So LeBron finally won one

First and foremost, congratulations to the Miami Heat for crushing the OKC Thunder in a lopsided Game 5 to finally be vindicated for the coming together of three of the brightest young stars in the NBA today.

I have to say it was definitely a very convincing win for the Heat, as they simply dominated the Thunder who in my opinion were a more complete team. In the end, the Heat - with their Big Three and their bevy of complementary players - stepped it up to a notch that the Thunder, with all their talent, just couldn't reach... not just yet.

Now that LeBron has finally won one, I hope that the NBA becomes a more balanced league once again. What with Anthony Davis heading to NOLA in what has been debated as a dubious "Unseen Hand" move by David Stern in some circles, and the emergence of young talent such as the Thunder, Pacers, and hopefully my Pistons, not to mention Lob City and Love City (Minnesota), the NBA looks to be more and more competitive in the years to come. I'm sure that San Antonio will continue to be competitive, as well as Boston and the Lakers. What about the Bobcats? Well, the losers of the draft lottery will have to content themselves with having the GOAT as their owner for some time.

LeBron winning his first championship trophy is significant because it validates all the hype that has followed him ever since he was in high school. A question was asked during he post-game interviews about how his winning a championship now is simply the right timing - that people were putting him under the microscope too much early in his career. I tend to believe that that might just be true. MJ didn't win his first until '91, a good 7 years after he entered the NBA. He went on to win 6. The case of Magic and Bird was different because they entered teams that were already winners to begin with. Kobe was also different because he a lot of those with Shaq. LeBron was ONLY LeBron for most of his career. A year after joining forces with D-Wade - who also won one with Shaq - and Bosh, and they finally got theirs.

I still don't like how they did what they did - getting together, but the fact that they did it? I'm fine with that.

So now, what's next? The NBA draft is coming up next week!

The BIG Finals

It's been a long time since I last posted here. Almost a year in fact. And it's that time of the year again, when LeBron tries to chase that ring that he has long been after. This time, he's up against a group of young stalwarts who have the collective talent to rival the Teen Titans or The Legion in comic book parlance.

The road to the NBA Finals has been interesting for Miami this year. They beat down on a New York team that didn't have its latest revelation at PG, lost its veteran PG, and whose PF lost to a fire hose glass encasement. They then squared off against an Indiana team that wanted to position itself as a gritty blue-collar team, and succeeded in 6 games. After that, they faced the proud battle-scarred warriors of the Celtic Kingdom, who looked to subdue them at times but just really looked outmatched overall.

On the other hand, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team led by twenty-something year-old players who dress up funny for post-game interviews. Their road has been interesting as well - meeting in a first round match-up with Dallas, last year's champions, and beating them handily, then moving on to face the Lakers and one of the most dominant players this side of the post-Michael Jordan era and giving them the boot, before going up against the Spurs, supposedly the "aging" cowboys of Alamo. That series ended with the Thunder on top as well, but not before being tested really hard.

So these are the two roads to the Finals - one paved with tests offered by two untested teams and a proud but outmatched roster, and the other filled with skirmishes against three of the last five teams to win championships in the league.

Who do you think had a tougher time? Who deserves the Larry O'Brien trophy?