Lebron James And The Miami Cavaliers Force Game 7!!

So I was slightly under the weather yesterday but it’s weird, I started feeling better last night at around 9 or 10 o’clock! I don’t know what it was, but I was just sitting there watching some basketball game and suddenly started feeling like a million bucks!! Cross your fingers America, OKC vs. Miami may still happen.  Most of the time I try to tell my audience on this blog to have some perspective – take the emotion out of it, that certainly won’t be the case Saturday night. I will be rooting for a Miami and OKC finals. It if doesn’t happen, I’ll throw a shoe at my TV and perhaps be back to being sick because I want to see it happen – and not just because Boston fans poured beer on Lebron as he left the court…stay classy Boston. What I saw last night was absolutely unbelievable!!

For a lot of you, and I’m numbered among you, who are like 19-24 yrs old you just see the highlights of Jordan. But you don’t know, unless you’re like 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, and watched every single Jordan playoff game (watched them all during the lockout this season).You forget this about Michael that he was allowed to push the pause button, he could take 3 or 4 minutes off – oh he was for sure the best player on the floor. But Scottie Pippen didn’t disappear for a series! Even before Pippen, in that game at Boston when MJ had 63 points, Charles Oakley dominated the glass and had a double double; Woolridge was all over the glass averaging 24 pts and 9 rebounds. You could depend on Michael to score and to be Michael – because he could re-energize and hit the pause button. He could also Re-amp up later after a quick break – in fact, you always noticed with MJ that he’d get those little beads of sweat on his head about twice a game when he was really shifting gears during a game.

But last night Lebron didn’t get that, Lebron wasn’t allowed to take a breather because the rest of his teammates were absolutely embarrassing! Michael was never asked to dominate the glass – in his 63 pointer against Boston, he had only 5 rebounds, the rest of his team had 45 rebounds. Last night, Lebron had almost every third rebound for Miami and he brought the ball up…and he pushed teammates away, so that he could defend their big. Do you understand what we all saw last night?? Michael was asked to score, Lebron was asked to do everything for 3 quarters. I would be humiliated today if I was a member of the Heat and not named Lebron. I’ve never seen anything like that – there was a jaw dropping stat in that game last night. Lebron made 15 unassisted field goals last night – a career high, he scored 20 points just in isolation. Do you realize what Lebron was telling his teammates? “Guys, I’m tired of it – I’ll just take over! I won’t even pass it and expect a pass back. I’ll just take the ball up the court, will never pass it and just try to score” that’s not a compliment!

Some of you are saying “ohh but Andrew, D-Wade had a couple of big shots…” do you know what D-Wade did? He is your buddy or the guy you think is your buddy who shows up and says “heyy, I heard you were moving today, I was coming to help you” yet 90% of the boxes are already packed. “ohh, woo we killed it then! Where’s the beer and pizza? We killed it!” No, we didn’t kill it. Thanks D-Wade for dropping a couple of shots when the game was already decided because Lebron had to do everything. Erik Spoelstra, Miami head coach – and this says it all right here. He has so little trust in anybody except Lebron with KG and Pierce already on the bench; that he wouldn’t pull Lebron out of the game until there was only 3:50 left in the game…pathetic!! He didn’t even trust Bosh or Wade with 4 ½ minutes left, leading by 20 pts with KG and Pierce out of the game…unbelievable!

Sometimes the media is all over the place with this stuff. Two nights ago “Lebron is joyless!” then last night “I love that intensity look” folks make up your minds! I don’t even know what ‘clutch’ means anymore but all I know is that KG didn’t play well, Pierce wasn’t there, Wade was milk carton bad “where did he go? He disappeared!” and Lebron was on every play for Miami. Absolutely, 100% responsible for everything, this is what Lebron said after – in one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen in my life from any player in any sport! “I will continue to be aggressive, continue to play at a high level like I have done for the entire postseason. I’m going to try to go out there and play my game, play as hard as I can and I don’t really care what the stats say and don’t want to regret Game 7 if I gave it my all” Yeah you shouldn’t Lebron because you’ve been remarkable!!Against the Celtics, you have to go back to Kareem Abul-Jabbar – the last time somebody in the first 6 games averaged over 25 pts against them, it’s just incredible!

