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Jun. 17th, 2015 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretThe Golden State Warriors won the NBA finals, to no one's huge surprise. Let's be honest- they were the best team in the league all year, not just MVP Steph Curry but the whole team moving together was a thing of beauty. Nobody can complain about them winning the championship, nobody can say it was unfair, nobody can say it was unreasonable.
And yet I found myself rooting for the hopelessly overmatched Cavaliers all series. Not because I tend to root for underdogs. I don't, not usually. I have no problem rooting for an overdog if I like them, and at this point in my life I make no apology for that. Thirty years a Yankee fan have made me honest about that, at least.
I suppose it's a fair cop to admit that some small part of my Cavs feelings can be traced to David Blatt and Dan Gilbert, two chutzpadic Jews trying their damnedest to take over Cleveland. But not as much as you'd think.
Mostly it's LeBron feelings. I am mistrustful of my LeBron feelings. I know that The Return was just as much a media game as The Decision, just as much about positioning of LeBron as a brand as anything else. I do not believe LeBron returned to Cleveland because he felt he owed his home state a championship, because he felt affection for Cleveland and wanted to give them basketball hope again. I don't believe that's not the reason why, either. I don't know LeBron's inner workings, by the nature of the beast I can't know his inner thoughts, but I am saying all this to try to say that I am not swayed toward LeBron by my hope for some kind of redemption.
Rather, what was almost unbearably seductive about LeBron in these finals was watching a man put that much of a burden on his shoulders and almost carry it. Watching him have to be the perfect version of himself for six games, because there was nobody else around to pick up even the tiniest bit of the slack. Basketball may be a team game, Golden State may be the unquestioned best team in the world right now, but LeBron and the Cavs was all about one man being more important than a team, and for some reason I was rooting for that to happen, for LeBron to reach an almost religious apotheosis.
I have never seen anyone play basketball as well as LeBron did in the past six games, not even Jordan at his peak. Though I was, you know, eight or nine years old when Jordan was at his peak, so it's hard for me to say that particularly authoritatively. And there is something incredibly beautiful about that, something that leaves me shivery with aesthetic pleasure. It was a privilege to watch, even in defeat.
And yet I found myself rooting for the hopelessly overmatched Cavaliers all series. Not because I tend to root for underdogs. I don't, not usually. I have no problem rooting for an overdog if I like them, and at this point in my life I make no apology for that. Thirty years a Yankee fan have made me honest about that, at least.
I suppose it's a fair cop to admit that some small part of my Cavs feelings can be traced to David Blatt and Dan Gilbert, two chutzpadic Jews trying their damnedest to take over Cleveland. But not as much as you'd think.
Mostly it's LeBron feelings. I am mistrustful of my LeBron feelings. I know that The Return was just as much a media game as The Decision, just as much about positioning of LeBron as a brand as anything else. I do not believe LeBron returned to Cleveland because he felt he owed his home state a championship, because he felt affection for Cleveland and wanted to give them basketball hope again. I don't believe that's not the reason why, either. I don't know LeBron's inner workings, by the nature of the beast I can't know his inner thoughts, but I am saying all this to try to say that I am not swayed toward LeBron by my hope for some kind of redemption.
Rather, what was almost unbearably seductive about LeBron in these finals was watching a man put that much of a burden on his shoulders and almost carry it. Watching him have to be the perfect version of himself for six games, because there was nobody else around to pick up even the tiniest bit of the slack. Basketball may be a team game, Golden State may be the unquestioned best team in the world right now, but LeBron and the Cavs was all about one man being more important than a team, and for some reason I was rooting for that to happen, for LeBron to reach an almost religious apotheosis.
I have never seen anyone play basketball as well as LeBron did in the past six games, not even Jordan at his peak. Though I was, you know, eight or nine years old when Jordan was at his peak, so it's hard for me to say that particularly authoritatively. And there is something incredibly beautiful about that, something that leaves me shivery with aesthetic pleasure. It was a privilege to watch, even in defeat.