Making LeBron James 'Closer' Would Bring Miami Heat Closer to Championship

Ultimately, my disenchantment with art has to do with its political correctness.

Because, like, everyone knows it can't stand life.

And yet, instead of being patronizing, it chooses to play it safe and imitate.

Which is why, prior to the last two minutes of a close game in the fourth quarter, you'll never see an Elvis impersonator trot to the center of the court on cue to announce that  "the King has left the building."

I've come to terms with this.

What I haven't come to terms with, however, is the idea that somehow the Miami Heat can win a title while everyone affiliated with the team continues to enable LeBron James' fear of failure.

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, its Facebook status was recently updated from "elephant in the room" to "currently climbing up the empire state building".

I understand that experimenting at this stage of the NBA season would just be construed as panicking in the 11th hour.

But are we supposed to keep pretending that Dwyane Wade's role as the default closer during LeBron's MVP season isn't mind bugging the heck out of everyone?

Do we live in some kind of alternate universe where things like this are as likely to happen as wining and dining a girl before handing her off to your best buddy and saying, "Hey, um, could you help me wrap this up over here?"

Because that's what we are all doing right now. 

We're kid-gloving this issue.

And it is an issue.

Look, you don't think its a little odd that Dwyane Wade, aka the founder of Wade County, basically telling ESPN's Israel Gutierrez he wouldn't mind playing second fiddle to LeBron going into the playoffs?

Do you think he did that because he thought LeBron James needed another vote of support in his candidacy as MVP?

Or was it because he's trying to get the message across to the man that the team is the juggernaut it is because LeBron is the single-most unstoppable player in the NBA? And when Miami is in situations when it needs to score, it wouldn't hurt if they could take advantage of that?

I know there are people who mistakenly believe it will ruin team chemistry and incinerate Wade if he's asked to no longer be the closer.

I don't.

In fact, I think he realizes more than anyone how badly LeBron needs to overcome this fear in order for Miami to win a championship.

What you may not be appreciating enough is that the longer we keep Dwyane Wade as the team's closer and maintain this charade, the more powerfully it gets conveyed in LeBron's head that he's mentally fragile.

Now, I don't care how many game-winning shots LeBron has to miss before he gains the confidence to pull the trigger. 

This Heat team set the bar this season at "championship or bust".

And the fact of the matter is as long as the most unstoppable force in the NBA jumps behind the curtains when his team needs him most, it's only a matter of time before Miami plays against an opponent good enough that it's talent alone won't be to able bail them out.

So call me stupid, but let's all agree from here on out that the NBA's three-time MVP should be the team's closer. 

As was made evident in his MVP speech, the guy had only two goals coming into this season.

Win a championship, and silence his critics.

Only to his chagrin, he'll never be able to kill those two birds unless he's got enough stones to match.