Now, I’m not saying that he’s MJ because he’s not! But MJ, I have re-watched every playoff game MJ played in, even the ones Pippen wasn’t there. Jordan would get these beads of sweat twice a game – Michael was not only a great player, he knew when to be a great player but he could also push the pause button, he got time off and breaks. After watching all his playoff games on tape and his career in the late 90’s, two things that jump out at me about his career are that 1) early in his career, he had to learn how to shoot a jumper because he went to the rack way to much – just took a beating. 2) Michael was very good at picking his spots! But he had other guys – like last night was pathetic! If I’m Lebron James, I feel like I’m playing for the Miami Cavaliers! Seriously!!  Only difference? I’ve got better weather and an ocean view. Was Lebron intense or was Lebron angry? Here was Erik Spoelstra on Lebron’s performance last night, saying the right thing but not necessarily meaning it “Nobody likes getting dirt thrown in their face before you’re not even dead, but he showed great resolve a day before you get to this point and you could see it leading up to that . But he was fearless in the game and everybody followed from there…” no they didn’t!! That’s the problem. Nobody followed from there.

You can’t show up to help your buddy move when 90% of the boxes are packed and say “woo, we really killed it” noo, Lebron killed it you, his personal valet, parked the car for him. Unbelievable! For the record, Miami is an 8 point favourite over the Celtics for Saturday night – which I think is absurd!! Listen, I know banks are going out of business by the week, take this one to the bank, take Boston at +8. You have got to be kidding me! What the heck is going on in Las Vegas?? I get 8 points? whatever casino made that line will be out of business by Monday. That line was brought to you by the rookie gambling association of Las Vegas haha. Come on!!! Game 7, it’s the Big 3’s last game together and you’ve got Miami at 8 points? I mean, the one thing we know about this series is that outside Game 1, you can’t predict anything! If you think Lebron is going to play again at 73% shooting and Paul Pierce is going to be that bad again…your nuts!! We are going to have an unbelievable Game 7 on Saturday! It’s going to be one for the ages! Still get it why Boston fans would pour beer over Lebron. If I was Spoelstra, I would take that tape, play it in the locker room and at practice and show it over and over and over and over again.

Panic Button For The Miami Heat? There Is Only One Tiger Woods!

So since Day 1 of the blog, I guess you could say my mission statement has always been to add some perspective to the issues that arise in sports because there simply isn’t that much to begin with. Now, I don’t get frustrated as much with fans who don’t have perspective – your job is to be a fan, go ahead go crazy! You’re the Met fan who thinks because your team threw a no-hitter over the weekend that they’re going to win the whole thing. However when the media loses perspective, it becomes a very concerning topic.

For example, think about how different my blog would be today if Dwayne Wades 21 footer had gone in last night, 3 inches and it goes in. Its 3-1 Miami, Bosh is healthy, and it’s going back to Miami for 2 of the next 3 games…series over! Don’t kid yourself, Miami beat this same Boston team last year in 5 games and Boston was younger and healthier last year. My rant, if Dwayne Wade’s shot goes in – series over! But instead we go from a 3-1 series lead to absolute panic in Heat land. Yes, believe it or not, many are speculating  as early as this morning, the talk is starting up, Ric Bucher claims he’s got a source apparently saying “let’s break up Lebron, Bosh and Wade”  saying on the Mike & Mike Show this morning “…what’ I’ve heard is that if Miami, for whatever reason, falls short, that everybody except Lebron James would be available – that they’d want to clear the deck and that the only reason why they’d only hold onto Lebron James is as much because he’s the big ticket…he sells tickets. If you’re going to build around an element, it’s Lebron James and so everything else would be available and they’d clear the deck. Now I don’t know how much of that was just a message to say “if you don’t get it done this year, get those change of address labels ready” as a motivation. But the bottom line is that it makes a lot of sense”

