Let me start by saying that the title of this Hate Diary Log is misleading. It should really be “I hate that I got overwhelmed by the hoopla over “The Decision” last summer and thought that the Miami Heat would cruise to an NBA championship in June 2011.”
That title is way too long and too introspective, so we’ll just say bygones and get to the crux of the matter.
Last night I watched the New York Knicks, a team basically 5 days old, (a baby, a zygote, an embryo) beat the Miami Heat on their home floor in a critical game. The game was critical to the Heat because in order for them to have any chance of representing the Eastern Conference, in this years NBA Finals, they must secure the #1 Seed in the East.
As currently constructed they can’t beat both the Bulls, and the Celtics in succession; they need them to beat the hell out of other and hope the winner doesn’t have enough left to put up a substantial fight. The Heat were already trailing Boston in the standings, and only 1 game up in the loss column on Chicago. They needed this game!
The Heat had no excuse, they had motivation, they had a formidable opponent, they were rested, and most importantly Spike Lee was in the house. As a basketball player, if you can’t get up for playing in front of Mars Blackmon then whom can you get up for?
This was a statement game and the Heat made a profound statement… They aren’t ready. They are flawed. Their best playing is a playground baller, with all the talent in the world but can’t seem to summons it in crunch time.
Lebron James’ game is best suited for the Rucker, and not for the Association.
I was mistaken to think that adding him to a team with two all-stars would suddenly change that. Last night in a critical situation down in the fourth quarter the Heat ran a 1-4 isolation with Lebron at the top of the key. Hummm where have I seen that before? Oh I remember, at the end of every playoff game the Cavaliers played over the last 6 years.
Bill Simmons, the best and most astute basketball writer in the country penned a fantastic article at the start of the season about how Lebron was a better player than Dwyane Wade and how that for them to coexist DWade must embrace his inner Scottie Pippen. I’m not doing the article justice; here the link please read it for yourself.
Sidebar
You need 20 minutes to read this. Simmons loves to write and his columns are magical. Magical is another word for wordy. Is wordy a word? The man wrote the Basketball bible a couple years ago and when I say bible I mean that it was both epic and over 700 pages.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/10129&sportCat=nba
I, for the most part, agree with Simmons saving this one caveat, Dwyane Wade is a better clutch player than Lebron James. He’s proven it. He’s was the Finals MVP in 2006 and single handedly won Miami its first championship.
If you asked me three years ago who I wanted in a big game my quote was “give me Lebron for the first 3 quarters, give me DWade in the first 10 minutes of the 4 quarters, and give me Kobe in the final 2 minutes.” 3 years later and my position hasn’t changed.
A player is either clutch or he’s not. Period. A clutch player needs the responsibility of having it all riding on his shoulder at the critical juncture of the game. A clutch player has the unique ability to clear the mechanism, and get to the place on the floor where they know they can produce.
Examine Lebron’s game. Where is his sweet spot on the floor? All the great ones have a spot on the floor where they do the majority of their business. Lebron is a freakish athlete that can physically dominate in non-crunch time. But when the opposition is strong willed and refuses to bend to his will, giving him the lanes to the basket, he then becomes a fraction of himself. When all the chips are on the line, teams aren’t going to give you anything; you have to earn everything.
An interesting aside, I was watching TNT on NBA All-Star weekend and tuned into a show about the greatest All Star in NBA history. The show was basically a fantasy draft of all stars. How would you build your team? Charles Barkley was one of the panelists, in fact he had the first overall pick. With the entire list at his disposal, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, he chose Allen Iverson. ALLEN IVERSON!
Allen “Ball Hog” Iverson
Allen “I never won anything meaningful” Iverson
Allen “Play ground king” Iverson
Allen “Practice, we talking about Practice” Iverson
Are you kidding me?
At first I thought he was goofing around, and then he let it slip that he didn’t understand the rules of the game. He screwed the whole draft up for me, but I thought about it further, and concluded he wasn’t prepared. He agonized over every subsequent pick, taking them all down to the last second before deciding. He was cracking under pressure. I find there no coincidence that he was never considered a clutch player during his career although he is considered an all-timer by many.
On that same show the biggest choker in NCAA and NBA history Chris Webber graced the panel. He too had difficulty making his picks. He was sweating every choice and seemed uneasy during the entire broadcast. No coincidence here. Webber was the most gifted big man in the 90’s but he called the ill-fated time out in the National Championship game that the Wolverines didn’t have, and he came up small in every playoff series he ever played in. In contrast Steve Kerr, who was a journeymen player in the league, was organized. He was cool under pressure. He drafted the best team, and never ran out of time with his picks. No coincidence that he is considered a clutch shooter and won many games in the playoff for his teams.
I mentioned those items to say that some people although great just can’t handle the added pressure of being great in the clutch. They don’t have the ability to clear the mechanism and go to work. The only chance the Heat have of winning a championship this year is to let Lebron dominate in the first 3 quarters and then let DWade embrace his inner Michael Jordan in crunch time.
