Alright, maybe we were kidding ourselves thinking that the Cavs had a shot against the Spurs… Did we all let the LeBron-o-rama that built up in the media get the best of us? Yes. Was it wrong for us to let ourselves get sucked in? I still don’t think so. As I stated in “the re-up,” I think it was an opportunity worth getting excited about. Now, I’ll take one sentence to give props to the Spurs before getting back to James; Bruce Bowen’s defense reached heroic levels in the way he was able to keep Lebron out of rhythm and the Cavs lack of an elite perimeter defender themselves (Larry Hughes can fill that void when he’s healthy, but obviously wasn’t healthy for this series) made it impossible for them to contain Tony Parker (Who has a pretty tight rap video on the web with Fabolous, check it out). So what now? Will LeBron respond? I believe he will. Its a predictable answer, and it takes no brass to stay on the LeBron bandwagon and assume that he will be back to the finals because we all WANT to believe that he’s going to be an all-time great when his career is done. However, there are reasons I believe that LeBron is in fact an all-time great and will soon have the hardware to prove it.

First of all, one man can only do so much for one team. LeBron consistently had the attention of the entire Spurs team, and he consistently found his teammates for wide open jump shots that they consistently banged off the iron and missed. Was LeBron’s offense at his best? No, but its important to remember just how good of a defensive team the Spurs are, especially Bruce Bowen personally shadowing LeBron for all 4 games. If the Cavs were going to win, they were going to need Pavlovic, Donyell Marshall, and “Boobie” Gibson to light it up from the 3-point line and they didn’t. The Spurs were just too good to let LeBron beat them by himself, and thats exactly what he had to try to do in this series.

Second, losing in your first appearance in the NBA finals does not mean that you are cursed, or you aren’t capable of performing on the biggest stage, or that you won’t be back. People may think and say, “Well, Jordan, Magic, DUNCAN, and all of the great players in the game won their first finals, why couldn’t LeBron?” Lets look back a few years. 1995 NBA finals, the latest young phenom in the NBA at the time, a man who is devoting his 2007 summer to helping obese kids change their lives, none other than 3-time NBA finals MVP Shaquille O’Neal made his first NBA finals appearance. The outcome? A 4-game sweet at the hands of the more experienced and deeper Houston Rockets. As I already aluded to, this did not keep Shaq from going on to have on of the most celebrated careers in NBA history. He now has 4 NBA titles, 3 finals MVP’s and a place as one of the greatest NBA centers of all time. I won’t be surprised if LeBron follows the same mold. Cavs nation are all believers now that LeBron can get them TO the finals. Its on the organization to give him enough help now to actually win it.

Finally, the man can’t shoot and he STILL was just that close. What do you think LeBron is going to work on every day this off-season (aside from spending his money, fuxing mad females, and trying to catch Peyton Manning in total hours of TV commercial footage)? I don’t think he’ll be in the gym trying to get bigger and stronger. After all, we all saw how he used those attributes to beat the Pistons. That part of his game is fine. I’ll tender a rough estimate that LeBron will shoot 2000 jump shots every day this off-season so that next year, people won’t be able to crowd the lane on him, because he will make it rain all over them. Michael Jordan had a signature fade-away jumper. We saw flashes of it from him against the Pistons, and I won’t be surprised if some day LeBron is known for his patented step-back J. So its all over, basketball is done for til Halloween time, so I’m left with one question, ARE U READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?!?!?!