I thought the snarky signs and chants would bother him. I thought he would be freaked out by the security guards ominously flanking the Heat bench, and maybe even by news that they were serving fans beverages in paper cups as a safety precaution. I thought Miami's lack of cohesion in its first 19 games would doom him over everything else. If you're walking into a potential ambush, you need to be strong, you need to trust each other, you need to know who you are.
Did I think the Cavaliers would win? Actually, yes. I thought the fans would push them to another level, that it would play out like a sports movie: the overachieving underdog taking down the big bully. When TNT's Kenny Smith said he had never felt such electricity in an arena before a regular-season game, I was convinced even more. The fans were ready for a war. As LeBron was warming up, an unmistakable "A--hole" chant reverberated through the building. A few seconds later, TNT showed us a fan wearing a "Lyin' King" T-shirt, another holding a "Quitness" sign, then eight fans standing in a row with T-shirts that spelled out "B-E-T-R-A-Y-E-D."
When the starting lineups were introduced, the booing for LeBron almost sounded like a beehive. He seemed to enjoy it.
Before the opening tap, LeBron let everybody know he was gonna bring it by whipping the powder defiantly into the air like he used to do for each home game when he was with Cleveland. Why not? They hated him, anyway. LeBron was making it clear: I am not backing down.
"I really love the looseness of LeBron James," Reggie Miller said.
The teams traded baskets as the fans either booed or yelled out indecipherable chants. At one point, we could clearly hear an "Akron hates you!" chant. Almost on cue, LeBron drew a foul and strode to the free throw line, accompanied by so many yells, boos and chants that it blended into one giant haterade.
And … freeze!
Stop it right there: 3:35 mark, first quarter, Cleveland leading by two. As LeBron (two points to that point) was making both free throws, Miller and Steve Kerr had this exchange:
Miller: "There's no way that you can possibly prepare for something like this, and knowing that all eyes have been on you since you made that decision … [you're] in that stationary position, with time not going off the clock, at that free throw line, everyone's looking at you. You wonder what's going on in that 26-year-old's mind."
Kerr: "I wouldn't wish it on anybody."
I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
Was that the tipping point? Those six words? That specific moment? Five months of vitriol cresting with LeBron at the line for the first time -- just him and the fans, their first chance to truly let him know how they felt -- and LeBron simply shrugging them off? It's a fascinating 15 seconds to rewatch. As he steps to the line, the noise begins to swell. TNT cuts to the crowd. We see someone booing LeBron and wearing a "VICTIM" T-shirt. We see a close-up of someone with a mustache angrily screaming "BOOOOOOO!" We see a wide shot of fans waiving "BENEDICT ARNOLD" and "MISS IT" signs. There's a close-up on LeBron, then a wide shot. He makes the first free throw. He turns to his bench and smiles, as if to say, "Wow, this is crazy."
Then, TNT cuts to the crowd. We see two "QUITNESS" signs, a sign with LeBron and Pat Riley that says "LeQuit and the Cheat," and a sign with Charles Barkley and the caption, "Punk Move, 'Bron." Panning back, we see another sign: "What should you do? BEG FOR MERCY." Everything bounces off him. Everything. His second free throw doesn't even touch the rim.
And we were off. On the next two possessions, LeBron scored on a gorgeous reverse layup and a long jumper. Miami by four. Timeout. Wade took a breather, and LeBron took over like he always does when Wade sits: setting up a James Jones 3, swishing a jumper over a double-team, then finding Juwan Howard for an open jumper. Just like that, Miami had ripped off a 16-0 run and grabbed a double-digit lead. The game was never the same. As Kerr pointed out later, it was like watching a March Madness underdog hanging with a 1-seed but being unable to overcome the talent disparity.
LeBron's confidence surged as the second quarter closed. He started yapping at his old buddy Boobie Gibson (sitting on Cleveland's bench), as everyone who grew up in the Rick Mahorn/Charles Oakley era waited for one of the Cavaliers to stand up and punch him in the face. Nope. Nothing. For the Cavaliers fans, this probably felt like the bastard brother of their team quitting in those final 90 seconds of Game 6 in Boston this past spring. Show some fight. Show some pride. Show something, for God's sake. It was a pathetic moment. LeBron punked them!
"It was impressive," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "It takes a special player and a person to be able to respond to all of this scrutiny."
It continued in the third quarter, when LeBron exploded for 24 points and made a variety of outrageous shots. No Cavalier knocked him down, bumped him, shoved him, swore at him … they just took it on the chin. In retrospect, that was my big mistake with picking a Cleveland upset: thinking the Cavs cared about avenging their honor after their leader basically told them, "You guys suck, I'm leaving." How sad that the Celtics took LeBron's decision more personally than his former teammates did.
Lebron played some of the best basketball of his career, scoring 36 points in a devastating 27-minute stretch that re-established Miami as a contender. James sat on the bench for all of the fourth quarter, with dozens of security guards and police lining the team's entrance to the court and guarding against objects thrown at him.
This was the LeBron we had been missing all season: attacking LeBron, larger-than-life LeBron, ball-always-in-his-hands LeBron, force-of-nature LeBron, guy-who-could-absolutely-beat-you-in-a-playoff-series LeBron. For one night, he reinvented the Heat, assumed control and relegated Wade to sidekick status … which is how it should have been all along.
Full disclosure: I don't care about "The Decision" anymore. He handled it wrong. He got bad advice. He can't take it back. Whatever. Any people who say they handled their mid-20s perfectly are lying. But as a basketball fan, I thought watching his talents get wasted these first five weeks was somewhat tragic. He will never be Magic Johnson; Magic made everyone better and dominated games without necessarily scoring, whereas LeBron's scoring opens up the game for everyone else. Big difference. And he will never be happy awkwardly trading possessions with Wade.
On Thursday night, LeBron finally looked like LeBron again. Maybe he needed his old court. Maybe he needed to taste the bile of 20,000 passionate Cav fans. But I thought it was one of his greatest nights; instead of folding which a lot of people would of done, he rose to the occasion and even relished it. Of course, greatness usually has a casualty: in this case, Cleveland. The fans made their point (and then some), never disgraced themselves and were betrayed only by their own players. They deserved better in July; they deserved better Thursday night.
The King is gone. You buried him, and then, he buried you. If it's any consolation, you finally brought the best out of him.
