Just think, the line that separates greatness and goodness
is paper thin. The thrill of hoisting up NBA Finals championship trophy and the
agony of settling for second place in basketball can be determined by one play.
Lebron James couldn’t have said it better. With 25 seconds left in Game 6 of the
NBA finals he thought to himself “Nine
months of hard work is about to go down the drain”. Danny Green misses his free
throw; Ray Allen eventually hits a game tying three-pointer which sends the
game into overtime. And the rest as they say is history.
Many references were made as to how close the Spurs were to
being World Champions. The NBA committee had Larry O’Brien trophy on the floor
ready to present it to the San Antonio Spurs. You could not have been any
closer to victory than they were. Let’s just imagine for a moment that Danny
Green hits his free throws to seal the game, or the Heat don’t get an offensive
rebound on consecutive trips to hit the game tying daggers in the heart of the
Spurs. Then Tim Duncan adds a 5th championship ring to his
collection. Tony Parker and Danny Green then fight over who is the NBA Finals
MVP. The Miami Heat lose two of three NBA Finals that the “Big Three” (James,
Wade, Bosh) play in. Lebron moves his Finals record to 1-3 (nowhere near
superhuman). The window closes on the Heat as they prepare to make changes and
split the team up. Lebron then shows that he can’t shoulder the burden of
carrying the team each and every night as other mega stars have done in order
to win their championship. The talk then moves to will he ever win another NBA
title instead of how many will he win.
But on that night, whether you believe that the stars were
lined up properly or that there was divine intervention, the Heat moved one
step closer to making history as one of the select few teams who have won back
to back NBA titles. I’m sure Lebron will agree today that Life Is Good! There’s
no need to wonder “What If?”
