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There's going to be a moment on Sunday night where you're going to scream at the television. You're going to swear that wasn't a foul -- or that was a foul -- and the referees have it in for Dallas, again.
"David Stern hates Mark Cuban," you'll shout.
"The NBA wants LeBron to win a title," you'll yell.
And you'd be right on both counts. David Stern does hate Mark Cuban, I'm sure of this. The NBA does want it's most prolific star to win the title, I'm sure of this.
But LeBron and Wade and Bosh and the Heat winning the NBA title this year is not what's best for the NBA. Not at all. In fact, the best thing that could happen to the league is for Dirk Nowitzki to lift the Larry O'Brien trophy. Not because he's a white superstar (although, sadly, I do think there are people who will really enjoy that), but because the current narrative is one the NBA has to love: Can LeBron win it all? Can this Heat "dynasty" ever come to fruition?
Those questions, especially the first one, have been dominating the sports news cycle for the past week, and they've been on the tip of everyone's tongue since last July, since The Decision split us all into two teams (Go Heat! and Fuck LeBron!).
There's a good chunk of us that want to see the Heat fail. We hate the way this was conceived. We hate the championship celebration that was held before the ink on the contracts were signed. We hate the entitled, whiny presence the Heat have on the court at all times. We hate that a team with 2 1/2 superstars has had Mario Fucking Chalmers hit two buzzer-beating half-court shots in the finals.
We're going to hate forever. We're the group that's going to watch this until the dynasty eventually crumbles. Until LeBron and Dwyane Wade have a falling out and LeBron is forced to leave because Wade has grown sick and tired of carrying him. It would be sweet for us if that moment comes before a championship, but we know that's not very likely. The only thing that is going to stop the Heat from winning it all is a long lockout. They're eventually going to get there, and when they do, there's a decent chance they'll win more than once, which will be fine with the NBA, because people watch dynasties. They either are drawn to their power or, like us, can't wait to see them crumble. Whichever side you fall on, you're watching.
But nothing in the eventual Heat Dynasty era will match what we're seeing now. Nothing will match the anticipation of it happening, the hope that it won't and the wonderful conversation that's coming out of all of this.
If the Heat win, we're right into dynasty-watch mode (to be clear, I'm not saying they're a dynasty, I'm just projecting how we'll view them). If they lose, we get to do this all over again next year. We get to go through a regular season where we question whether or not they have the right point guard to get them to a title. We get to question whether or not they'll have the inside presence to deal with whatever team Dwight Howard ends up with.
And then, as the playoffs move forward and those questions start to look silly, we get to question whether LeBron has it in his makeup to win a title. All over again.
This is the most fun I've had watching basketball since Larry Brown was coaching the Pistons. And I imagine that I can't be alone in that thought, not just with Pistons fans, but with all sports fans. For all of our sake, let's hope we get to do it all over again next year.
