Miami Heat - Franchise players in each NBA Team – NBA Feature Part 12
Miami heat – LeBron James
After the Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2010-11 season, there were many analysts who believed that Dwyane Wade should be the man carrying the Miami Heat rather than LeBron James.
That notion changed quickly this season, one in which the Heat won the second NBA title in their franchise history.
It was the season in which James finally achieved the one thing missing from his resume – the NBA championship. However the season was not about what James managed to achieve, it was more about how he achieved it.
James was the player, everybody loved to see before he made the infamous switch to the South Beach two off seasons ago. There was no hate in his eyes, he had nothing to prove to anybody and more importantly he was at his aggressive
best, roaring inside the lane throughout the playoffs like his life depended on it.
In doing so, he stretched the court for his team and boy did they benefit from it, the final game of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder being the best example.
There were times during the playoff campaign when the Heat looked down the barrel and needed somebody to rescue them. On each occasion, LeBron jumped to the fore. The first one came when Miami went 1-2 down against an increasingly
physical Indiana Pacers side and the second one when the Heat, after winning the first two games of their Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics dropped to 2-3 and were faced with an intimidating prospect of tackling the resurgent C’s in their own backyard
to keep the series alive.
With his team looking for a saviour, the King hammered the best performance of the playoffs with 45 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists and from there on the Heat never looked back.
Making others around him look better is how James loves to play his game, and this very facet make him a team leader. His performances, leadership abilities and the ball handling skills just concrete the fact.
If anyone still says that Dwyane Wade is the leader of this team, the one who will take this team into the future, he will be laughed out of the room.
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