Some thoughts on the Miami Heat…
Let’s first get past the narrow minded, MJ-fueled notion of what it means to be ‘The Man’. Kobe Bryant isn’t the leader of the Lakers because he’s the one who gets to chuck up 18 foot jump shots at the end of regulation. Kobe isn’t handed the keys to the team simply because he’s been around the longest either. Leadership is always about the intangibles. Admittedly, the whole ‘Star player singlehandedly wins game’ storyline is so much more epic than the ‘Star player passes to role player #3’ alternative. And yet, there’s no rule or reason, outside of highlight reel resume building and ego padding, that the team leader has to be the designated late game savior.
There have been premature proclamations as to who will be the leader of this star driven team. Columnists have to write columns, the Heat are the trendy topic right now, and there are only so many facts to follow before speculation becomes the easiest way to bang out a couple hundred more words about LeBron and Wade.
It’s not unreasonable to think that Dwyane Wade will be the face, legs, body and soul of the team. The man can flat out play and is right up there as a top 5 player in the league. LeBron is undoubtedly the better basketball player, but perhaps LeBron lacks that essential, or maybe imaginary, alpha male ‘tear your throat out’ mentality that American values dictates to be necessary in any great athlete.
However, it is, without question, unreasonable, and quite frankly ignorant, to say that this is Wade’s team if your reason simply consists of ‘He was here first and he’s won a championship here before’. Pocahontas and the American Indians were ‘here first’ but the Pilgrims had something to say about that once they arrived didn’t they? In case the analogy isn’t clear, Dwyane Wade is Pocahontas, LeBron James is a turkey eating Pilgrim, and Chris Bosh is smallpox.
Flawed analogies aside, this Heat team is nothing like the Heat team of 2006. Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are the only remainders. This is a brand new team with a sparkling new team dynamic. One could even take the angle that Dwyane has his buddy Udonis Haslem while LeBron James brought his playmate Big Z to this new team. Chris Bosh brought the ball boy that no one likes. It’s anyone’s team at this point, as long as anyone only consists of Wade and LeBron.