That title is way too long and too introspective, so we’ll just say bygones and get to the crux of the matter.
Last night I watched the New York Knicks, a team basically 5 days old, (a baby, a zygote, an embryo) beat the Miami Heat on their home floor in a critical game. The game was critical to the Heat because in order for them to have any chance of representing the Eastern Conference, in this years NBA Finals, they must secure the #1 Seed in the East.
As currently constructed they can’t beat both the Bulls, and the Celtics in succession; they need them to beat the hell out of other and hope the winner doesn’t have enough left to put up a substantial fight. The Heat were already trailing Boston in the standings, and only 1 game up in the loss column on Chicago. They needed this game!
The Heat had no excuse, they had motivation, they had a formidable opponent, they were rested, and most importantly Spike Lee was in the house. As a basketball player, if you can’t get up for playing in front of Mars Blackmon then whom can you get up for?
This was a statement game and the Heat made a profound statement… They aren’t ready. They are flawed. Their best playing is a playground baller, with all the talent in the world but can’t seem to summons it in crunch time.
Lebron James’ game is best suited for the Rucker, and not for the Association.
I was mistaken to think that adding him to a team with two all-stars would suddenly change that. Last night in a critical situation down in the fourth quarter the Heat ran a 1-4 isolation with Lebron at the top of the key. Hummm where have I seen that before? Oh I remember, at the end of every playoff game the Cavaliers played over the last 6 years.
Bill Simmons, the best and most astute basketball writer in the country penned a fantastic article at the start of the season about how Lebron was a better player than Dwyane Wade and how that for them to coexist DWade must embrace his inner Scottie Pippen. I’m not doing the article justice; here the link please read it for yourself.
Sidebar
You need 20 minutes to read this. Simmons loves to write and his columns are magical. Magical is another word for wordy. Is wordy a word? The man wrote the Basketball bible a couple years ago and when I say bible I mean that it was both epic and over 700 pages.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/10129&sportCat=nba
I, for the most part, agree with Simmons saving this one caveat, Dwyane Wade is a better clutch player than Lebron James. He’s proven it. He’s was the Finals MVP in 2006 and single handedly won Miami its first championship.
If you asked me three years ago who I wanted in a big game my quote was “give me Lebron for the first 3 quarters, give me DWade in the first 10 minutes of the 4 quarters, and give me Kobe in the final 2 minutes.” 3 years later and my position hasn’t changed.
A player is either clutch or he’s not. Period. A clutch player needs the responsibility of having it all riding on his shoulder at the critical juncture of the game. A clutch player has the unique ability to clear the mechanism, and get to the place on the floor where they know they can produce.
Examine Lebron’s game. Where is his sweet spot on the floor? All the great ones have a spot on the floor where they do the majority of their business. Lebron is a freakish athlete that can physically dominate in non-crunch time. But when the opposition is strong willed and refuses to bend to his will, giving him the lanes to the basket, he then becomes a fraction of himself. When all the chips are on the line, teams aren’t going to give you anything; you have to earn everything.
An interesting aside, I was watching TNT on NBA All-Star weekend and tuned into a show about the greatest All Star in NBA history. The show was basically a fantasy draft of all stars. How would you build your team? Charles Barkley was one of the panelists, in fact he had the first overall pick. With the entire list at his disposal, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, he chose Allen Iverson. ALLEN IVERSON!
Allen “Ball Hog” Iverson
Allen “I never won anything meaningful” Iverson
Allen “Play ground king” Iverson
Allen “Practice, we talking about Practice” Iverson
Are you kidding me?
At first I thought he was goofing around, and then he let it slip that he didn’t understand the rules of the game. He screwed the whole draft up for me, but I thought about it further, and concluded he wasn’t prepared. He agonized over every subsequent pick, taking them all down to the last second before deciding. He was cracking under pressure. I find there no coincidence that he was never considered a clutch player during his career although he is considered an all-timer by many.
On that same show the biggest choker in NCAA and NBA history Chris Webber graced the panel. He too had difficulty making his picks. He was sweating every choice and seemed uneasy during the entire broadcast. No coincidence here. Webber was the most gifted big man in the 90’s but he called the ill-fated time out in the National Championship game that the Wolverines didn’t have, and he came up small in every playoff series he ever played in. In contrast Steve Kerr, who was a journeymen player in the league, was organized. He was cool under pressure. He drafted the best team, and never ran out of time with his picks. No coincidence that he is considered a clutch shooter and won many games in the playoff for his teams.
I mentioned those items to say that some people although great just can’t handle the added pressure of being great in the clutch. They don’t have the ability to clear the mechanism and go to work. The only chance the Heat have of winning a championship this year is to let Lebron dominate in the first 3 quarters and then let DWade embrace his inner Michael Jordan in crunch time.
