Boston as they lost the next game in the series and while LeBron did have a triple-double he also shot 8 of 21 from the field and had 9 turnovers .
Something that made LeBron ' s departure worse than other players leaving other teams was that he was the only chance Cleveland had of being a winner and it was taken from them . The Cleveland Indians are never in contention while Cleveland actually lost their NFL team , before getting the Browns back as a new expansion team . Another problem fans had was how the Miami team was formed , supposedly the plan was implemented by the players involved when they were under contract with other NBA teams . The Miami Heat have been mixed up in some odd transactions before , like signing free agent Juwan Howard in 1996 but having his contract disallowed by the NBA and also how they managed to get Pat Riley away from the Knicks , so some fans question how James , Wade and Bosh came together in Miami .
While " The Decision " turned LeBron James jerseys from clothing to something for the fireplace in Cleveland , the show the Heat put on to brag about signing James and Bosh wasn ' t far behind it for causing acrimony among NBA fans . They had a victory celebration before playing a game and that was when James decided they would win a lot of NBA titles . The target set was eight , as he started off with " not one , not two " and finished with " not seven ". If James does get to eight then it would not have been bragging because he did back it up with his actions . It actually is possible for a basketball player from Ohio to win eight NBA championships as that is how many John Havlicek won .
There are some things that LeBron does that do cause fans to wonder if he is a good guy to cheer for a bad guy . When James changed jersey numbers , for some fans he also disrespected a lot of their players . James said that no player should be allowed to wear number 23 , in honor of Michael Jordan , but when James picked number 6 fans of teams with superstars who wore that number were perplexed . The thinking was that if Jordan deserves to have his number retired by the NBA then the number 6 of Bill Russell , with his eleven NBA championships , would be just as deserving of the recognition . While LeBron certainly knows that The Doctor , Julius Erving , wore number 6 there were some fans who thought he didn ' t appreciate other legends of the game like Russell , Neil Johnston , Tom Gola and Willie Naulls . Maybe James didn ' t intend to offend fans of the Celtics , Warriors , Knicks and 76ers but he did go after the Lakers and Jerry West when he wondered why Jordan wasn ' t replacing West as the NBA logo .
While James could have four or five NBA titles if a few things had gone his way , there are some who will say that James is lucky to have the NBA titles he did win . In 2013 , it took a missed free throw from Kawhi Leonard , a bad coaching decision from the Spurs and a lucky shot from Ray Allen . If Coach Popovich had left his superstar Tim Duncan on the floor for the final seconds of regulation in Game 6 the Spurs might have another trophy . The year before , while the Heat easily beat the Thunder they barely got by the Pacers and Celtics . The Heat needed James to put on an amazing performance away in Game 6 against the Celtics to avoid elimination and to go home to win that series . James scored 45 points , shot 73 % from the field and added 15 rebounds . That one game silenced a lot of James ’ critics .
LeBron still has a lot to prove and winning more NBA titles is the way to do it . When LeBron was growing up in Akron he didn ' t want to emulate the feats of Mark Price , Brad Daugherty and other Cleveland Cavs because he wanted to be Michael Jordan . James ' boss at the Heat , if he really has one , is Pat Riley and he came up with the word " Three-Peat ". If James wants to
Sports Passion The Magazine | 14 August 2013 | Issue No . 1