The “Heat” Is On

The Miami Heat as a franchise is only twenty-four years old and already have two championships. At twenty-four Dwayne Wade had won his first championship with a dominating performance against the Mavericks. When LeBron James was twenty-four he had already been named league MVP and experienced his first taste of Finals failure. This soon led to a year of speculation about the “Kings” future, followed by “The Decision”, which led to the formation of the “Big 3”, which led to another Finals fail. Followed by LeBron jokes, Wade questions and Chris Bosh tears. You can say that coming into the season the Heat was on in Miami in a negative way. Critics said if they didn’t get it done this year then the “Big 3” would have to be broken up. The same critics said that Erik Spoelstra would lose his job just as fast. They questioned the Heat’s big men, their point guard and another let down meant that no one was safe. How did one group of guys become so overly scrutinized so fast? Well let’s go back a few years.

In 2002 James appeared on the cover of Slam Magazine as a high school junior and right then was deemed the next great one. It didn’t help at all that he wore the number 23 and carried the nickname of “King James”. This all made the expectations extremely high but early on James did a good job of living up to the hype as he dominated high school and made himself the number 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft in 2003.

In that same draft Chris Bosh went number 4 to Toronto and Dwayne Wade went number 5 to Miami. Their paths were different then Lebron’s but some how found their self in similar position. They were all Given the Keys to franchises at very young ages.

Bosh played 7 personal successful seasons in Toronto were at his peak he was a consistent double double guy,a perennial all-star, and arguably the best power forward in the league, but team success never came in Toronto. Many questioned Bosh ability to lead a team. He wasn’t Tim Duncan and his reputation took its biggest hit in his final season when the Raptors were making a playoffs push and he went down with an injury and couldn’t finish the season. Many thought that Bosh gave up on his team and he was more concerned with free agency.

Wade made an immediate impact for a playoff team in Miami and year after year kept the Heat in contention. It was the arrival of Shaq, the collapse of the Mavericks and a Jordan like performance from Wade in the 2006 NBA finals, that help put Wade’s name on the list of greats with many years to come. The next few years weren’t as good. Wade dealt with injuries and the Heat hit the lottery ranks and the next ring was looking like it would never happen.

While in Cleveland, James won 2 MVP’s, multiple all-star appearances and even an Olympic gold medal. His Cavs were swept by the Spurs in the 2007 Finals. The Cavs had multiple season as the regular season champs but couldn’t turn that into post season success and in his last playoff series as a Cavalier many people suggested that LeBron may have quit on his teammates.

The summer of 2010 was the biggest summer in the NBA. With all the big name free agents that were available and all the big market teams with money, that summer would set the tone for the next ten years in the League.
Then came the decision, mistake number 1. Next the pre celebration parade, mistake number 2. Followed by the inability to come through in their first season and you have the most hated team ever.

LeBron had the most to prove this season. After back to back playoff failures James had to listen to all the doubters that said “he will never be a great on the level of Jordan or even Kobe”. He had to listen to all the jokes including some of my favorites like, LeBron should play Hockey cause they only play three periods. James came into the season determined to prove the “haters” wrong and racked up another league MVP. Lebron knew that whatever happened in the regular season meant absolutely nothing and everything was riding on his playoff performance and man did he perform. Game after game series after series James carried the Heat to the Finals. With Bosh out and Wade struggling at times with an injury of his own, James put together one of the most dominating performances in an entire playoff but it would all mean nothing if he didn’t show up in the Finals. Standing across James was the man who was looking to still the torch that James carried all these years, in Kevin Durant. Durant was having an equally impressive playoff run and you could see the hunger in his eyes. LeBron stepped up and led his team with the help of his running mates and now the King finally has his ring.

Wade just boosted his chances of being mentioned right behind Jordan and Kobe as all time great two guards with his second ring. Spoelstra put his name on the short list of active coaches with rings. Believe it or not when Bosh retire his numbers will be comparable to all the other great power forwards of all time with as many rings as Barkley, Malone,and Garnett combine. This ring means a lot for all parties above but it probably means the most to James because now you can’t say well he got the numbers but he doesn’t have the ring. He will still have to listen to he’s four behind Kobe and five behind Jordan but remember that Jordan didn’t win his first until the age of twenty-seven. So congratulations Miami Heat your only 6 rings away from your prediction.