Burning with rage as LeBron takes heat

By Orville Higgins

Like a lot of Jamaicans, I was rooting for the Miami Heat in the just-concluded National Basketball Association (NBA) finals. Over the years, I have developed a healthy respect for modern sport's most criticised superstar, LeBron James, and I wanted him to get another ring to give his haters another year's worth of nightmares. I wanted him to three-peat, and then beat his chest at his detractors and say, "What you gotta say now?"

It was not to be. Miami weren't just beaten; they were humiliated. The combined total of winning points, 70, is the largest in NBA finals history.

I went through the whole gamut of emotions. Game One, I was prepared to genuinely buy into the conspiracy theory that San Antonio Spurs deliberately caused the air-conditioning unit to malfunction to cause cramps to LeBron. As the series wore on and San Antonio were winning more and more comfortably, I started blaming Miami's Big Three. Well, not really. I was okay with LeBron's game, his numbers were good as usual, but I took out my frustration on the other two. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh played well below par, and I started to feel that the Big Three was really the Big One.

Going forward, Miami must find pieces to help LeBron James if he indeed decides to stay. At times during the series, LeBron was looking like Michael Jackson while the rest of the cast were looking like his backup brothers in the Jackson Five! LeBron himself has come out after that 4-1 thrashing to say that there are holes the team needs to fill. Carmelo Anthony, anyone? The Miami bench also felt my wrath. I kept wondering when Ray Allen or Mario Chalmers or Udonis Haslem and company would show up.

By Game Four, with Spurs leading 3-1 and the final result all but inevitable, my disappointment (even anger) started to turn to admiration for this Spurs team. The more I watched, the more I came to accept that what I was witnessing was what all sports fans should learn to appreciate, a professional team at the very top of its game. The Spurs put on a basketball clinic of how to pass, how to run into space, how to completely confuse the opponents with dazzling speed and clinical shooting.

SPURS impressive

At one point, the Miami Heat were looking more like spectators than genuine opponents. Remember this Miami team was in its fourth straight NBA finals and must, therefore, be seen as a world-class basketball organisation. Yet, over the last few weeks, they were made to look ordinary.

Maybe the most impressive part of the Spurs in that NBA finals was how their fringe players showed up. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker are the holy trinity on which this organisation was built. Unlike other top NBA franchises in the past, none of this three seemed to matter seriously who was 'the man'. For the Spurs, the whole was so much more important than the quality of its parts.

And how the 'parts' turned up! Patty Mills had his moments, so did Mr Three-point Man, Danny Green, but pride of place must go to Kawhi Leonard. How often does such an unheralded player find himself being voted finals MVP? Leonard has a very mature head on those young shoulders and was brilliant at both ends of the floor. Indeed, he is the youngest finals MVP since his teammate Tim Duncan got that title way back in 1999.

No less a judge than ESPN's Skip Bayliss rates this Spurs team as the best basketball team he has ever seen. Skip can sometimes say things that I don't always agree with, but on that one, he is on to something. No basketball team I have seen was as adept as this one in slick ball movement. No team in NBA history could have had so many weapons that were firing at the same time. Tiki taka may be dead in football, with the demise of Barcelona and Spain, but Spurs ensured that what football lost, basketball has gained.

And what of Gregg Popovich, the miserable-looking Spurs coach! Many rate Phil Jackson as the best ever with his 11 rings, but is Pop better, although he has only five? While Phil did it with genuine superstars that he more or less inherited, this Spurs team is a house that Pop built, virtually from scratch. So, yes, my team lost the NBA finals, but in the end, this Spurs team are deserving champions!

Orville Higgins is a sportscaster and talk-show host at KLAS ESPN Sport FM. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.