NBA Finals: Difference Between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (And Dirk Nowitzki)

What the Dallas Mavericks did in the fourth quarter was remarkable, perhaps unprecedented. They had lost five straight finals games to the Heat, including four in Miami, and were down 15 in the fourth quarter, but finished the game on a 22-5 run, with Dirk scoring the last nine points for the Mavs.

It is slowing coming into view, that this postseason is all about Dirk Nowitzki and not LeBron James and his decision to give up on Cleveland and come to Miami to bandwagon for a championship. I will offer up some quotes from a recent Rick Reilly op-ed:

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Pull for Dallas because Nowitzki stayed with his team, never took his talents anywhere but to the damn gym every day.

Pull for Dallas because when you ask Nowitzki why he didn't bolt the way everybody else does, he simply says, "Because this is where my heart is."

Pull for Dallas because Nowitzki didn't try to win a title the new way, didn't pick the best kids on the playground and take on everybody else, didn't get a bunch of super-human friends and schedule himself a ring, like you might a kegger or your birthday party.

Pull for Dallas because Nowitzki has this crazy idea about trying to win one the old fashioned way, by getting better.

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The Dallas Mavericks are everything the Miami Heat are not. They are humble and classy. They don't celebrate after every play. They are a team built built on chemistry, not sheer individual talent. And their divergent personifications are none more evident than in the two best players on their respective teams, Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James.

And let me top it off, that if you figure everything between Game 3 of the 2006 Finals and when the score was 73-88 Heat in Game 2 of the 2011 Finals, what Dirk Nowitzki did in the game-ending 22-5 run, aided in no small part by the only other holdover from 2006, Jason Terry, becomes the best story of the 2010-2011 NBA season, bar none.

It does not matter what happens in the rest of this series. The Miami Heat still have the advantage, as they will probably win at least one in Dallas and force Dallas to close out the Finals on their home court, which is immensely difficult. But that story will come into view over the next week. Meanwhile, another pattern is coming into view:

LeBron James is the second fiddle to Dwyane Wade in these NBA Finals.

LeBron completely deferred to Wade in the fourth quarter Thursday, disappearing from view, and through two games, he has fewer points, assists, offensive rebounds and blocks, a lower shooting percentage, more turnovers and less clutch impact.

People say that LeBron will change. They said it when he was 18. When he was 21. When he was 24. When he is 26. The fact of the matter is, he's not the mentally toughest cat out there, and he doesn't take criticism very well. He can't shrug off failure or misses the way that a Jordan, a Kobe or even a Wade can. He's not Nick Anderson, but he's a lot closer to Alex Rodriguez than Derek Jeter. 

There is a reason why LeBron James gave up on Cleveland and agreed to come to Miami to freeride and bandwagon for a championship, under the leadership of a lesser player in Wade: the criticism had gotten to his feeble head.

This is tragic. LeBron James is a far superior player than Dwyane Wade. He is stronger, longer, faster and more fundamentally sound. He is a better finisher, and probably a better spot-up shooter. He is a better defender.

Both players are flawed in the one-on-one game and rely more on guesswork than reading their defenders, but LeBron seems to have an gained an edge here in recent years as well. The one area is his post game, where he still reeks of someone looking to copy what other cats did in highlight reels rather than feeling his defender's hands on his hips and reacting.

But the point is this: that there is a place in the game for the mentally strong, where such fortitude trumps talent and even skill. This is why ridiculous things like LeBron deferring to Wade in the NBA Finals can happen. Or a Kobe Bryant entering discussions of being a poor-man's Jordan when his physical gifts and mangled right hand should allow him no such opportunity. Or a Dirk Nowitzki sticking through the utter embarassment and hopeless futility of five years to deliver an all-time best Finals moment as he did tonight.