Sorry Commish, but basketball is a team sport. Exciting teams are more captivating than an exciting player on a decent team. Even if that player is LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. What is more impressive, the LeShot or the Magic-reaction? I pray to Wilt that the Magic and the Nuggets meet in the NBA Finals so I can watch two fast, spirited and talented teams with personalities light it up for seven games. Watching LeBron or Kobe in this series is like having a stiff drink. I prefer the pure joy of a banana split.

The classic karmic smackdown for LeBron was Game 3. 2 of 15 from afar, after boasting of having a range with no end in sight. I remember when I sunk a near half-court shot in the 4th quarter when I was in 8th grade. I, too, developed an overconfidence in my range. And as LeBron went so did his team. With every blown free throw and bomb from beyond the arc his teammates lost some swagger.

Perhaps it was the news that the Cleveland Cavaliers have sold a portion of the team and building in an effort to insure that King of the World LeBron can reach his billion-dollar status from teeny-tiny Cleveland that soured his teammates. Nah. They just played badly. But that news didn’t sit well with me, mainly because of the timing. But also because I’m over the excess and need for global domination, on any level. Just play ball, man. Don’t orchestrate it. Let it come to you.

The real lure of this game, and the future of it, lie in the arms of Birdman and Superman. Big market may speak ratings, but this is a basketball series, not sitcoms vying for ratings during May sweeps. Sometimes you just have to look away from the coin to discover the real tipping point. China may adore LeBron, but the Unites States loves the scrappy. This year scrappy has come to rest on a mohawk and dude who looks like Ron Jeremy. Basketball fans, rejoice!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 11:08 am and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.