveland while he did it but at least those fans still have a team to root for. Sonics fans can't say that anymore.


* Win or lose, LeBron James deserves our respect. You can hold a grudge against King James for "The Decision" if you want. He admitted it was a mistake and Cleveland has proven to be unfit place for a once-in-a-generation talent to succeed by picking in Top 4 three times in the last two seasons. In those two seasons, LeBron has made the Finals twice. He put on a performance only seen before by Wilt Chamberlain in his epic Game 6 masterpiece against Boston. As of right now, he's the game's best player. That could change if he gets outplayed by Durant but what should also change is all the vitriol the man has had to face since Day 1. Now, I will grant you that LeBron does do a little too much hot-dogging at times(hanging on the rim after the alley-oop in Game 7, putting his hand up like Sidney Dean in "White Men Can't Jump" after nailing a 30-foot jumper) and I've said many times that I disagreed with making his "decision" into a national spectacle. That being said, it's time to face facts. One day, LeBron will be champion. It might be by this time next week. It might be next season, but it will happen. He's the most explosive athlete this sport has seen since Michael Jordan and, whether Bulls fans want to admit or not, MJ would stand no chance guarding LeBron if both were in their prime. He's too big, too fast, too strong, too athletic and maybe even too talented. Is he BETTER than MJ? Time will tell. Right now, absolutely not, but you can't spend most of a decade building a man up to be a basketball god than be outraged when it turns out he can't walk on water or turn water into wine. LeBron James is human. You wanted him to get a better team around him so he could compete for championships and he did. He didn't go about it the right way but he clearly made the best decision for his NBA future. When his career is over, you will look back at all the time you wasted denouncing a man who couldn't live up to the lofty expectations that you put up for him. It took Jordan eight seasons, a Hall of Fame coach and the acquisition of one of the 50 greatest players of all-time to win his first championship. Jordan needed Pippen and Phil Jackson. James needed Wade and Bosh. Jordan competed against the Malone-Stockton Jazz, the Johnson-Barkley Suns, the Kemp-Payton Sonics. He never had to try to win championships against teams with three Hall of Famers in their starting lineup and, when he did try, he failed(Bird's Celtics, Isaiah Thomas' Pistons). This is LeBron's 9th season. At 27, this will be his 3rd Finals appearance. At the way athletes train and condition, he could play for another 10 years. He's not going anywhere. So enjoy him while you have him.

NBA Finals Prediction: Heat over Thunder in 7. Every bone in my body and beat in my heart says take Oklahoma City. Westbrook is going to own Wade. Brooks is going to school Spoelstra. OKC's reserves are better. James Harden is going to win at least one game by himself. However, a couple of things to consider. First, nobody gave Dallas a shot against a heavily-favored Heat team last year and the Mavs won in 6. Everyone thought OKC was finished after going down 2-0 to San Antonio and here they are. Everyone thought Boston was going to upset Miami after they won Game 5, yet here's the Heat. This has been a postseason of the unexpected(with the obvious exception of the Finals matchup we all predicted. Still, that prediction was in jeopardy two weeks ago). The Thunder may have more talent but Miami has more experience. This is Wade and James' third NBA Finals. They know from last year what not to do. Oklahoma City has made all the right moves. They can't be perfect forever. The first two games of the Spurs series proved that. Second, if LeBron and Durant are even offensively, James still gets the edge defensively. We've never seen Durant lock down an opponent the way James did Derrick Rose last year or make big defensive plays when it matters the way James did in Game 7. We also know Wade is better than Westbrook defensively and Battier is every bit as good a defensive stopper as Sefalosha is. It's not impossible to think that Miami can dig deep defensively and win a gritty, ugly game by throwing a wrench in this explosive Thunder offense. I don't know if you can have that same confidence with Oklahoma City.

Third, and finally, LeBron is due. When it looked like Indiana might pull off the upset against the Bosh-less Heat, LeBron persevered. When Boston had Miami on the ropes looking for the knockout, LeBron took their best punch and delivered a KO of his own. This is going to be a hell of a series between two evenly-matched teams and we'll remember this Finals for ages but if LeBron is ever going to get it right, it's going to be this time around, when he's the underdog against an opponent who will raise his game every night. Durant vs. James is going to be something special but, if I learned anything this postseason, it's you don't count out LeBron James

Fake NBA Headline of The Week: LBJ to Fans "Stop Calling Me Pippen"

(Note: With the 2011 NBA season in jeopardy, we here at BoomRoastedSports thought we'd fill the void by coming up with our own pro basketball stories until the players and owners can come up with some of their own that doesn't involve millionaires and billionaires fighting over money. These are fake stories based off nothing but our own creativity, so please don't try to take it and run with it when we post "Chris Paul Traded To Bobcats" in two months.)

