Whether you are a fan of the Miami Heat or not, you can see that being down 2-1 in their playoff series against the Indiana Pacers has them in a corner. Of course, all the "heat" is on LeBron James, the superstar forward whom Pat Riley brought to Florida to win a championship. The problem begins with this philosophy and needs to be corrected: No one player, no matter how great, can win an NBA championship on his own, even one as great as King James.
This Heat team looks nothing like the bunch of guys who steamrolled my New York Knicks in the first round. Chris Bosh is hurt for one thing, and it looks like an impostor hit Dwayne Wade over the head and is taking to the court in his place. How else can you explain his missing an easy layup in game 2's final seconds and getting into an argument with head coach Erik Spoelstra in game 3? He certainly looks like a different person, so President Riley better get some DNA swabs and make sure about things.
Getting back to James, is it unfair for everyone to be placing the blame on him? Well, he only has himself to blame. The "heat" is on him because he came to Florida to win championships. Note that word is plural because no one expected him to go there to win just one. The problem is that one player cannot win a championship, and this goes for the greatest players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. If the team built around that superstar falters, he is not going to be able to carry the load alone.
Knicks fans know this all too well. Our version of James is Carmelo Anthony. Again, he couldn't do it all on his own, and this year when Jeremy Lin went down, Amar'e Stoudemire faltered, and the rest of the team struggled, everyone was blaming Anthony. You can do that all you want but it doesn't change the truth of the way to win in the NBA playoffs.
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