Things almost got awkward on the Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night when Letterman asked LeBron James, “Well, now that you’ve got this out of your system, are you ready to go back to Cleveland and play some ball?” The “this” Letterman was referring to was, of course, James and the Miami Heat winning an NBA championship last week. Watch the video to see how James handled the question.
While “The Big 3″ of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh scored every single one of the Miami Heat’s 28 points in the fourth quarter Saturday night to eliminate the formidable Boston Celtics in Game 7 of one hell of an Eastern Conference Finals, let’s not forget the crucial impact of “The Not As Big 3″: Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, and Shane Battier, each of whom played 30+ minutes.
There are a lot of reasons the Miami Heat lost to the Boston Celtics Tuesday night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, putting the team down 3-2 heading back to Boston for a potential series clincher. Dwyane Wade got going too late, our role players can’t live up to their roles, Chris Bosh’s torn tummy, Paul Pierce’s unlikely tre in Lebron James’ face, Eric Spoelstra’s questionable coaching, the Heat weren’t getting back on defense late in the game (even after scoring!), and my leading candidate: the Heat’s lack of identity, a debilitating weakness when the going gets playoff tough and a problem that the Celtics clearly don’t have.
It’s painful to watch, but this is the play the Heat players need to watch — over and over — to get riled up for Game 4 following their loss in Boston Friday night to let the Celtics back into the Eastern Conference Finals.
Lebron James snubbed New York when he chose to take his talents to South Beach. Now, on the eve of the Miami Heat’s season opener, the New Yorker has exacted a measure of satisfaction by covering the Miami Herald and WLRN King James poetry contest with brows raised customarily high. The tone of the Ben McGrath piece isn’t overtly condescending, but, considering the New Yorker’s historic role as a gatekeeper of American poetry, I can’t help reading it through Eustace Tilley’s haughty monocle. (“O Lebron, My Lebron” appears in the precious “Dept. of Iambs,” for Naismith’s sake.)
I’m sure New Yorkers, still smarting from the King-sized rebuff, will be snickering in the subways as they read McGrath’s piece. To them, I offer the following six lines (the maximum length of contest entries):
Local portrait photographer Katia Hernandez captured these images at last night’s Funkshion Fashion Week Miami Beach event at the Bass Museum of Art. Hosted by Miami Heat power forward Juwan Howard, the show benefitted cancer research and featured the lucky progeny of various NBA players — including LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Tracy McGrady — as runway models.
