The regular season is over and the Miami Heat finished with the best record in the NBA at 66-16. That is the best record in franchise history. The Heat will face number eight seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. The Heat controlled the season series 3-1 with their only loss to the Bucks coming when their star players Lebron and Dwayne Wade sat out due to injuries. This should be a very intriguing match up but fairly easy for the Heat to move past.
Here is a highlight clip of amazing plays that the Miami Heat was able to provide for the fans:
Follow along as the Heat intend to repeat as World Champions!!!
In two of my posts, “22 and Counting!!!” and “STREAK UPDATE!!!” I clearly explained the historic win streak that the Miami Heat had begun. Back on February 3rd 2013, Miami traveled across the Canadian border to play against the Toronto Raptors. The Heat went on to win the game by a double digit margin but they didn’t realize that the victory would jump start them into setting a historic streak. As the weeks went on, the streak grew larger and larger and the Miami Heat was once again the center of attention in all of sports media.
“This streak is good for the NBA, it gives us as fans something to look forward to or be excited for,” Hall of Famer and ESPN NBA Countdown analyst Magic Johnson stated when asked about the streak. I wholeheartedly agree with Magic because the streak is exciting and although every human is not a fan of the Miami Heat, once it is known that a team is close to breaking records everyone watching becomes a little more intrigued with the situation.
Unfortunately the win streak came to an end at an amazing 27 games, on March 27th, 2013 when the Heat traveled to Chicago to face the Chicago Bulls. In a game that many considered poorly refereed the Heat lost 97-101. The officiating team received a lot of flack because of the “nonbasketball” plays that the Bulls were making in order to combat the physical abilities of Lebron James. In the clip below you’ll see Bulls guard Kurt Hinrich tackling James to stop the play, but Hinrich must have forgotten that they were playing basketball not football.
I’m not here to make any excuses for the Heat and Lebron James because they could have still won the game, but a few mishaps in the final moments prevented the streak from continuing. But all in all, the streak was great for the entire NBA as it added another exciting element to the 2012-2013 regular season. The streak ended at a perfect time. As the playoffs approach, many of the key players such as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh can now rest up and get ready to capture their second consecutive championship.
All day, I’ve searched and searched the worldwide web on a quest to find out about the thoughts and opinions that others had towards Lebron James and his impact on the NBA today. On my quest, I staggered upon a phenomenal blog, Miami Heat, which is run by Joseph Goodman.
Goodman covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He graduated from the University of Alabama-Birmingham with a degree in Journalism and English. He began working for the Herald in 2005 as a high school sports reporter in Boward County. Shortly after joining the Herald’s staff, Goodman was promoted to cover the Miami Heat. But enough about Goodman and more about why I feel he has an amazing blog.
Goodman has been operating this blog since December of 2005 and has made his blog one of the most visited blogs about the Miami Heat there is. The blog layout is very traditional being as though it is run from a web page of the Miami Herald newspaper. The page is very clear and precise and each function can be accessed very easily. Each gadget and advertisement surrounds the Miami Heat organization. You can purchase memorabilia and find out the latest news reports about the team from the gadgets on the page.
The content of each blog post is filled with great substance and analysis that can be respected because of Goodman’s connection to the team. Goodman’s does a phenomenal job of excluding his personal biasness onto his blog as he reports on positive and negative aspects of the team. I found this to be fascinating because when discussing sports its really hard to keep your own views out of the text but Goodman does a good job at hiding his own perceptions. Meaning he does not exxagerate because he is closely connected he delivers the whole truth to his audience.
In his post TRASH TALK GOLD: Lebron 'glad' he dunked on Jason Terry, Goodman highlights the
incredible dunk on Lebron James over Jason Terry. I too mentioned the
incredible dunk in one of my post,STREAK UPDATE !!!, but Goodman took a different approach than I. He
provided the reaction of James, something that I should have done to show the
actual importance of the dunk to James. Terry is known for trash talking
players and Lebron has been one of the players who has admitted to being
affected by the “smack talking”, so here him express his happiness about the
dunk and who it was on, was something that I too should have mentioned. In my
opinion, that was a job well done on the behalf of Goodman for the inside analysis
on James’ feelings.
I found this blog interesting because most of the blog topics were similar to things that I have blogged about. Goodman’s twist to the stories is also interesting because it opens up perspectives that I have never thought of. It was a pleasure to view the Goodman’s blog, Miami Heat and I hope that you all go visit the blog and enjoy it as much as I did.
Recently, a dance called the “Harlem shake” that has been receiving a lot of attention. Attention meaning that pretty much everyone is attempting to show their version of the popular dance. The Miami Heat also joined in on the fun as they released their video on February 27, 2013. The video was an instant hit gaining over five million views in the first 24 hours. All of the current Heat players collaborated in making this video, to show their fascinating take on the dance.
When I first watched the film, I didn’t view it as just a group of men making complete fools of themselves for fun, I viewed it as a notice to the rest of the NBA that the Miami Heat on court and off court chemistry was at the highest it has ever been. The excitement on the faces of the players clearly showed that they were genuinely having fun. The strong off the court chemistry only makes the chemistry on the court stronger.This video is a positive sign that the Miami Heat are headed in the right direction as the playoffs rapidly approach.
