Bosh is shutting up the nay-sayers one game at a time.

LBJ made the right choice, he (or more likely his management team) needs to make better PR decisions. Cheers.

and people say that about lebron cause he calls himself “king”. i suppose, symbolically speaking, how can you be king when you can’t take the throne by yourself?

FTR, Shaq left Orlando entering the prime of his career to go play with Kobe and Phil Jackson. And he did not give Orlando a chance to trade him to get something in exchange. If your intention is to switch teams to have a better chance of winning, you are going to do whatever it takes to help the team your going to, not the team your leaving.

And if I saw Pat Riley sleeping on a nationally broadcasted program… I seriously doubt I was the only guy who saw it. Go back and check the footage…

And to answer your question about the 80′s Celtics. Larry Bird was drafted 6th in 1978. McHale was drafted 3rd in 1980. Danny Ainge was also drafted by the 1980′s Celtics. Robert Parish was traded for, but at least they Golden State Warrios received something in return. If James wasn’t so damn selfish, he would have allowed the Cavs to trade him before his contract expired so they could get something in return. Instead he spun them along and they came away empty handed.

1980′s Lakers – They drafted Magic Johnson in 1979. Kareem was traded for. Yet again another example of both teams getting something in return. He was also in his early 30′s when Magic Johnson came aboard. James Worthy was drafted by the Lakers in 1983. A.C. Green was drafted in 1985 by the Lakers. Byron Scott was acquired in a draft day trade for Norm Nixon.

1990′s Bulls – They drafted Michael Jordan, Horace Grant, Toni Kukoc’,
The Bulls traded for Bill Cartwright, but gave up Charles Oakley in the process. Scottie Pippen was acquired in a draft day trade. Steve Kerr was a journeyman who was on his forth team in 5 seasons by the time the Bulls signed him. Ron Harper was signed by the Bulls when Jordan retired the first time. Not to join him with the Bulls. Dennis Rodman was traded at the age of 34 to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 for Will Perdue. Which says a lot about his trade value at the time.

The Spurs drafted most of those players. The lakers of the early 2000′s only had two players on that level in Kobe and Shaq. Recent Celtics? Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are good, but not on Lebron’s or Wade’s level. Kevin Garnett was on the downside of his career.

So YES, I stand by my stance that the Heat bought themselves a championship. Lebron lost me as a fan the moment he quit on his team last year in the playoffs. None of the above mentioned stars EVER quit on their team during a playoff game. And don’t tell me he didn’t have talent around him. The Cavs didn’t make the NBA Finals on Lebron alone. Did he have the same level of talent as the Heat now? Absolutely not. But he chose to take the easy way out and sign with an all star line up and win a championship the cheap way. Do they still have to show up… sure they do. But it makes it much, much easier when you have Dwayne and Bosh around. Any top player in the NBA can make a clutch shot when the defense isn’t sure who is taking the last shot. The point I am trying to make though is a real man (like the players above) would have stuck by a team and helped them win a championship. He didn’t. He took the easy way out. And could he have been a Barkley or a Malone/Stockton and never win a title… yeah maybe. But at his age, their is no way of telling if that would ever have happened. He is talented and I assume he would have eventually won one. But Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Ewing, etc… never left their team behind while they were in their prime to join an all star cast via Free Agency. Lebron will easily be a top 5 NBA player by the time he is done. But he will forever be remembered as the guy who won a championship with an all star team and a lot less integrity.

While you are right about how poorly the Mavs shot, the Heat shot just as bad. The heat shot 73% from the stripe while the Mavs shot 78%. The Heat had 10 turnovers while the Mavs had 11. And finally the Heat shot 38% from the field while the Mavs shot 37%. Really a close game statistically, except for rebounding. In other words the Heat have a lot of room for improvement as well.

Overall our defense is what’s making the difference and I don’t see that changing much. Dirk will blow up one of these nights and maybe score 30-35 pts, but that wont prevail in a 7 game series.