Miami Heat: Why the Boys of South Beach Must Win an NBA Title

As LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat stare down the barrel of elimination at the hands of the unlikely Dallas Mavericks, we’ll all tune in. The fan in us that has rooted against the Miami Heat all season will wait with bated breath, and on the edge of our seats, for the Heat to be defeated.

The defeat, if we can even imagine it, will be twice as sweet because we’ll know in large part that the Heat didn’t get beat, but beat themselves. Nothing in sports gives a hater greater satisfaction than a good ole’ fashion choke job. With the Heat having collapsed twice in the first four games, and LeBron James’ shrinkage in the biggest moments of the series, we’ll all feel good, right?

Here’s the thing that no one wants to admit: the best thing that can happen to basketball is for the Heat to win.

The reality is, whether we want to admit it or not, is we should be thanking the Miami Heat. The idea of thanking a team that the rest of the country has spent a good year hating smacks of insulting, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have brought out the best in the NBA and its fans.

The reasons most basketball fans have come to root against the Heat over the past year have been many. I have often said it was the celebration that really drew the fangs of basketball purists and the casual fan alike, but others, rightfully so, have disagreed. Whether it was “The Decision” or the media love-fest that began well before opening night, the fans have hated the Heat for reasons only known to themselves and the result has been compelling.

The NBA has needed the Heat longer than the Heat was even a concept. Every sport, every story, needs a villain. The WWE, which I spend a lot of time covering here, understands the concept of good and evil better than anyone. Occasionally they run it into the ground, but they understand that every fan needs someone to root for and someone to root against. Whether the Heat intended to or not they made a heel turn far better than the WWE could have ever scripted.

It began with The Decision. LeBron has smacked of a lot of things, both good and bad, but he’s never come across as malicious. We might mistake his brash behavior and his showmanship for evil, but he’s never appeared that way. Still, The Decision was perceived as such. In the span of an hour LeBron James went from a beloved icon to a heel in the truest sense of the word.

The next three days felt akin to Hollywood Hogan turning his back on America at Bash at the Beach in 1996. Again, I’m quite certain this wasn’t LeBron’s intention, and perhaps the viewpoint of fans outside of Miami is skewed at best, but it’s what it felt like regardless.

Still, in that moment, in those first few defining days it was the beginning of a basketball revival. The fans finally had someone they could hate. Though Boston and LA have often been NBA heels, fans knew the light was fading on their glory years and there is no sense in rooting hard against a heel that has lost their powers.

Now NBA fans, the casual fans that David Stern and the NBA owners try so hard to convert, now had a rooting interest in the games. Even if it weren’t for their team, they could still root against Miami. The casual fan had a reason to check the sports page, surf the web, and watch SportsCenter. They wanted to see if the Heat had lost and what everyone was saying about them. They embraced similar views and condemned dissenting opinions.

In the meantime it gave them a renewed interest in their team, especially if their team had any shot at taking on, and taking down, the Heatles.

I have lived in Chicago my whole life. I saw the beginning, and the end, of the great modern dynasty of the NBA and I can tell you that this Eastern Conference Finals felt different than any of the ones Jordan played in.

This city has always been a proud and supportive basketball town but there was something different in the air this time. There was a measure of anger, of pride and of attitude. Chicago didn’t want to go to the NBA Finals. They wanted to beat the Heat.

Of course the Chicago Bulls fell well short of their goal, and fans and haters alike must tip their hat to LeBron James and company, but the hate will continue in Chicago and the rest of the NBA world. If the Heat lose there will be a joyous sense of celebration from the throngs of haters. And if the Heat win there will be a lot of pouting and excuses, but deep down inside even those that condemn the Heat and everything they think they stand for will be a little happy too.

While either scenario evokes an emotion for the NBA fan and casual fan alike, it’s the Heat winning that continues to make the story compelling. When the Heat came together the sporting world gasped at the idea that three superstars could do this. Sure, critics and fans alike had their doubts about whether these three people could co-exist, but the fervor wasn’t loud because we had severe reservations about their success. The fervor was loud because we thought it could work.

Largely, despite the wildest wishes of others, it has worked. The Heat have been the realization of everything we have feared. Even in their struggles we knew that the full realization of the potential of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade would be enough to make them as dangerous as we feared they could be.

They have embraced the bully role. They have delighted in proving doubters wrong. They have played the heel to perfection. There has been just enough arrogance to hate them, blended with just enough humility to never write them off completely. Now they may fail to obtain the trophy many hoped they would never get. The satisfaction of the masses would last for a few days, but we’d all be shortchanged in the long run.

For the bully, or the heel, to be successful, they must be at the height of their powers. Watching a bully get punched in the mouth, no matter by who, deflates them on some level. It makes us fear them less. For the heel to have the title keeps the chase alive. It keeps us watching and waiting for a hero to come in and remove them from power.

I was born and raised to be a Notre Dame fan, so I was born and raised to hate USC. When the Trojans were ripping through college football from 2003-2005 I wished for nothing more than the Trojans to lose. I followed every game with intensity. I put personal preference aside and donned the cap of whomever USC was playing. Every time, no matter what, I was disappointed because USC was just that good, and I knew it.

Finally Vince Young came along and single-handedly dismantled the USC defense in one of the greatest college football games I had ever seen. For that moment I was elated. I had been wishing and wishing that USC would be dethroned, and on the stage of the Rose Bowl they were. The good feeling lasted for a day and I moved forward.

A funny thing happened that next season: I cared less about college football. Sure, I paid attention, watched Notre Dame struggle and formed opinions on BCS contenders but ultimately I wasn’t bothered by USC. If they had won that year I wouldn’t have been happy, but I certainly would have cared far less than I did in years past. I had got my revenge, retribution, satisfaction or whatever you want to call it. It was over and I moved on.

The Miami Heat are not at the height of their full powers. We have yet to see just how good they can be. When they are on top, truly on top, the NBA will only get better. The disdain will grow as will our interest.

The nation will be cheering for the Mavericks in Miami, but deep down we’ll be rooting for the Heat. We want Miami as the ultimate heel. We know the game is better off with them in power.