James entered the series opener of the Eastern Conference Finals with his reputation intact as the most maligned professional athlete (non-felon or marital indiscretion division), despite his shiny new NBA Most Valuable Player trophy and the Heat’s three-game win streak. He may possess the ability to play with opposing players like marionettes, but he will forever be belittled as long as the fingers that are attached to the puppet strings are ringless.
If James is to end his personal nine-year drought and win a championship this season, it would take a shocking and immense performance against either the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder. Either finalist from the West would be favored in an NBA Finals series against the Heat, and the veteran Spurs and upstart Thunder would be immediate people’s champs against the Heat, in their figurative black hats.
As James polished off another standard 32-point, 13-rebound, three-block outing in a decisive Game 1 win over the Celtics, it was jarring to realize that just such immense performances have become everyday occurrences. James and teammate Dwyane Wade have accounted for more than half of Miami’s scoring in the playoffs, and apart from a brief 2-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals, James never seemed to break a sweat. Wade looked immobile at times and struggled with his shooting in stretches, but James continued to chug along with an assist here, a steal there, a rim-shaking slam dunk over there. He controlled Paul Pierce, his opposite number on the Celtics, at both ends of the court Monday, and there was no doubt who was the best player in the building.
Maybe fans focus on the things James can’t do, as opposed to the myriad things he can do, because it is so much simpler and quicker to list his few weaknesses. He can shoot, dribble, pass, rebound, defend both on and off the ball and, by all accounts, he is an excellent teammate. He cannot, um, fly. So there.
With a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter on Monday, Rajon Rondo drove the lane and deked Shane Battier out of the play. James watched patiently from the opposite wing as Battier sailed past and Rondo pivoted back toward the hoop for what should have been a wide-open hook shot. But James bided his time until Rondo’s eyes were locked on the rim and shifted over for an easy block. More accurately, the block looked easy because of how expertly James played it. James’ stuff was the ideal melding of a high basketball IQ with unmatched physical talents. It was a play Kevin Durant, the player most often mentioned as the rival to James’ throne atop the league, simply does not make, and James makes it with regularity.
The series is far from over between the Heat and Celtics. Pierce, Rondo and Kevin Garnett can never be counted out of the next game, no matter how rough they may look in the preceding game, and Doc Rivers makes adjustments as well as any coach in the game.
Yet the conversation about who is the best player on the planet is finished, and it has been for a long time. If James keeps this up, sometime around Game 2 of the finals he may actually take flight, just to knock one more thing off the list of things he can’t do.
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