LeBron James came into the NBA in 2003 with the expectations that he will, not might, be the next Michael Jordan. However, the man known as "King James" isn't bothered by his inability thus far to live up to the lofty goals of replacing His Airness. Instead, the 26-year old former MVP has other reasons to be frustrated.

"Every time I touch the ball, all I hear is 'Scot-tie Pip-pen!' from the crowd. It's getting a little annoying." James said after his Miami Heat lost 121-111 to the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday night. The close loss to the Hawks last night still gives M-I-A the 2nd best record in the East at 7-3 behind the surprising 8-3 Bucks and fourth best in the league behind the 11-2 Warriors and the 10-2 defending champion Dallas Mavericks. "I mean, Scottie Pippen was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history and it's an honor for my name to be paired with his but I'd like to think the home fans would be better than that."

Yes, that's right. Fans IN MIAMI have been not-so-subtly alluding to James being a second fiddle on a Heat team that came thisclose to an NBA championship. Part of the reaction may be due to the fact that James' teammate, Dwayne Wade, is the early season front-runner for the MVP with an awesome 33 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists per game stat line through 10 games for the 1st place Heat. After all, this IS Miami-Wade County, a fact not lost on LBJ: "D-Wade has made it known for years that this is HIS house. I get that, but I've always considered me and Dwayne equals. These people pay their money to see us play. They can do what they want, but I find some of the chants disturbing."

Being compared to "Flash" was something "The Akron Hammer" had to anticipate when he agreed to come to South Beach along with Chris Bosh last summer. However, James said there was a couple of examples of fan displeasure that went too far. "I saw a lady in the front row with a huge sign that said 'Delonte's better!' in big bold letters with a smiley face and a greater than sign above my name and, at first, I chuckled. Then, I looked closer and realized it was my mom."

The chants haven't been lost on James' high-priced teammates either. "It's unfortunate," said Wade, "You know, he could have just as easily went to New York last summer and lit up the Garden every night. He chose to come here and be a part of something that could be a big part of NBA history. Regardless of how I'm playing, LeBron's my boy and I wouldn't wish that kind of treatment on my worst enemy, let alone my teammate." Chris Bosh was a bit more coy: "I mean, at least the fans are recognizing him, good or bad. They care enough to scream at him. I get mistaken for Lamar Odom at least three times a week."

Perhaps, the All-Star forward will get a bit more recognition when the Heat take on Bosh's former team, the Toronto Raptors, on Friday night. As for James and the Pippen comparisons, Charles Barkley had a different take on things: "LeBron's no Scottie Pippen! Scottie got six rings! LeBron's got none! The fans need to be chanting 'Karl Malone' at his ass!"

Or perhaps "Charles Barkley".

A Lesson Before Crying

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, as he tends to do whenever there's a mic in front of him and a topic where he can unleash one of his witty quips, weighed in a couple days ago on the story that been more blown out of proportion than Christina Aguilera's waistline: The Miami Heat allegedly crying after blowing yet another lead in their loss to the Bulls.

Gabe weighed in on this earlier in the week and I realize I'm late to the dance on this one and that's mainly because this story is a non-issue. First of all, like Gabe said in his piece, what possible benefit does Heat coach Eric Spoelstra think he's getting by telling the media his boys are in the locker room crying like a bunch of ninnies? This guy is already on his last legs in Miami(regardless of what Pat Riley says, Coach Spo has looked overmatched in dealing with the big names on his roster. Those beady eyes bulge for a reason, Riles. The man's at his zenith), so what does throwing his team under the bus do for him or his squad? Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I'll believe players on the Heat are crying when I see tears with my own two eyes. I don't know why Spolestra would lie about something like this but I also don't know why he would even bring it up in the first place.

I've SEEN Terrell Owens cry like a baby in defending Tony Romo after another big Cowboys playoff loss. I've SEEN Adam Morrison get watery-eyed after Gonzaga's loss in the NCAA Tournament. Hell, I've even SEEN The Zen Master's boy Kobe Bryant cry for his wife's forgiveness after he paid his way out of those rape charges(On top of that, Phil's golden boy Michael Jordan cried after winning the NBA Championship). Yes, all of those were after games of significantly more circumstance than a pithy regular season game in March, but the point is people cry.
We get too caught up in the archaic vision of how we want our athletes to be. We want them to be grizzled manly men who find crying beneath them and spend their days as warriors battling out on the gridiron or the baseball diamond or the hardwood. The irony of that is that we follow these guys on Twitter or watch their reality shows because we want to see if they are normal human beings just like us. It's ok if LeBron goes on to carry the Heat to the NBA Championship this year, but if he cries during Sex and the City, well, then, he's a pussy. Athletes are human beings with abnormal human talents. Chris Bosh is a basketball player. He's not King Leonidas. If athletes possessed the gene to be without emotion or unable to feel sadness, they'd be politicians.

