Miami Heat Crowned 2012 NBA Champions
By Josh Hill
It’s finally happened folks. Either hell has frozen over or the Miami Heat, powered by Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and most notably LeBron James, are good enough to win a title.
I’m going with the latter.
Whether you like the Heat or not it doesn’t really matter because tomorrow when you wake up the Larry O’Brien Trophy will be in South Beach.
Rightfully so too. After flopping in Game 1 the Heat put the pedal to the floor and didn’t let up once over the next four games and closed out the Thunder at home in Miami. The Heat matched a Finals best 14 three pointers with 14 of their own with an insane 7 coming from Mike Miller.
But this is about LeBron and it always has been and love him or hate him he has finally gotten over a massive hump in his career — the all elusive first ring.
However if you have a gripe over the Finals it shouldn’t be with who won it should be with how it was won. Coming into the Finals we were told we were getting one of the best Finals match ups of all time and it honestly looked like that on paper. You have Miami and the Big 3 back to try and win the title they so desperately need to win and you have the young and dangerous Thunder.
Now that Miami has the title a lot of things change in the NBA. This is almost like a changing of the guard but not the way you would think. The Heat finally have their title and LeBron has the elusive ring he’s become more machine than man to get.
So in a way next season has already been deflated. One of the main draws to the NBA over the past two season has been about LeBron James and his struggle for a ring. Whether you loved LeBron, were a bandwagon Heat fan or you hated his guts you watched the NBA and in particular the Finals to see if your desired result was going to come to pass.
Now there is little to no drama about LeBron and his ring.
Finally LeBron can end the talk about how he’ll never be Jordan or Magic or Bird. He has his ring so all haters need to acknowledge that. There is no more drama in people rooting against LeBron, that’s all dead now.
But never fear my basketball friends this may seem like the end of all the excitement. Not only will LeBron’s haters and his critics dismiss this ring due to the 66-game season and the various injuries to Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose which cleared Miami’s path to a Finals victory, but the discussion now moves off of LeBron’s hunt for a ring and becomes LeBron’s hunt for 6 rings.
And if you don’t care about LeBron’s search for a ring because he has one now then turn your eyes to Kevin Durant and the Thunder who are now the Heat of the West. So not all is lost with LeBron finally wining a ring even though no one will vindicate him for it, bottom line is he still has one.
It wasn’t the ending to the 2012 NBA season that we thought is was going to be but it was certainly an interesting ride to the finish. We had injuries and failures mixed in with improbable triumphs and victories. An MVP fell while another finally soared to the heights he was always expected to reach. There was drama and firings but through it all the ride was never boring.
Here’s to the 2012 season and hoping the 2013 season tops it in every way imaginable.
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