Because No One Else Has Commented on LeBron Yet

Wow. Really, wow. What LeBron James did to the Detroit Pistons last night was simply amazing. We realize that seems pretty simplified but we’re still stunned following the 48-9-7 he hung during Game 5 in Detroit. And if you think for a moment that this wasn’t the defining game of LeBron’s young career, well, you’re not watching the same stuff we were. Also, we understand everyone and your mother in the blogosphere has gone off on the King at this point, but we felt compelled.

Coaching and a total lack of any other players willing to step up almost killed Cleveland–what with Mike Brown running through timeouts like Lindsay Lohan through a scrip of OxyContin. (What? The Oxy makes it kind of fresh.) Brown did however, manage to piss out one smart move (other than his “playcalling”) by giving James significant time on the pine early in the game to keep him rested at the end; yes, by significant we mean three to four minutes. Also, as a friend of ours pointed out last night, while Mike Brown’s offense is absolutely atrocious, he has significantly improved the Cleveland defense–given the lack of defensive talent on this squad, it’s something that goes completely unnoticed. But enough about Mike Brown.

Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley spent a few minutes before cutting to commercial by discussing that (Charles-paraphrased) “I played against Michael [Jordan] in the Finals when he scored 55 and this is one of the single most amazing performances I have seen in person in a long time”, and (Kenny-also paraphrased) “This is one of those things that you talk about for a long time, tell your kids about, TIVO, make phone calls while it’s happening…”

Both were dead on. We found ourselves in the midst of this sublime (that’s literally the only word for it) display of talent trying to squeeze text messages, phone calls, g-chats and some blog commentating over at Awful Announcing(who did a fantastic job of live blogging this double OT monster). And while all of that business makes us sound kind of nerdy and all, it just further proves the point that anyone–at least any real sports fan or someone with a functioning set of major organs–that was watching felt the same way.

The King couldn’t be stopped. That’s all we can really think to write. He made left-handed-around-the-back moves and pulled for deep jumpers. He hit threes when he needed to. He went strong to the hole and threw down either around or on people because he knew that he wasn’t getting the Dwyane Wade treatment in this series.

Speaking of Wade, we couldn’t help but think, this morning, where the hell is that 2003 first round, number two overall choice that Detroit had while they were being slowly dismantled by the heir apparent to the NBA throne? Are we saying that Darko Milicic would have been the answer to stopping LeBron’s attacks on the Pistons’ post-position? Of course not. But Darko is still a much more formidable inside presence, defensively, then the rubber-kneed Chris Webber, who was forced to handle the duties once Antonio McDyess was (wrongfully?) ejected last night.

But the point isn’t really that Detroit lacks anything on their roster to prove that they ever had the number two overall pick, since they planned on using the money from Kelvin Cato’s expiring contract to re-sign Ben Wallace. In all likelihood, it will end up going to the somewhat overrated Chauncey Billups.

The real point is that we have to wonder, what happens if you insert Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, or Carmelo Anthony into this Pistons lineup? Hell, how about Josh Howard (Detroit opted to take Carlos Delfino at 25, letting J-Ho drop to the Mavs at 29)? Two of those guys–Howard and Wade–would provide substantially better double teams than Rip Hamilton. Bosh and maybe even Milicic would have provided better interior defense for the Pistons, and ‘Melo would have just jacked up his own 25 shots. Now, the point isn’t that Joe Dumars should have been building his squad to beat the LeBrons in the Eastern Conference Finals. The point is, the Pistons have made the wrong executive decisions a number of times over the last few years. Many Dumars backers point towards those very clever championship belts as proof that he did what he had to, but that lacks feasibility when they sacrificed NOTHING in terms of who they drafted en route to making the championship run.

We’re not trying to attack Joe Dumars here, it just seems like a rational thing to think about as LeBron makes one of those slash-the-throat, dagger-in-your-effing-heart gestures on Saturday night in Cleveland.

Oh yeah, we’d also like to point out that the NBA/ABC did absolutely nail their promo with the line “Will you be there…when”. We were there. It was sick. All hail the King.