The NBA Finals are over, and as a Cavaliers fan, I found them to be disappointing. But what's more disappointing is the lack of respect the Cavaliers got nationally for their playoff run, which is something 28 other teams would have traded their seasons for.
Round 1: Cavaliers sweep Wizards. The national media was upset that this matchup even occurred. They were rooting for the Cavaliers to play the Heat in the first round and for them to lose to the Heat. The Wizards were without Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, but the Cavaliers swept them. The national media expected four blowout wins and ripped the Cavaliers for only winning by 15, 7, 6, and 7 points in the four games.
Round 2: Cavaliers beat Nets 4-2. There's not much to say here. To the national media, this was the second part of Cleveland's easy playoff road. I can't help it that the Raptors lost to the Nets. I didn't see anybody criticizing the Jazz's easy road when they got to play the Warriors instead of the Mavericks.
Conference Finals: Cavaliers beat Pistons 4-2. The ESPN NBA experts predicted the Pistons to win. When the Cavaliers won, instead of praising them, they talked about what the Pistons did wrong. Before the series, the Pistons were supposedly a dominant team. Greg Anthony even said they were better than last year's Pistons team that won 64 games. When the Cavaliers beat them, the Pistons transformed into a team with a lot of problems. The fact that Cleveland beat them meant that something was wrong with the Pistons.
Finals: Spurs sweep Cavaliers. The national media held two simultaneous views. First, the Spurs are a great team, a dynasty approaching that of the Bulls in the 1990's and the Lakers and Celtics of the 1980's. Second, the Cavaliers are terrible, the worst Finals team. Every Western Conference playoff team except the Lakers would have beaten the Cavaliers.
For these two views to both be true, the Spurs would have to blow out the Cavaliers all four games, the way the national media expected the Cavaliers to play against the Wizards. A dynasty should blow out a terrible team, right? But the Spurs didn't, winning by 9, 11, 3, and 4 (technically Game 4 was a 1 point game, but the Spurs gave the Cavaliers a wide open 3 point attempt at the end) points.
Either the Spurs aren't as great as the national media says (for letting a terrible team hang around) or the Cavaliers aren't as bad as they say (for hanging around with a great team). I take the second option.
National media, instead of ripping the Cavaliers and LeBron James for their poor performance against the Spurs, I have two other targets for your criticism. First, the Dallas Mavericks, your regular season darling. They won 67 games and had the league MVP, who you should expect more from than a second team All-NBA player like LeBron. But they lost in the first round to the #8 seed Warriors in 6 games, and were lucky to get a 6th game. Second, the Miami Heat, defending NBA champions. I know Dwayne Wade was injured, but a player who supposedly is better than LeBron shouldn't get swept in the first round of the playoffs. But why criticize your favorites, when you can rip LeBron?
