Dear Toronto Raptors fans,
I understand that this may be a difficult time for you. Game 1 of the NBA Finals tips off on Thursday night, and your team could have been there.
The 2017–18 NBA season was yours for the taking. Your team was deeper and better than ever, earning the No. 1 seed in the East. Your two chief road blocks to reaching a first-ever Finals were vulnerable — the Boston Celtics hampered by injuries to several important players and the Cleveland Cavaliers fielding the weakest roster around their star we’ve seen yet.
And yet the Raptors flamed out in the second round, once again steamrolled by LeBron James and the Cavs.
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Feel bad for what you had to go through, but don’t let that ruin your appreciation of probably the greatest player you’ve seen.
Feel gutted for the way the Raptors lost, for getting swept by a team that was taken to seven games against both of its other East playoff opponents, and especially for the dispiriting 35-point loss in Game 4 that sent your team packing, its future direction suddenly up in the air.
Feel let down after your highest-paid player scored five points on seven shots in a do-or-die game, or how your second-highest-paid player wasn’t even on the floor during the 24 most important minutes of the season.
But if the 2018 playoffs have shown you anything, maybe it’s that you shouldn’t feel so bad for losing to LeBron James. And you definitely shouldn’t let your lousy experience stop you from appreciating — and, yes, even rooting for — the man who’s ended your season three years in a row.
Don’t hate the player; hate the way your team blew its chances this post-season.
I don’t know if it’s been the same experience for you, but something changed for me in these playoffs when it comes to James. As he’s played at a level we’ve never seen before and carried his team to a stunning eighth straight Finals, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to root against the guy.
His level of play and the way he goes about his job has forced my hand.
Questions like “Love him or hate him?” are history. Now we simply are, or should be, admirers of what he’s accomplishing — on and off the court.
Look, when your team isn’t competing anymore it means your rooting interests change, and there are three things a sports fan should generally want to see in that scenario:
1. A game that goes down to the wire — a one-possession duel with under two minutes to play, or one that comes down to the final shot. It’s the most exciting situation in sports and flat-out compelling whether or not your team is on the court.
2. Something crazy happening on live television — a mind-blowing highlight, a legendary clutch play, a deranged fan parachuting into the arena. Whatever.
3. To witness history and be able to tell your grandkids I remember when….
Who knows if you’ll get either of the first two in the 2018 NBA Finals. But you know that No. 3 is already a lock.
You can’t be a fan of the sport — and thus appreciator of its history — without wanting to see the all-time greats perform to standard. Or, in James’s case this post-season, exceed already sky-high expectations.
Sure, that alone isn’t a reason to cheer for him. But it’s not hard to find many.
For starters, there’s something to be said about the way James remains poised on the court. Because of his stature he’ll always be a target, but he handles it as well as any athlete of his calibre.
Whether it’s Lance Stephenson blowing in his ear, a rookie bumping him after a dunk, or the barrage of trash talk that spews from the stands toward him, James takes it in stride and almost never reacts.
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Maybe he knows the spotlight is always brightest on him, or maybe, as novel as it seems, he prefers to respond via basketball.
Also, like him or not, James has handled his celebrity like few athletes of his magnitude. After coming to the NBA straight out of high school, he’s avoided scandal for 15 years and seems to have skirted the pratfalls that destroy many child stars.
Most importantly, James is outspoken in the best way possible. He uses his enormous platform to raise awareness and speak out on critical social issues, and has become an important figure in the education system in his home state of Ohio. None of this can be overstated.
On the court, well…. What more is there to say? He’s unbelievable — a transcendent talent whose abilities and accomplishments are virtually unmatched. And although it may seem timeless, the fact is he’s 33 years old, in his 15th season, playing more minutes than anybody (by a wide margin), and yet still raising the level of his game seemingly each night. So, let’s not take this for granted.
Don’t get me wrong — I can understand why it was harder to cheer for him in the past. When James left the Cavaliers and went to Miami, announcing his decision to form a super team in South Beach on live television, we all had plenty of reasons to root against the King.
But that was eight years ago now. He’s since admitted he went about the process wrong — and returned to Cleveland to win them their first-ever title.
Now he enters the Finals as a massive underdog (the Golden State Warriors are favoured to win Thursday’s game be a whopping 12 points). And you don’t need me to explain why it’s more rewarding to cheer for the underdog.
But perhaps the biggest thing to keep in mind as the Finals get underway is that this feeling might not last. Depending on what happens this summer, there’s a good chance that it could be very difficult to support James next year like I think you should in this moment.
If LeBron leaves Cleveland via free agency, he’d almost surely either form a new super team with a superior cast in Los Angeles or join an existing one in Houston or Philadelphia. He’d no longer be carrying a franchise and fan base on his back like he is right now, and that alone will change the experience of watching him perform.
LeBron James has hurt you in the not-so-distant past. I understand that. But put your hurt aside for at least the next two weeks, and let’s all enjoy watching a legend go to work on the biggest stage there is.