Back to Jackson for a second, Dr. Phil made headlines by saying the NBA was "No Boys Allowed" and said "Big boys don't cry, but if you're going to do it, do it in the toilet where no one can see you." One, nobody actually saw the Heat cry beyond a coach who must have been outside of his mind diming out his boys to the media like that. Two, since when does a hippie who spends his free time in the offseason dressing like Morgan Freeman in "Bruce Almighty" and contorting his body into "Downward Facing Dog" get to make fun of others being soft? Since when has Phil Jackson been the authority on manliness? This is the same guy who tried to mediate the Shaq and Kobe beef by talking it out and then shit his pants when he couldn't get both sides to align peacefully. Look, I'm not taking anything away from Phil Jackson. He's a great coach and has done great things with some supersized egos, but perhaps he should pass occassionally on the chance to offer up a sound byte....especially after his Lakers have now been swept by those wimpy deers in Miami.

This is a new age of athlete. Gone are days of Dick Butkus and Charles Oakley where are athletes never let anyone see them as anything other than captain of industry alpha males. Athletes in 2011 cry, make witty comments on social media outlets, milk injuries like a dairy farmer, praise God excessively and generally act like....wait for it.....human beings. I'd rather my athletes cry after a loss than chuckle on the sidelines like Derek Anderson on Monday Night Football. Every man on the face of this planet has let a tear loose. That doesn't make you less of a man. If I walk by Mike Tyson sobbing in a pet store in SoHo, I'm not going to walk up to him and say "Stop being a bitch, Mike!".

Ever since "The Decision", the Miami Heat have become the most compelling story in the NBA since Michael Jordan retired. Every game has overly critiqued. Every dirty look overanalyzed. Every dribble and shot beaten into the ground. For a week, we have wasted our time and energy on a story about athletes crying without one single photo of one single tear. That, not some bullshit overblown headline, is what really should make us all weep.

Can You Blame Him?

My friend Carlos asked me after tonight's Heat-Cavaliers train wreck how I, as a Packers fan who was recently jilted by former franchise face Brett Favre, could take enjoyment out of watching LeBron James put on a clinic against the team he carried for seven years.

My answer was simple: it's two different situations. Brett Favre quit his job and came back to find that his spot had been taken. He became salty and made things uncomfortable so he got shipped to New York. Enraged, he tried to make things work with the Jets but clearly he was looking for whatever angle he could find that would have him getting his revenge against the team that scorned him. When the Jets let him go, he found his angle by signing with the Vikings. His intentions were obvious: He was going to make Green Bay pay. Legacy be damned. Fans be damned. Former teammates be damned.

LeBron didn't go that route. His move from Cleveland to Miami wasn't personal. He tried for the first seven years of his career to be Cleveland's savior and realized it's not a job one man alone can handle. He needed help. When nobody wanted to join him in Cleveland, he brought himself to the party in South Beach. LeBron James wanted to win. He went about it the wrong way in his big one-hour me-fest on ESPN but his intentions weren't to shove it in Cleveland's face(even if that's how Cavs fans and owner Dan Gilbert took it). I understand Cleveland's hatred for LeBron because I, too, have hatred for a former icon who went astray. However, with any form of hatred toward a superstar who may or may not have spurned you(or, really, with anyone that draws your ire), there are lines. There are boundaries. It's one thing to chant "asshole" at your former meal ticket. It's one thing to boo him and his new mates during introductions. That comes with the territory. It's entirely another thing to take pot shots at the fact the man's father left him stranded as a child. "Who's Your Daddy?" chants? "Like Father, Like Son" signs? That's a bit much. It's hard to feel sympathy for a fan base that is so quick to strike below the belt.

If anyone is deserving of Cleveland's taunts, it might have been the home team. After all, fans paid good money to come and jeer King James......only to watch the team he used to play for yuck it up with their old buddy. Here was LeBron getting booed vigorously during every touch chatting it up with guys he left stranded during the summer. How does that not chap your ass as a Cavs fan? How about a few hard fouls? Some tough defense, maybe? A little aggression, perhaps? Instead, the guys on Cleveland's bench put on their best Derek Anderson impression laughing and joking while their team was getting pounded on like Cortland Finnegan. It was the biggest disgrace to the city of Cleveland since Bone Thugs N Harmony did a duet with Phil Collins.

