March 5th - King of His Castle

LeBron James exploded on Monday night. A 61 point eruption, leading the Heat to a thumping of the Charlotte Bobcats, 124-107. This was his third game wearing the new facemask that protects his nose, which he broke in a contest earlier last week against the Thunder (a game in which he also was scoring at a prolific rate.

For much of this season, Kevin Durant has made a case for unseating LeBron James as the reigning MVP of the league. Druant’s own offensive exploits have led the Thunder to a top seed in the Western Conference, carrying the team while Russell Westbrook was out with an injury. The ever-secondary star is finally attempting to take what many believe to be his “rightful” spot alongside James as the best in the business.

That is, of course, until LeBron went off. He has scored 30 or more points in six of his last seven games, and is leading the Heat to another long win streak. For yet another season, James is launching the Heat into viable contention for their third straight championship, again despite the injuries that have caused missed time for Dwayne Wade.

LeBron has only won the scoring championship one time, in 2007-2008. Durant has won it 3 times. Carmelo Anthony has won one, Dwayne Wade has won one, Kobe Bryant has done it a few times. When looking at LeBron’s game, though, it is pretty easy to see why he may not be padding the stat-line: LeBron would rather win the ring than win the hardware.

In 2010, when LeBron James made a public spectacle of his decision to “take (his) talents to South Beach,” he made it very known that he was taking a little bit less money, instead favoring a chance at a championship. If James was interested in winning scoring titles, he would have stayed in Cleveland, where that is the only kind of champion that really belongs.

The NBA already suffers from a focus too much on players, rather than the success of a team or organization. This only makes the number of showboat players, looking to beef up their own personal record book (Carmelo Anthony is a perfect example) all the more prevalent. LeBron James doesn’t fit that mold. He is an all-around player who does what it takes to succeed. One night, he’ll lead the team in points. The next, he’ll be an assist machine, spreading things around.

No player is as explosive and purely entertaining as King James. No player is more influential to his team. No player can create a stat bio like James. There may be other players who excel at one element of the game in better ways, but it is the holistic playing experience that makes James a player without comparison.

The Most Valuable Player in the NBA is, has been, and will continue to be LeBron James. He doesn’t care about the hardware though. He is having too much fun playing the game to be focused on winning a personal award. He also has his eyes set on a much bigger prize: a third ring.

January 24th: Full Court Press

My biggest complaint about basketball was always that it is emotionally abusive. The flow of momentum is so temporary that it is nearly impossible to know the trajectory of the game based on the first quarter, or even the third. The old saying “the last two minutes are all that matters,” is even more extreme. It isn’t an oddity to see a 20 point lead evaporate, only to be regained.

January, though, can do strange things to sports fans. With baseball’s slowest off-season in recent memory and the impossibility of finding hockey on national television, the only weekday sports option is to be found on the hardwood. I’ve begun to follow the NBA as well as college basketball a little more intensely. More so than the NCAA, professional basketball is like nothing else in the sporting world.

In any team sport, there are superstars who define the organization. In the NBA, those superstars often transcend their team. In most sports, fans follow a team primarily, with one or two players who catch some extra attention. Basketball sees team fans, sure, but more importantly, you’re a Kobe fan, a LeBron fan, a Durant fan. Following a player is more possible because, with only 5 players at a time, an individual has more of an impact on the outcome of the game.

For all of their challenges, though, the NBA’s marketing department has made quite a bold statement, especially recently. It is enormously difficult to maintain fan excitement over the course of an 82 game season. To solve the problem, the NBA marketing department comes up with countless ways to make individual games more exciting.

On Christmas day, the league used new jerseys with sleeves in an attempt to give the players a new look. It was recently released that the All-star game would also feature similar jerseys. Earlier this month, the Heat and Nets played a game while wearing nickname jerseys, an event that also will repeat throughout the year.  While both of these promotions focus primarily on attempting to sell more basketball swag, it demonstrates a kind of promotional mojo that should serve the league well, at least from the creativity standpoint. The caveat to that is, of course, ensuring that the intent is to offer a unique fan experience, rather than simply turning into a purely money driven operation.

Even with the promotions, though, the challenge of making an 82 game regular season exciting is one that will continue to cause fans to walk away, to get lazy during the year. Once April rolls around, though, being an NBA fan becomes contagious. The playoffs add the intensity that becomes a scarcity during the regular season. Funny how the threat of going home can make the game come alive.

Some of the challenges that professional basketball faces are unique to the NBA, while some are present in all major sports. The league has made significant attempts to find solutions and have varying levels of success. The commitment itself will, hopefully, help professional basketball continue to be relevant and exciting for fans.

As a relatively newly minted NBA fan, I have plenty more to learn. At the very least, the league succeeded at getting my attention.

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