In Defense of The King’s Men
The NBA season kicked off this past week with the same ol stuff: my Clippers losing and Kobe making that stupid, douchey face he makes when drived to the lane for a gift “and-1″ call. As much as we’re going to see of Kobe & Co this year from a certain company based in Bristol, ESPN has a new toy to play with: The Miami LeBron, Wade, and Bosh’s Heat.
Nobody wants to see this.
No doubt El Fuego (Not El Heat. They shouldn’t wear those stupid jerseys; it isn’t even correct grammar.) was going to get a lot of attention because of the splash they made this offseason. In the few days after they became the most polarizing franchise not owned by a Steinbrenner, I tried to pass myself off as a die hard Miami Heat fan saying things like “Yo, dude I’ve been a Heat fan forever. C’mon bro, Alonzo Mourning, Brian Grant, dude c’mon.” I would make any reference to the Heat, and to the city of Miami, that I could. Eventually it got so bad that it turned into shout-outs to people like Dan Marino and [fictional character] Dexter Morgan.
Not a real person, as it turns out.
Eventually I just couldn’t do it anymore, and gave up. However, now that the season is underway, I actually do find myself rooting for the Heat. I’m not rooting for them as an actual fan; I’m a Clipper fan forever (Clipper Darrell for President). I’m not a bandwagon jumper and I won’t be rooting for the Cowboys, Red Wings, Duke, Yankees, or Man U. I’m rooting for them as a fan of sports TV and all that is good about sports media.
Everyone in the sports world is expecting the Heat to roll through the regular season and onto a NBA title. The standards set for them are incredibly high, as well they should be. Whenever you claim “WE DID IT” before the season even starts, you’re setting you’re self up for this kind of attention. And since the standard for the Heat is so high, if they do well, everything goes according to plan for the ESPN programming machine and there aren’t too many twists in the plot to talk about.
However, if the Superteam falters (like it did in Boston on opening night), we will hear nonstop coverage and see countless packages and stories about “What’s wrong with the Heat?”, “Did LeBron make the right decision?”, “Is D-Wade healthy?” etc. In fact, ESPN already has a “Heat Checkup” post on their home page. Nobody wants that. Everyone was sick of the Heat and LeBron during his “Decision” back in July. Can you imagine the amount of backlash there would be if the Heat fail this season?
It’s a double edged sword. If they win, LeBron looks like he made the right decision and got his ring. If they lose, I have to hear from Jemele Hill all season about how “these cats just ain’t getting it done.”
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