This week’s Tweet of the Week:

Dmoses3 [April 19]: “The dude just said Blake griffin will win a championship before lebron, case in point why Ravi Bhatia needs to write about women’s basketball”

Dmoses3, I actually know less about women’s basketball. But thanks for capitalizing my name and not LeBron’s.

Here’s my logic: even considering the Big Three’s relative youth and their six-year contracts, I give the Heat a two-year window to win a championship. Contracts don’t dictate team chemistry, and the bond between the three might be too weak for them to keep playing with each other for the span of their deals — especially if the Heat don’t win when they’re the favorites, which they’re likely to be next season.

All bets are off about Miami’s dynasty chances if they win this year, but they currently don’t have the depth to beat out any contender from the West in a seven-game series. If they don’t win now, LeBron James won’t be able to handle Dwayne Wade being the man in the long term. He’s too immature to be the leader himself and to accept the fact that he isn’t. He’s not enough of a competitive asshole to carry a team on his shoulders and win it all like MJ and Kobe Bryant, but he’s too much of an asshole — and too good — to step aside and let Wade lead them there.

If LeBron does win in the next two years, he’ll win by accepting his role behind Wade. That won’t happen in these playoffs.

Now that Wade’s established his leadership, watch LeBron put up 35 shots to score 30 points in at least one game against the Celtics. Watch the Heat lose that game despite LeBron’s triple-double-esque numbers — which he obtains because he keeps the ball in his hands so much that the team can’t move through its offensive rotations — and watch people check out the box score and his dunk highlights on SportsCenter and think, “Damn, the Heat lost but it wasn’t King James’ fault.”

Blake Griffin could win before LeBron, but he won’t win in L.A. Odds are Donald Sterling won’t resign him at the end of his rookie contract in a couple years. More likely, Sterling will let all the maturing playoff pieces go and attempt to keep only Griffin so he can continue attracting fools like me, who somehow keep their Clipper Nation hopes alive or can’t afford Laker tickets.

Once Griffin’s free, he’ll go to the team with fantastic guard play (a lot of teams have this) and an owner that cares (every team but the Clippers have this). If Griffin chooses wisely, that team will instantly become a championship contender.

Things could change. The criticism I give LeBron is similar to what MJ got before he won his first, or Kobe got before his first championship in the post-Shaq era.

For now, LeBron’s has all the unfulfilled leadership potential in the world. Meanwhile, Blake is slated to become the most valuable free agent of the decade.

 

Daily Nexus NBA columnist Ravi Bhatia wonders if there are better websites than ATDHE.net to watch these games?

 

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