I mean, well, that song was the last song on the album I was working on at that time. That was the last song that got recorded, and it was just something that came.
Together very beautifully.
To make a long story short, as soon as I heard my whole album, I was listening to it, I'll never forget, and I was like, we're missing this one thing and got with T Pain and T Pain is he's such a genius, you know when he came up with the food. All I do is win, hook and this our energy bouncing off each other. We always made great music. And as soon as that was done, I immediately went to Ross's house and Ross did that verse
for me in five minutes. I immediately said that Ludacris, I'm letting everybody know this is gonna.
Be the biggest one.
You know what I'm saying. Ludacrous says his verse back immediately and he goes crazy.
Y know.
I always wanted to work with Soup Doll and I just wanted to make sure I found the right record, and I sent him All I do is win. He knocked that out and sent it back and we end up making a classic, a winner's anthem, an anthem for everybody, because that's what I represent is love for everybody, and it's just a.
National anthem for all winners.
So to be able to be a city that wins big and to have an anthem call I do his win that plays worldwide is a blessing from God.
One of DJ Khaled's signature hits had been blaring inside NBA Arena since it was released in early twenty ten, and up until that devastating finals lost against the Mavericks, it felt like it was an anthem made strictly for Lebron James and the Miami Heat until it determined Dirk Noovinsky and then a post finals press conference made everyone realize how not ready they were to be ultimate winners.
Welcome back to four years of Heat. I'm your host, Israel Gutierres and this is episode four or Game six.
Lebron.
The Mavericks had just disposed of the Heat on Miami's home court, winning the last three games of the finals, including one where James scored a career postseason low at the time of eight points. Not even an hour later, James appeared with Wade on the postgame podium together after a few questions about the failures on the court, James was asked to respond to those who might have wanted to see him fail.
Does it bother you that so many people are happy to see you fail?
Absolutely not, because at the end of the day, all the people that is rooting on me to fail, you know, at the end of day, they gotta wake up tomorrow have the same life that they had before they woke up today. You know, they got the same personal problems that they had today, you know, and I'm gonna continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do well
me and my family and be happy with that. So you know, they can get a few days, a few months, or whatever the case may be, on being happy about not only myself but to Miami Heat not accomplishing the goal. But you know, they got to get back to the real world at some point.
It was a response that gave his critics the ultimate proof that Lebron had completed the villainous turn. Not only had he abandoned Cleveland, but after failing on the biggest stage, he would aim at their hearts again by reminding them that he lives a different lifestyle. It was so unlike James to lash out in that manner. It was apparent to some that the year of absorbing the manufactured hatred from across the country had finally caught up to him.
Dan Lebtard of Meadow Lark Media watched it all from up close.
It makes sense that someone that vulnerable in the postgame press conference would try to cover himself with defensive barbed wire and camouflage so that you couldn't see just how hurt and.
Scared he was.
But the truth, the truth was around that press conference where he told all we had to go back to our broke lives. The truth was before it when he wouldn't post up JJ Burrea and was passing the ball scared, and after it when he went into total hiding in his home because he was ashamed of what it is that we all just saw.
When Lebron James's career is finally over, assuming that day ever arrives, there'll be a few moments people will point to that helped fine tune him into an ultimate winner. This will likely be considered the most pivotal. Despite telling the listening world that he was on top of it, this would actually be Lebron's rock bottom when people hated on the decision or said he'd be moving on to
a secondary role on a new team. James had a season of basketball with which to argue back, but now the defense had rested and Lebron's closing arguments were less than stirring. He could only internalize to examine what went wrong. Rachel Nichols spoke with Lebron at the finals against Dallas, off camera at one of James's charity events that offseason, and also back on camera for an interview before the lockout short in twenty eleven. Twelve season began that December.
In that stretch, she noticed a person making some notable adjustments.
He was clearly in just such a terrible place, he would later say they he spent a couple of weeks just locked in his house when go anywhere with to see any one. It's certainly what we were hearing from the people around him. And then he and Dwayne actually went on vacation together, a vacation that they had planned with the idea of, Hey, We're going to win the NBA Finals and then take this trip to the Bomas
and celebrate. And they got to the house and it has been recounted to me by multiple parties, including Lebron, that when Lebron and Savannah got into the house, he was looking over the balcony on the second floor and jumped over the balcony.
Into the pool below.
And I want you to think about that, Lebron James, whose body is his life's work, who if he had broken several bones, would have been a huge story and a huge setback and certainly a risk, and sort of that he thought about. The temperature around him at the time was just so out of sight of himself that he jumped off the balcony into a pool.
