It worked out.
You don’t have to like LeBron James — and we know from the comment section here plenty of you don’t. You may be the minority, but you’re vocal. There is still something that rubs a lot of people the wrong way about LeBron. People continue to eagerly root against him.
You don’t have to like the way he handled his decision to go to Miami. Frankly, nobody does outside South Beach. It was a mess. The decision on where to play was his to make — he had earned that right by playing out his contract and spending seven years in Cleveland — but having teams come to pitch him then taking part in a television special to announce his choice was a public relations disaster. As was the pep rally after he arrived.
But he chose Miami — to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — because he wanted to win rings. Plural.
He’s done that. LeBron made the right decision for himself back in the summer of 2010.
While the bar is set high in South Beach (and LeBron set that bar) the fact is the Miami Heat are back-to-back NBA champions and with that get mentioned with some of the other great teams of their eras. The 80s Lakers, the Bad Boy Pistons, they won back-to-back. Now the Heat have as well. The legacy of the Heat and LeBron are far from set (he is 28) but they earned a special place in the NBA pantheon with that victory Thursday night.
And Miami won those rings because of LeBron. This is his team. He is the alpha dog, the unquestioned leader.
Critics like to say “he couldn’t have won without teaming up with other stars” but that was always a straw man argument. Nobody — not Jordan not Magic not Russell — won without quality players around them. The key is those teams were built around and reflected their star player.
The Heat didn’t win this with three big dogs playing equal roles. Not even close. The Heat’s other two have had to subjugate their games to make room for this to be LeBron’s team, to make room for his game. Pat Riley and the Heat front office have brought in role players to build around what LeBron does on the court. LeBron’s imprint is all over this team.
They also won those rings because LeBron was clutch, killing another meme that should have died long ago. He led the Heat’s comeback in Game 6 then put up 37 points in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. That is pretty much the definition of clutch.
You don’t have to like LeBron James, but it’s time to respect his game. And time to respect that he made the right decision for himself three years ago.
LeBron went to Miami and won. Which means he ultimately won the decision.