LeBron James: Can We Actually Root for Him to Win an NBA Title?

LeBron James: Another Step Towards Redemption?

Last night's Game 4 win over the Boston Celtics was huge for LeBron James.

Forget the fact that the Heat took a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the Eastern Conference Semis. Forget the fact that they won the game away from Miami. And forget the fact that he scored 35 points and collected 14 boards.

James, who is one step closer to gaining a measure of revenge against the squad that ended his last run for the title with Cleveland, nailed a huge, game-tying three pointer in the last two minutes, made a critical layup near the end of regulation and then buried the first shot of overtime.

In short, he was big in the clutch—something he's often been accused of failing to do in the past.

Another win would put them in the Eastern Conference Finals and keep their hopes alive  for an NBA title.

Although there are 11 other players on the club and the Heat are much deeper than King James, he is their star and biggest face/name.

A year ago, there were many people (aside from Cavs fans, of course) who would have loved to see James in the Finals: A matchup with Kobe's Lakers could have been epic, but he was also pretty well liked from coast to coast.

Between the hilarious commercials and smile he had that je ne sais quoi—an indescribable quality that made people root for him.

How things change in a year. 

Not all, but many of those fans were turned off by "The Decision" and even his once-comedic sensibility in commercials ("The LeBrons" was great) turned sour with his "What Should I Do?" Nike blasts.

He turned off millions of fringe-fans with those two moves, as well as his "Karma is a b****" tweet about the Cavaliers.

And while that will probably continue in this year's postseason—I just don't see non-Heat fans rooting for James over the next month—I expect it to change after this summer.

For one, if they do make it to the 2011 Finals, they'll have to beat the dark horse and therefore lovable Grizzlies or Thunder, or the Mavericks, who will be chasing a title for Dirk Nowitzki.

So it's going to be hard for the Heat to be crowd favorites.

But after this year, if the Heat suffer some heartbreak in the playoffs this year and/or the next, I think James and Miami will start to earn some goodwill with the fans.

Even if you forget about "The Decision," there's something off-putting, even arrogant about a team "buying" a championship overnight, and that's how it seems with the Heat: scrapping the roster, signing or re-signing three superstars in one summer, then filling out the rest of the squad.

And James is the central figure of that movement.

A year or two of eating "humble pie" will take the Heat down a peg or two and NBA fans won't be so hostile towards them; some might even view James (and the Heat's) persistence and ability to overcome the past struggles as endearing.

In 2012 or 2013, if the Heat find themselves playing in the Finals, I expect many new converts to LeBron's camp.

We all like to see veterans (and by then he'll have been in the league nearly a decade) earn their first championships—like Michael Jordan did in 1991, David Robinson did in 1999 and, to some extent, Kobe Bryant (aka without Shaq) did in 2009. 

Right or wrong, there's a sense that you can't "earn" a title in just one year.

For LeBron, that all ends after the 2010-11 season.