Earning an NBA Championship

Every member of the Miami HEAT earned this, the franchise’s second NBA Championship.




 They earned it by changing, not by making all the right moves but by making the moves they believed were correct. 
A title will always validate the choices made over the course of a year, but forget about the final scores, the shots that went in and the plays that were made, and the HEAT still came as close to earning the ultimate result as you can before actually doing so.

You can win being right. You can win being wrong. But Miami earned their win by preparing themselves to be as right as possible.

Because Norris Cole worked all season, after every practice, trying to become a spot-up shooter with NBA range. And for a few precious threes in the NBA Finals, it paid off.

Because Juwan Howard, 17, has seen things you wouldn’t believe. And now he gets to chill.

Because James Jones filled a thankless role. He played, then he didn’t. He made threes and he missed them. He was a shooter every single time he was asked to be.

Because Joel Anthony turned years of ridicule, both good-natured and not, into a career-year both catching and finishing around the rim. He was able to laugh at himself. He never complained. His teammates trusted him that, in three minutes or thirty, they had his help defense.

Because Udonis Haslem was himself even when he wasn’t playing like himself for much of the season. He was a constant even when his shot was inconsistent.

They earned this moment because Mario Chalmers cares. No, it doesn’t matter to him one bit whether it’s a 20-point game in January or a two-point game in June, but he cares enough to swallow his pride and listen to teammates that not only need him to succeed, but want him to as well. Chalmers could have made things about himself, but through highs and lows, he didn’t. Instead, he took thousands of threes to be prepared for the hundreds he would take, and earned a career-high percentage.

This was earned because, holy hell, Mike Miller was Boromir. He could barely stand up straight, much less run up and down the court, but there he was diving to the floor, drawing charges, taking arrows to the chest for his teammates and still getting up, time and again, to shoot another day. If ever a basketball player truly left it all on the court, it was Miller, gluing together the HEAT’s most effective lineups even when he was barely glued together himself, defying logic for a night of 7-for-8 three-point poetry.

Shane Battier earned this because Shane Battier earns things. He was diligent in his preparation against his most familiar foes and adherent to educated reason even when the short-term numbers screamed, ‘No.’ He played out of position. He defended the best. He made things work in Miami’s most dire moments of need. He was the self-proclaimed basketball nerd that just shot 15-of-26 in a championship series and never regressed to the mean, relatively speaking.

Chris Bosh earned this because he was willing to do what was necessary. When he was asked to facilitate from the high post, he did so. When he was asked to stretch the floor even further, he expanded his range. Roll? He rolled. Pop? He popped. He played the defense that Miami would not have won without. He became the center he never thought he would become, and not only accept but embrace that transition.

Dwyane Wade earned this because it wasn’t easy. He had to play less like the player he used to be and more like the player he will and was needed to be. He had to let go of shots he used to take and embrace moving without the ball. He had to make plays that were less about the score and more about everything leading up to the score. Through it all, he had to manufacture chaos and be spectacular. By doing all of that, he did the most selfless thing possible: he built up those around him.

Erik Spoelstra earned this because he never slept. Darker and darker grew the bags under his eyes during the season without practice, with every extra hour he sat in his office poring over information adding another fraction of a percentage point to his team’s overall awareness. He experimented; he tried new things and never wavered as perception shifted back and forth between the extremes. He evolved as much as any player, and even when possessions went awry, he chased efficiency. He stuck to what he believed it, but when new data presented itself, he re-evaluated his beliefs.

LeBron James earned this because it had to be earned. He improved because he knew he had to improve and changed because he knew he had to change. He became a power forward and possibly the best defensive player in the league. He became a point guard from the post. He played the way he believed he needed to play to win.

He was the best player in the NBA. Then he got better.

The HEAT earned this because they sacrificed. Because they put what was difficult in front of what was fun. The HEAT earned this because they worked to put themselves in the most probable position to win an NBA Championship. And then they did, but that’s almost beside the point.

LeBron James Backing Down Expectations

At various stages in our lives, people start expecting things of you based on their own arbitrary, or completely unrelated, views of how things should be.

It can start with innocent queries and evolve from subtle jabs up to pointed statements poorly disguised as caring questions. Either you hit a certain age when people decide to take all of five minutes to sum up your life and demand more, or people around you begin to reach various milestones and suddenly it’s your fault for not playing catch up?

Where are you going to college? My brother is having a wonderful time at university. Don’t you think it’s time to go back to school?

Do you have a job yet?

Are you dating anyone?

When do you think you’ll get married? We can’t wait to go to your wedding. How long have you been together, again?

How soon do you think you’ll have kids? Being a parent is so rewarding. Our kids could use someone to play with. We would like grandchildren at some point. Aren’t you running out of time?

In part because progress gives anyone a bit of an ego boost, in other parts because those moving forward with their lives can often think it their responsibility to pull you along with them, as if you are doing something wrong by simply standing still, expectations are raised that have little to do with who you are and where you are in life. Often, but not always, people want confirmation that they are doing or have done the right thing. Validation.

For years now, LeBron James has dealt with this. Only not from family or a small group of friends, but from a million people that think they know better.

When is he going to start posting up? Why doesn’t he dominate on the blocks like Jordan and Kobe?

Well, he just did. Has been dominating, in fact, for much of these playoffs. But Game 4 of the NBA Finals was such a magnificent performance for James that not a soul on earth watching his patient evisceration could logically think to deny him what is his: a post game.

Though they provided for some nice storytelling moments, James’ leg cramps in the fourth quarter, and the subsequent shots he somehow managed to hit, mask what he was doing in the three quarters before. With Kevin Durant marking Mario Chalmers, James set up shop on the blocks against Thabo Sefolosha and James Harden and showcased years’ worth of work.

This would normally be the place where we give you the numbers. Where we tell you where James ranks among his peers, at all positions, and just how exceptionally efficient he is in the post. But the numbers have been there, been impressive, for almost three seasons. There’s nothing left they have to say.

This is just something everyone needed to see.

In the beginning, before James even arrived in Miami, his post game was an effective diversionary tactic. He would receive passes, wait for a quick double team or simply for the help defender to shade towards him, and kick the ball back out. Sometimes it was an assist. Sometimes it was a pass that led to an assist. But more often than not, things played out too quickly, his teammates getting enough space to make a move, but not to take advantage of an open shot.

Now, the point-forward is also a forward-point.

“The biggest thing for him in the post is now he’s become that same playmaker that he was on the perimeter,” Dwyane Wade said. “Now he’s becoming it in the post as well is a dominant force. And he’s continuing to get better down there. This is really the first year that he really, really got down there, and he’s made a huge improvement in one season.”