re: General NBA Links

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It’s tempting to cast this Spurs-Heat rematch as the league’s dominant player going up against the best collective effort the sport has to offer. Never mind that Duncan is still mightily effective and almost nearly as great, in a historic sense, as LeBron James. The Heat, while they may rise and fall with LeBron, don’t fall prey to the usual superstar (or let’s just call it “individual”) pitfalls of isos and hero-ball. LeBron is, in a basketball sense, not human, not one man either bucking or buying into a system. He makes the phrase one-man team literal, fulfilling multiple responsibilities, playing every position, guarding all sorts of opponents, and writing a script for the rest of the team with the way he works each trip down the floor.

What LeBron James dictates what the Heat does and not in some reactionary way. It’s his job to make sure the whole team can look to him for a sense of structure. It turns the point guard role inside out and then stands it on its head. It very nearly does the same to the superstar. What’s more, LeBron is almost as constant in his game, with as few peaks and valleys, as the Spurs. Some days he’ll explode just to prove he can but these come across as odd moments of vulnerability. Like the Spurs, LeBron is a machine, a dynamo driving his teammates. It’s not so impressive that a team so dependent on one guy has made it to the Finals. What’s amazing is how little, at this stage in his career, LeBron James resembles any other superstar. The only thing to compare him to is an entire other team.

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