by Chris Selbo
With the 2014 NBA Finals officially in the books, we’ve come to crown another NBA champion. The San Antonio Spurs have capped off an incredible regular season with their 5th NBA championship.
Throughout all five games, even the one in which San Antonio lost, the Spurs were obviously the much better team.
The Spurs beat the Miami Heat with the largest average margin of victory in a Finals series in NBA history. And honestly, they made it look easy.
Dethroning back-to-back champs is no simple task either, but the Spurs sure did make it seem so.
By playing an unselfish, make-the-extra-pass type of offense, they were able to totally dismantle the Heat’s defense.
But still, the Spurs performance was mostly fueled by one person–Kawhi Leonard.
I hope you get used to hearing those two words. One thing is for sure, I can guarantee you this won’t be the last we see or hear of Leonard.
The 22-year-old averaged 17.8 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game during the Finals. For his stellar performance, Leonard was awarded Finals MVP, making him the youngest Finals MVP since his teammate Tim Duncan in 1999.
Although San Antonio deserves every ounce of credit towards winning their 5th NBA title, I believe there is a much larger question at hand.
What in the world happened to the Miami Heat?
Miami did not look like team that had just made it to their 4th straight Finals appearance. To be quite honest, their performance was a disappointment at best.
I mean come on, you have the best player in the world and you can only win one game in a best-of-seven series?
Now I know that basketball is a team game, but for LeBron James to be worthy of comparisons to Michael Jordan, his team has to do much better than producing only one win.
Jordan was such a great player because he had a knack for making his teammates around him better. With Mario Chalmers quite possibly having the worst string of performances over a five game span in his career, this is something James clearly did not do.
Not only did Miami only win one game, but the games they lost were not even close.
So what’s next?
On Tuesday, James announced he would opt out of his contract with the Heat and become a free agent. So will he return to Cleveland in an effort to bring his home state their first ever NBA title?
What about Dwayne Wade? Will he finally give his knees a rest for good?
These are questions that everyone wants answers to, but nobody will get. That is, until free agency starts on July 1.