NBA Playoffs 2011: Why I'm Rooting for LeBron James and the Miami Heat

I once wrote that in order for LeBron James to expand his legacy, he needed to become a Bull. His team beating the Bulls in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals quickly made that opinion look out of touch. James has been clutch both offensively and defensively in these playoffs and has helped the Heat become the favorite to win the NBA Title.

In the NBA Finals, my gut says for me to root for Dallas, but my sports mind says I should root for the Heat.

My sports mind has experienced a lot of synapse collisions coming up with this opposite opinion from the norm. Just watching the Heat come back in Game 5 like they did made me realize they are the best team, and since I don't have a dog in the fight, it's better for basketball if the better team wins (just think about how empty the '06 Heat title felt at the time with Antoine Walker getting a ring).

The league has plenty of issues, including franchises in disarray in terms of finances, a lockout looming over the league's head and the best coach in modern basketball walking away. The NBA needs something to sell the sport while it is hot, and right now nothing is hotter than the Miami Heat.

Heat playoff games are getting fantastic ratings for the league, and gaining the league additional revenue and exposure to help bring some pressure to the bargaining table. Miami and LeBron will certainly bring monster ratings to the NBA Finals for ABC (good job brain, a very valid business point while discussing the one thing sports fans care about more than anything else. Television ratings).

The Decision felt self-serving and awful at the time, but LeBron played the part of modern athletic superstar perfectly while making a power move to build a dynasty. The move worked in year one. Cleveland would have struggled to make it to the NBA Finals, and Miami is likely to at least win one game, better than the Cavs ever did with him.

LeBron was in year eight, and fame and relative success in Cleveland were great. He was a much bigger fish who needed a much bigger pond and he knew the best way to get even more fame and success were to go to Miami with friends.

The city of Cleveland has some cool parts to it, but most people with money in their 20s would pick state income free Miami over Lake Erie awful winters Cleveland (the sports brain is making some good arguments for LeBron. My gut watched the Decision in horror).

Wade struggled some against Chicago, yet he was massive against Boston. Bosh has been up and down some but has had outbursts of great scoring games and other games with max effort. James has been incredible defensively and shooting wise when he needed to and made MVP Derrick Rose look like a young player not ready for prime time.

The Chicago series made it feel like it's Miami's time, as if they have hit a new level of excellence that is ready to catapult them to a title not only this year, but also into the future (the sports brain is slumping a bit to explain why it is rooting for Miami. Get to the point already).

The face of the Miami Heat is the best player in basketball. The heart of the Heat is one of the strongest willed athletes, who gets knocked down six times and gets up seven.

Miami has a white out, the best color scheme for fans to wear in unison for a playoff game. Miami with a title victory can begin a dynasty, and having every other team chasing the Heat makes next season even more intriguing (thoughts and general opinions are great sports brain, why are you rooting for them?).

Plus they're playing the Mavericks. The face of the Mavericks for the longest time has not been a player, but Mark Cuban. How can I root for an owner especially since they are ready to lockout the players? I don't even know who the owner of the Heat is. I can't root for the team with the owner that gave us the Benefactor and HDNet (the sports brain did just discover that HDNet shows topless women on their late-night programming. HDNet is now on my favorites).

(The sports brain is now distracted. What was it trying to do? Explain why I am rooting for the Miami Heat and LeBron? What?)

I just punched the sports brain and made it feel like Roy Jones.

Dallas will have about 90 percent of the sports fans in America rooting for them, which is much different than 2006 where the Finals were met with a bit of malaise. This time, the Mavericks are the darlings not only because of their opponents, but also because of themselves.

Dirk Nowitzki has morphed from understated undervalued star into a superstar on fire who has been incredible these playoffs. He is now the face of the franchise, and at this point may be playing better ball than LeBron. When Dirk missed the three late in Game 5, the rebound got kicked back out to him behind the line, and everybody knew he would hit the second one. He missed two free throws the entire series against Oklahoma City.

Mark Cuban is the owner some may question because of his sideline involvement in the team, but most every fan would want him as their owner. Cubs and Pirates fans are begging for him to become the owner. He has done everything in his resources to try to build a winner and give a failing franchise a shift to elite and now they are in the Finals again.

Cuban is gutsy and if any owner in a league where so many of the owners either short change their fans or view the league as a hobby, deserves a title, it's him.

A lot of the Mavericks have been so close and felt the pain of not winning the title, and all of them winning it together would be a great story.

Jason Kidd, who some thought was done and is a definite Hall of Famer, can redeem his trips to the Finals with the Nets. Terry and Dirk can get revenge for 2006 and losing to the Heat after being up 2-0 and big in Game 3. Peja gets a finals shot after being so close with Sacramento so many times. Shawn Marion finally gets to the Finals and he may have a chip on his shoulder to beat former teammates Wade and Bosh (the sports brain is pretty realistic and guesses he's probably friends with both of them).

Coach Rick Carlisle also has come a long way on this journey, making the finals as a coach after missing in two previous conference finals. Just a few weeks ago, speculation and knee jerking was wondering if Carlisle was the right fit for Dallas, right after the Game 4 Portland loss. Most teams would crumble after a collapse like that. The Mavericks have been 10-1 since that game.

It's easy to spout out about the Heat winning the title killing the viability of about 10 franchises if it happened because every superstar would only play in certain places, or the Dwyane Wade wheelchair for a shoulder injury, or how the white out was stolen from the Jets/Coyotes, or how the city of Miami winning 4 titles in 15 years would make much more passionate fan bases cringe.

The gut can write thousands of words on those and more topics. The sports brain is rooting for the Mavericks because Dirk and Kidd and Terry and Chandler realize that winning the second round or conference finals are great, but the finals is there time. LeBron and Bosh will get there and eventually will be embraced because most sports enemies eventually are. Now does not feel like their time.

If it is Miami's time, and if the Heat win a title in the same year as Auburn and UConn, maybe sports karma is dead (the Sports Brain may just desire more Roy Jones shots).