LeBron's Shaq Moment

This will be a quick one but after watching the San Antonio Spurs just completely demolish the Cavs in the Finals, it got me thinking about LeBron James. He definitely struggled, but who wouldn't when you have Daniel Gibson and a bunch of nobodies as your teammates. And don't forget about that complex offense that MIke Brown runs, you know the "give it to LeBron and hope it works" thing. That must have been real hard for the Spurs to prepare for.

But think about it. There's precedent for something like this. LeBron can go one of two ways here. He could pull a Dan Marino and never make it back to the Finals after getting one little taste of it. Or this could be like Shaq back in the day when the Magic got obliterated by Hakeem the Dream in his prime. Remember how Olajuwon just demolished Shaq in that Finals. It was humbling for the big man and he ended up signing a big deal with the Lakers where we all know he went on to have three of the most dominating years ever by a center. He was Batman to Kobe's Robin, as is well documented.

So where will LeBron go? I'm of the feeling that this is the first of numerous Finals appearances for King James. I mean if he can make it to the Finals with the cast he has now, the sky is the limit. This Cavs team was horrendous and yet somehow navigated through the east. It was a weakened east, obviously, but making it to the Finals is still making it to the Finals. There really aren't that many players in history that can say they essentially single handedly took their squad to the Finals. I just hope Cavs GM Danny Ferry doesn't pick up any studs in the next few seasons because the Cavs could become one helluva juggernaut.


I was really young at the time, but I still vividly remember Hakeem's disgustingly awesome spin move. The year he took out Shaq, he also completely embarrassed David Robinson in the Western Conference Finals. That was the year The Admiral won MVP and I think a couple years before he stiffed the Broonsta on an autograph request.