What??? “Makes a lot of sense?” folks, if Bosh is playing last night, it’s 3-1 series over! He’s an 18 and 8 All-Star; they’ve got no interior scoring without him. This team was sub 500 this year without Bosh; they were 9-1 without D-wade. Chris Bosh is huge – and I’ve argued this for years that Wade is a better player than Bosh, Bosh is more valuable – there’s a big difference. John Stockton is a better player than Byron Scott but Magic worked with Byron Scott better than he would’ve worked with John Stockton who played the same position. Miami is 1-0 in the playoffs when Bosh has even played half the game, they’re 5-4 without him, so don’t confuse things. This series was a 5 gamer last year; it was a 5 gamer when Bosh was healthy. So we’re going to blow everything up because Bosh got hurt? Wow, like the Mavericks proved it last year – it’s about the fit. Right now, going into the playoffs in the middle of it, Chris Bosh got hurt…come on people! You can’t go crazy on this stuff. If Chris Bosh is healthy, like he was last year, this is not a 6 or a 7 game series, wasn’t it last year when Boston was arguably better!! We’ve got to slow this “blow the Heat up” bubble fast!! For the last 2 years, last year they got to Game 6 of the finals and this year they are in the Eastern Conference finals…without Bosh!! Now you’re asking Pat Riley to blow them up?? Slow down everybody; take a deep breath – if Bosh returns for 2 of the next 3 games, Miami will win the series. It would be nice however if somebody not named Lebron James would give you a good effort for Miami, but that’s the world he’s lived in his entire NBA career.

Remember after Rory McIlroy won the U.S. Open last year? “He is the next Tiger…” that was some golf expert saying that! Well to be honest, either your anti-Tiger or you have poor memories. Over a 10 year period, Tiger has won 64 times with 12 majors and has only lost 1 lead. Anybody that thought Rory McIlroy, over 10 years, was going to duplicate that is delusional or purely anti-Tiger. Rory Mcilroy my friends, in the peak of his young career, has missed 3 straight cuts. Tiger Woods has missed a total of 5 in his entire golfing career. Tiger Woods, who won yesterday, is now a victim of Tiger. He was so great that we don’t give him credit even when he’s really really good – which he’s been this year. Think about this, Tiger Woods in 11 tournaments this year has 2 wins and including those wins has 5 top 4 finishes. So that means that this year, Tiger has in 43% of the events, has either won it or was close to winning it. Every other golfer on the planet would take that today.

If I said that for 15 years of your golf career, 21-36 years of age – you enter 12 tournaments a year and 43% of the time you won or were close to winning it, you would become the greatest golfer in the sports history, would you not take that? Rory McIlroy has missed 3 cuts in a row yet Tiger Woods – according to Vegas, is a 6 to 1 favourite to win the U.S. Open, double the chance of any other golfer, Tiger is the only next Tiger. Now however, comes the inevitable question “are you back?” this was asked yesterday and he said “I don’t know, it’s a process…like back to what? I’m just always trying to get better regardless of where I am in the rankings and all. Reporter: Do you feel like the Tiger Woods of old? Tiger: I feel like an older Tiger Woods, yes…” perfect answer! Let’s stop trying to find or embellish what the next Tiger is.

We never demanded that Michael Jordan, when he was with the Washington Wizards, become Michael Jordan 6 years earlier with the Bulls. Unless you play baseball and took cattle steroids in the bay area, nobody is better as they get older after injuries. Tiger Woods, this year, in 11 tournaments, with 2 wins, 3 other top 4 finishes – is he going to be Tiger of a decade ago? Of course not! But he is still, right now, as good as or better than any other golfer on the planet and there will never ever be another Tiger. Appreciate history folks! It’s not going to be duplicated hence why they call it history.