In losing by 28 points at home(and, at one point, being down 38) to the Heat in a game where LeBron needed just three quarters to drop 38 points, 5 boards and 8 assists, the Cavs, to me, vindicated LeBron's decision to skip town. Outside of the opening quarter, where the excitement of the crowd gave them some adrenaline, they had no punch. They had no desire to win. They looked like a group of guys wanting what LeBron wanted: to get the hell out of town. Antawn Jamison, the guy who the Cavs brought in last year as one of the missing pieces to help win a ring for the King, doesn't even start for the team anymore. He came off the bench and, outside of the first few minutes, went back to being irrelevant. Daniel "Boobie" Gibson, who came back from the dead to drop 21 points and there wasn't another Cav who scored more than 11. You're telling me LeBron was supposed to stay put and play with THESE guys? Again, I understand the Cleveland faithful still being hurt by the fresh wound of their native son leaving but, come on, if any game highlighted the lack of talent that this front office had surrounded James with over the last seven years, it was this one right here. They had 13 turnovers. They shot 35% from the field. Against a team that had been letting opponents put on a rebound frenzy all season, no Cav had more than 8 boards against the Heat. This is after guys like Tyson Chandler and Zach Randolph were looking like Moses Malone in the paint against Miami.

Perhaps the booing should have also been directed at the clean-shaven man sitting with his arms folded, courtside, behind the basket. The man who, after years of shrugging his shoulders at building a team around LeBron, tried to deflect the shit storm headed his way by writing a well-publicized letter bashing his former star so he could get the city back on his side(and it worked). The man who continues to show a McDonald's french fries type of saltiness in his recent tampering charge against the Heat. Perhaps the boos should have been directed toward owner Dan Gilbert. How can Gilbert watch this Cavs team get beat on like Antonio Margarito against Manny Pacquaio and say, with a straight face, that LeBron made the wrong decision by leaving the Cavaliers? What exactly is there to like about this team? In a offseason where there were six big names(James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer), and a few other solid pieces(David Lee, Rudy Gay), the biggest fish Gilbert managed to reel in to replace LeBron was.............Ramon Sessions. Yes, the same Ramon Sessions who was the third best point guard on the Minnesota Timberwolves last season(and, yes, I'm counting Ricky Rubio, who didn't even dribble a ball for the T'Wolves last year).

Back to the fans for a minute, what point exactly were you trying to make by throwing shit on the court and getting ejected during the second half? I get it. LeBron left. You're pissed that you have to watch him now stomp all over the punchless remains of your favorite team, but didn't he do you a favor by not going the route that some(ok, maybe only me) would have liked him to go? If I was scripting LeBron's return to Cleveland, it would be like when "Stone Cold" Steve Austin turned heel on The Rock at Wrestlemania(cue Gabe giving me shit for the wrestling reference). There would be middle fingers in the air. I'd have him taunting the crowd. I'd have him pour that white powder into his hands and throw it dead into the face of Dan Gilbert. They would need Secret Service to walk LeBron out of Cleveland if I was running things. Instead, LeBron provided what some inside "The Q" could not: class. LeBron didn't respond to all the stupid things being yelled at him(Side note: Attempting to irritate someone by calling him "Scottie Pippen", a man who won six championships and is a Hall of Famer, when your city hasn't won squat is pretty lame on the "superstar insult" scale. Also, "Akron Hates You"? Seriously? LeBron's supposed to hurt by knowing the fourth largest city in Ohio thinks he sucks?) like Vince Young did after he got booed at home during the Redskins-Titans game. He sat out the fourth instead of pleading to go back in there and drop 60(which he very well could have done given the lack of enthusiasm the Cavs showed in guarding him). In the press conference afterward, he didn't bash those belligerent idiots who took shots at his fatherless past. He carried himself like a gentleman and he deserves a tip of the cap.

Look, I'm not a huge LeBron fan. I thought New York was the better move. I hated the fact he made his free agent signing into a televised spectacle and I find all the "Next Jordan" talk to be foolish until he wins a ring(and that's coming from someone who hates Michael Jordan), but, as someone who has been in Cleveland's shoes, it's time to shut up and get over it. Your team sucked, so your franchise player left when he had the chance. He thought the grass was greener on Miami's lawn, and after tonight, Cleveland.....can you really blame him?