Us Celtics fans kind of felt it coming. It just wasn't the same. Too many injuries, too many birthdays. Wade's takedown of Rondo in Game 3 finished us off, even if we still held out hope.
So the Heat advance. Or rather LeBron James and Dwyane Wade advance, because with the Spurs and Celtics starting to get mail from the AARP, James and Wade now own the league. Not the Heat. James and Wade.
What team they're on doesn't matter. They cash checks in Florida because of climate and parties on South Beach, but what uniform they wear is irrelevant. The team concept is dead in the NBA. It's all about the individual, and the way the NBA rolls today, it will be damn near impossible to beat any team that has two of the best three players on the planet.
The NBA and commissioner David Stern learned long ago that stars drive ratings and TV ad revenue. So that's the way they marketed the game. And now those stars have figured out a way to manipulate the system to their advantage, joining forces like 15-year-olds stacking AAU teams.
Michael Jordan scoffed at James just after LeBron and Wade combined in Miami. If he had trouble beating a team, Jordan said, he would just work harder. That philosophy eventually led to six titles.
Not for James, though. He'll take his titles ("Not 4, not 5, not 6 . . .") the easy way. So has he really succeeded? Yes. No. Maybe. Who knows?
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