USA TODAY International Edition
Betting against LeBron, Cavs is fool’s errand
If there is anything we have learned from these NBA playoffs, it is you would have to be a complete idiot to bet against LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
I know this, because, sadly, I’ve been there. That exact bet, this precise prediction, that particular piece of idiocy, was made a little more than a week ago.
The punishment for doing such silly things in this day and age is to be mocked for it on social media, which is not only to be expected but in this instance was fully deserved. With each dynamic and electrifying James performance against the Raptors, the lesson was rammed home loud and clear.
Don’t bet against LeBron James. Write it over and over again on a chalkboard if you have to. Just don’t do it.
Whatever you think you see, whatever strength you find in his opponent, whatever logic dictates that King James’ crown is poised to slip, keep that voice in the back of your head and drown it out with loud music.
Forget about the numbers, whether they come in the form of age, seeding or minutes played. Sure, those sneaky sabermetrics hinted that there was little chance of James extending his long and glorious postseason streak. Toronto — the figures read — was better, deeper, younger, more talented and significantly better rested.
But numbers don’t tell you much about the soul, and the Raptors were a team without one, mostly because James reached in and ripped out whatever was in their chest in Game 1, then did so again with a Game 3 buzzer-beater just when it looked like a pulse was beginning to reignite.
That’s the thing with numbers. There are so many of them you don’t know if you’re looking at the right ones. The ones that mattered this time weren’t those detailing how much more energy James and his Cavs had exerted just to reach the conference semifinals, but the stat that said, “of course, he would make it deeper into the playoffs,” because that’s just what he does.
Every single year since 2011, Jamesled teams have won the NBA championship or at least represented the Eastern Conference in the Finals.
It takes a special kind of foolery to make yourself look silly by backing against that weight of history, as well as someone who is one of the greatest of all time. Someone with a track record of defying the critics and completing the implausible, who likes nothing more than to carry his team on his back, up against a group who had a great regular season but had shown mental weakness before — against this same foe.
Nothing makes you feel quite as stupid as that. Well, not again.
This time it looks like the Celtics who will be the last remaining hurdle blocking his path there. Yep, those Celtics, expertly coached, hungry, full of spirit, with home-court advantage, and hey, maybe this is their time, and ...
Yeah, not so fast. Let’s not go there. Of course, there is a chance that Boston wins, assuming it safely negotiates its way past the 76ers.
But, again, you’d be an idiot to bet against James. He’s not going to keep making the Finals forever, and there will come a day when he doesn’t, either this month or next year or next decade.
Just don’t place the bet against it, whether it be the contents of your wallet at a Vegas sportsbook, the price of a round of beers with your buddies or even agreeing to switch your Twitter avatar for a couple of weeks like some moron who should have known better.
You’ve been warned. This is LeBron James. Failure makes him seek amends with rabid intensity. Success makes him hungry for even more of it. Be too strong and he will steamroll you, come at him hard and you awaken a lion who’s already amped on espresso. He pulls extra out of teammates when they’re firing and carries them on his shoulders when they’re not.
He’s not just playing with house money — he is the house. He still doesn’t have the strongest supporting cast, but his other advantages are so great the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor.
You might think that there is only so much more that J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver and Kevin Love can do, that Boston will have more fortitude than Toronto and, failing that, at least Houston or Golden State are surely too stacked. You can weigh it up, analyze, talk it over so much in your mind that you’re certain James is about to be cut down to size.
Think it if you like, but just don’t take the bet. Don’t be an idiot.