It goes without question that I am a huge Lebron fan and it sometimes interest me to go to various websites and find out what the writers there feel or have to say about anything dealing with "King James". I know Wikipedia may not be a reliable source, it just amazed at some of the information I saw up there. After evaluating the Cleveland Cavaliers Wikipedia page, I decided to make a few changes to the 2003–2010: The LeBron James Era Section of the page. The corrections can be viewed below: Initially the section read:
With the Cavaliers out of the playoffs, the focus then turned to James' impending free agency. On July 8, 2010, James announced in a one hour show named The Decision on ESPN that he would be signing with the Miami Heat. The repercussions of this announcement left many in the city of Cleveland infuriated and feeling betrayed. Many LeBron James jerseys were burned, and the famous Nike "Witness" mural of James in downtown Cleveland was immediately taken down. Shortly after James made his announcement, Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavaliers, announced in an open letter on the Cavaliers website that James' decision was a "cowardly betrayal" and promised a NBA championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers before LeBron James wins one, although James would win a championship before the Cavs with the Heat's championship win in 2012. Despite being ridiculed for the letter by the media, Cleveland fans embraced the owner, even offering to pay the $100,000 fine given by the NBA.
My corrections read as follows:
Losing in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cavaliers now focused on Lebron James and the fact that he was now becoming a free agent. Owner Dan Gilbert realized the demand would be very high for James and many if not every team would place their bids. On July 8, 2010, James announced that he had decided that he would sign a long term deal with the Miami Heat. This announcement was aired on ESPN as a one hour show named The Decision. The repercussions of this announcement left many in the city of Cleveland and many in the Cavalier organization furious and feeling betrayed. Many LeBron James jerseys were burned, and the famous Nike "Witness" mural of James in downtown Cleveland was immediately taken down. Shortly after James made his announcement, Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavaliers, announced in an open letter on the Cavaliers website that James' decision was a "cowardly betrayal" and promised a NBA championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers before LeBron James wins one as a Heat player. Despite being ridiculed for the letter by the media, Cleveland fans embraced the owner, even offering to pay the $100,000 fine given by the NBA. Instead of paying homage to a young man who has created many opportunities for the Cavaliers and the city of Cleveland’s economy, James was ridiculed and disrespected for making a decision he believed would benefit his life. The new formed hatred for James followed him into 2011 NBA Finals, after the Heat had reached the finals in James’ first year with the team. When the Dallas Mavericks closed the Miami Heat out in Game 6, many in Cleveland celebrated as if the Cavaliers had won the championship. At the time it wasn’t about the Cavaliers not winning but mainly about Lebron losing. There were even tweets from Cavaliers ownership of sly remarks about the Heat losing in the Finals. For a man who did nothing but benefit the City in many aspects, this treatment was very harsh. With the emergence of Kyrie Irving as a Superstar in the NBA, it is probable that the hate for James would decrease because of the increase in love for Irving.
I felt the need to make edits to this particular paragraph in the section because it lacked the emphasis on how the events occurred during the end of the Lebron James era with the Cavaliers. I should mention that I was unable to change some of the information on Lebron's Wikipedia page because it was locked. This suggest that there was a lot of back and forward re-editing of his page between his supporters and critics, leading Wikipedia to lock it down. I saw a lot of information that needed re-editing but because of the restriction on the page I found the edits on the Cavaliers page just as important and in need of further emphasis.
Is it weird to you that some may say Lebron is the best player to ever play and then others say he is the most overrated of the superstars ever? I find it mind boggling that Lebron receives the amount of flack he does. He’s coming off of a championship season and yet he still is considered a under achiever in the eyes of many critics.
Lebron has won three of the last four regular seasons MVPs by exhibiting a tremendous separation in level of play between him and every other player in the NBA. This past summer, he led the USA Men’s Basketball team to a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, a USA team that consists of today’s premiere stars in the NBA. Even taking all his recent success into consideration, there are many who still believe that Lebron has to prove he is worth all of the recognition. I find it hard to believe that anyone who understands the sport of basketball can still argue the greatness of Lebron James.
Night in and Night out, he still amazes everyone with his incredible play on the basketball court. Each year that James has been in the NBA he has added a new component to his arsenal of basketball maneuvers.
It is beginning to seem as if it is a possibility that Lebron may never escape from the negative attention. There will always be someone there to compare him to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, two of the greatest players in NBA history. In my opinion, the world should stop comparing Lebron to the two and allow him to become his own legend. Lebron has never expressed that all of the criticism affects him or his play but he did not prove that in the 2011 NBA finals when the Miami Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat lost mainly because Lebron played the worst basketball he has ever played in his entire career.
The most pressure James has ever faced came when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers and signed with the Miami Heat, teaming with fellow superstars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Then to lose in the Finals to a team who obviously were the underdogs, created a national abundance of criticism towards James and to an extent it was deserved. I believed he deserved a little of the harsh analysis mainly because I’m a fan and it hurt to see Lebron playing so little in such big moment but the remarks began to get to personal and offensive.
Statements from greats such as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson about how they wouldn’t have done with Lebron did and they would have won on their own began to surface. The fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated the Heat’s lost just because they knew that meant Lebron had failed. Comments and reactions like those surfaced all summer but instead of killing Lebron’s spirit, it made him want to win even more. In the off season of 2012, Lebron worked on his craft and added a post game which many say was going to make him uncontainable. Lebron came back in the next season on top of his game and led his team to a championship ring. Even after doing so, the criticism still came in Lebron’s direction. He just continued to work on perfecting his craft and he entered this current season on an “unstoppable” streak.
Becoming the youngest player to ever record 20,000 career points and breaking many other records, I believe it is time that the world recognizes the greatness that Lebron James is delivering to us. Not only is Lebron the face of the NBA, but he is also a philanthropist and is very influential in the communities across America. It is time that the criticism cease and the appropriate recognition begins.
