NBA Finals 2012: Series Dissappoints, LeBron James Does Not

It's hard to say where exactly it all went wrong, when the NBA Finals went from being a contest between two equally matched teams to a lopsided coronation of the NBA’s best player and the teammates who helped him win the title that had thus far eluded him. The NBA Finals tipped off a week-and-a-half ago, and most people—myself included—expected an epic seven-game series. We expected to watch the NBA's two premier superstars, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, go at each other, and we thought the series would go the distance before yielding a champion. 

The former part of that belief came true. James and Durant lived up to their top billings by giving performances that left fans and even former NBA greats shaking their heads in amazement. In a fitting turn, the older, more experienced James got the best of his younger counterpart by showing off a complete all-around game—he scored, rebounded, passed and defended better than anyone else on the court.

Durant scored, but LeBron did more. That's the primary reason why he his holding the Finals MVP trophy today. As the series wore on it became quite clear that James was the best player and the Miami Heat were a better team than the Oklahoma City Thunder. They played better team defense and shared the basketball on offense, whereas the Thunder lived, and eventually died, off the individual brilliance of Durant and Russell Westbrook.

It didn't help Oklahoma City that James Harden, a player who came into the series looking like a budding superstar, played some of the worst basketball of his professional career. At the beginning of the series, few could have predicted that Mario Chalmers and Shane Battier were going to make more important contributions than Harden, but that turned out to be the case. With the exception of Game 2, Harden's offensive repertoire failed him: He shot 9-for-31 in the series' final three games.

The inability of Harden and Oklahoma City’s other role players to make consistent contributions put an unfair burden on Durant and Westbrook, who both played brilliantly at times but could not carry the team by themselves.

Miami’s role players, on the other hand, did exactly what they were supposed to do: They hit shots when they were open and got the ball to the team’s big three. This is why it took the Heat five games instead of seven to claim the NBA crown. They were simply a better overall team. 

The lasting image of the NBA Finals, however, won’t be of James Harden bricking three-point shots or Mario Chalmers scoring 25 points in a critical game four. It will be an image of LeBron James giving a performance worthy of his reputation as one of basketball’s all-time singular talents and finally winning the championship in the manner we all expected when he first entered the league.

James is a throwback to the 1980s, when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dominated the game not just by scoring but by getting their teammates involved with brilliant passing. Since the 1990s, which can be accurately labeled the Michael Jordan era, individual scoring has been the chief statistical measure for determining a player’s worth. If a player could score the basketball, he was considered a great talent regardless of his other shortcomings (e.g. Allen Iverson).

If James has reminded us of anything, it’s that defending, passing and rebounding can be just as important as putting the ball in the bucket. On Thursday night, he became only the sixth player in NBA history to record a triple-double in a title clinching game, and his superior passing and defensive skills are what separates him from Durant.

This year’s finals were somewhat reminiscent of the 1991 NBA Finals between Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. At the beginning of that series, fans and pundits expected a long, drawn out affair between teams that featured two of the league’s best players, and after the Lakers won Game 1 in Chicago, a long series seemed inevitable. But the Bulls won the next four games, further demonstrating their superiority with each successive win and ushering in a new era of basketball in the process. The outcome was rarely in doubt, and while history now looks upon that finals as a seminal moment in NBA history, it’s not considered one of the all-time classic clashes.

A similar trajectory occurred this year. After the Thunder won the first game and came within a missed Durant jump shot of sending Game 2 into overtime, it seemed like the series was primed to go the distance. The early adulation for Durant, who scored a combined 68 points in the first two games, distracted everyone from the Thunder’s noticeable flaws.

In Game 1 and Game 2, the Thunder fell behind early and had to stage furious second-half comebacks that were as much a product of the Heat’s fatigue—Miami played a seven-game series in the Eastern Conference Finals—and the energy of Oklahoma City’s raucous hometown fans, as they were indicative of the Thunder’s level play. This became apparent when the series shifted to Miami, and the Thunder could no longer rely on miraculous late-game heroics to bail them out. They looked more outclassed with every game, and by the time Game 5 rolled around it became clear that they had nothing left in the tank. Last night’s blowout cemented the idea that the Heat are the deserving champions of the 2011-12 NBA season, and that Oklahoma City still has improvements to make before the team can win a title.

James and Durant can still become epic rivals. They are both young and will have many more opportunities to lead their respective teams to the finals. Before that happens, James, Wade and Durant will have to learn how to co-exist as teammates on the 2012 men’s Olympic basketball team. Wade and James led the 2008 team in scoring and Durant led the 2010 world championship team in scoring, so it will be interesting to see how the players mesh during the summer games.

But today James stands alone atop the NBA landscape. He is the best player on the best team—a rare feat that deserves recognition. He proved his superiority over the course of the NBA Finals. Now, only one question remains: Will he be able to replicate this feat?