Compare and Contrast

The Cavaliers and Warriors are facing one another for the fourth straight year in the NBA finals.  If Cleveland wins, Lebron James will be 4-5 in the finals.  That’s one mighy big if.

In last night’s opening game, the Cavs had pulled even at 107 apiece with 4.7 seconds left and guard George Hill on the line to shoot the second of two free throws.  Hill missed, but teammate J.R. Smith rebounded.  Only Smith dribbled away from the basket before finally passing the ball, too late to avoid an overtime loss.       

 Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said Smith thought his team was ahead, and James sure had a look of disbelief on his face that Smith didn’t know where he was going.  Smith contends he was aware of the score, didn’t want to try to shoot over Kevin Durant and thought James was going to call a timeout, so he waited, in which case Smith couldn’t tell time.  As they say outside of New York, once a Knick always a Knick.

There’s a good deal of debate going on these days as to who’s the better player, James or Michael Jordan.  I recently found myself in the middle of one such argument during my niece’s college graduation party.  I look at it this way.  Put James on those Bulls’ teams, and they still go 6-0.  Put Jordan on this Cavs’ team, and he probably stuffs Smith into a basket for his play, and they still lose.

Michael always had a topnotch supporting cast and the perfect coach for that roster.  Lebron has to depend on an ex-Knick in crunch time.  Short of a time machine to prove my hypothesis, I’d call it a draw between two greats.