Kobe Bryant’s super team out of the West is on a NBA Finals collision course with LeBron James super team out of the East. (Photo by Jeff Lewis)
By Jason Lewis
Sentinel Sports Editor
So LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh have formed a “super team” in Miami. A team that’s just going to demolish everything in their path on their way to a NBA championship.
Well there is another super team in the NBA. A team that has won back-to-back NBA championships. That super team features Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, and Lamar Odom.
Just like in the comics, there are always heroes and villains. Judging by the reaction of the sports world, the Miami Heat are the villains, and every villain needs a hero, which apparently is the Lakers.
The Lakers are that team that everybody loves to hate, just like the Yankees, or Duke basketball. But now the hatred in the NBA has turned to the Heat, and mostly James for the way he made his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Heat.
There is no question that he made the right choice in leaving, and nobody outside of Cleveland is mad at him for that. In today’s sporting world it is common for a star athlete to leave for a better situation through free agency. The Cavs could not build a championship team around James, so it was time for him to take his services elsewhere.
James has been vilified because he had the nerve and ego to go on national television and break the hearts of pretty much everybody in Cleveland. It is surprising that nobody in James’ camp, none of his advisors, agents, or PR directors, informed him that it was a classless move to announce his decision in that manner.
The entire show was just a charade to stroke James’ ego. And he thought he was slick by donating the money generated from the show to the Boys & Girls Club. It was pretty low of him to roll those children out there so people would be fooled into thinking that this was some kind of charity event.
James made a mockery of the free agent process. He has never been in the spotlight for winning a championship, so he chose to create his own moment. Well, it looks like he is the champion of free agency, if that is worth anything.
James can act like he had a tough time making his decision on where he wanted to go. He said that he made the decision the day of the show, but reports said that he had already booked rooms at the W Hotel in South Beach to celebrate. He also claimed that it was a tough decision, but he looked more than happy as he was partying in Miami with Wade and Bosh.
The Heat are the new most hated team in the league, and seeing that James was booed in New York over the weekend, he’s the most hated player.
There may be a lot more Lakers fans next June if, or when, these two teams meet in the NBA Finals. If that dream match up does happen, this Heat team does not match up as well as everybody thinks they do against the Lakers.
The Lakers go six deep, while the Heat only go three deep. At this point it is going to be hard for the Heat to build much of anything around their “Big 3”. Wade will match up with Bryant, James with Artest, and Bosh with Gasol. But the Heat will not have an answer for Bynum, who if healthy, would dominate whatever player the Heat can find to fill in the center position. Odom will be coming off of the bench and the Lakers have Fisher’s leadership abilities.
The Lakers are by far deeper than the Heat, and the Lakers have the championship experience. If the Heat’s big three are going to win a title, it might not be for the next couple of years. They might have to wait until this Lakers team finishes their championship run for them to get their shot at it.
