As in, sorry your team is not as good as you thought they would be.
Last night was the season opener for the NBA, a preview of what many think will be the Eastern Conference Finals; the Miami Heat vs. the Boston Celtics. At a glance, the game showed us three things: 1. LeBron is still the best player in the league. 2. He's not going to have much more help than he did in Cleveland. 3. The Shaq acquisition might turn out to be the biggest free agent signing of the season.
Let's work backwards on this. Obviously Shaq is not the force he once was, but this quiet off-season move has led to a front court no one can match up with. Seriously, who can compete with Shaq, Kevin Garnett, and Big Baby Davis all at once? Throw in Jermaine O'Neal off the bench, or even Paul Pierce in the back court, and what you have is one big mother fucking team. Oh yeah, they also have two of the best point guards in the league in Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen getting them the rock. Notice how Bosh was a non-factor last night? And besides Dwight Howard (who the Celtics can double team with huge bodies no matter who's on the bench) there is no one who even comes close to this front court. I wasn't a huge Celtics believer going in to the season, but now I feel as though only injuries can stop them.
As for LeBron and the Heat, they'll be alright, but they're not going to win a championship this season. I may be eating my words come June of '11, but big three or not, if LeBron is forced to play point guard and score 30 points by himself (thus taking away any Dwayne Wade threat, save for maybe a three here or there), this Heat team will look a lot like the '09/'10 Cavaliers. A one-man show with role players.
Sorry LeBron, your inevitable run to an NBA championship will not begin this year. Then again, does it matter? Kobe has 5 rings — the last two back-to-back, including the new behemoth he got last night — and no one's even talking about him.
But you'll still be better than the Cavs.