So it speaks to his state.
Of mind that his future wife, Savannah Brinston was with him in the Bahamas was no small note. Non basketball family as part of what James was missing in his first season in Miami. It had become such a vital business trip he didn't bring family with him, so when he needed relief from basketball stress, James didn't have the usual comforts around him to provide daily perspective. Brian Windhorst witnessed the Lebron he'd never seen before, and a decade of following him.
What he needed was home and not just physically home. He went back home for the lockout and spent the entire lockout in Akron virtually and more importantly, spent the lockout with his girlfriend, Savannah and his two sons, who who did not travel with him to Miami the first year. And it was basically him realizing that he had gotten away from who he was.
Lebron James was currently misunderstood. He wanted to help a charity for children with his free agent announcement, not create a sense of abandonment. He wanted folks to marvel at what could be in the NBA, not hate him for
reshaping it. And with an extended offseason to consider all of this because of a work stoppage that didn't allow the season to begin until Christmas Day, Lebron had a plan just lay the cards out on the table, including a delayed apology to the people of Cleveland, whose sports world was rocked. Nichols conducted the interview with James that would effectively attempt to reset his image heading into his second season with Miami.
There had been a lockout and so everything got delayed. But then we sat down before it was time for him to report to camp to do the interview after.
The finals, I said, in my room for two weeks, did absolutely nothing, talked to absolutely nobody.
And I do think that was a really important turning point for him because it is the first time he acknowledged that he would have done something differently with the decision. It's first time he acknowledged what it must have felt like for people in Cleveland. So I think that.
Was an important part of that interview.
And another important part of that was, as you referenced him saying, I don't want to be the villain anymore. It's not why I play the game of basketball.
I played a game.
Fun, joyful, you know, and I let my game do all the talking, you know. And you know, I got away from that. Going through my first seven years in the NBA. I was always the you know, the liked one, and to be on the other side, you know, they called it the dark side or the villain, whatever they called it.
It was. It was definitely challenging for myself.
It was a.
Situation I'd never been in before and took a long time to adjust to it. It basically turned me into somebody I wasn't.
You know.
You started to hear the villain, you know, now you have to be.
The villain you you know, and I started to buy into it.
I started to play.
Played a game of basketball at a at a level or at a mistate that never played that before.
Being angry, and I think saying it out loud was important for him, and he certainly played that way in the following year.
Thanks to ESPN for that sound from Rachel's interview. It wasn't just Lebron manifesting that into reality, however. He couldn't simply say he's happy and then suddenly rediscover his joy for the game. He knew he had to eliminate some weaknesses in his game, weaknesses the Mavericks exposed with his own defense and some undersized defenders. People weren't going to suddenly let Lebron forget about his unwillingness to post up
Mavericks defenders, so he'd only have one option. Mario Chalmers would be the Heat starting point guard in the twenty eleven twelve season. He saw a sneak preview of a different Lebron that offseason.
Last summer, Lebron called me and we worked out at th Other Trong where he was on Miami, and like that's all he did with Dave post work, and so I knew in the back of his mind that was something that he knew that he would acted he wanted to get better at. So when he did see that again, he's fully prepared for that moment.
You Donnis Haslam entered the league the same season as Lebron, Wade, and Bosh. He didn't believe a player of James's caliber had that much room left to improve at this point in his career.
He'd be wrong, and to take nothing away from Dallas, but I mean we pretty much dominated until they started running his own and as NBA basketball players, I think at that time.
We were just shocked. You know, it kind of made us stack.
It kind of took away from athleticism and the skill set that we had, and we just didn't know how to attack it and still be ourselves within the game, and it created some confusion. And I think, you know, Bron took that personally upon himself, being the best player on the team and the leader of that team, that we didn't get it done. And I mean the transformation that he made that summer was amazing.
Man. He never wanted to play in the post. He never wanted to be inside.
He always wanted to be seen as a guard from all the things that he didn't want to do.
Matter when he came to winning, you know, he got out of his comfort zone.
He got in the lab, and he came back a completely different basketball player, which was crazy because you already thought he had reached a pinnacle of who he could be and what he could be, you know, came going down to that block and you know, putting in that work down there on that post was crazy because you know, we had never seen anything like that.
The lockout extended offseason felt like an excruciating delay to the start of Lebron's redemption story, but in reality, it's possible he needed the extra time. He was about to attack his personal Mount Everest again. This time he'd make sure he had everything he needed.
I looked around, and I hadn't felt like this edge ever in the NBA. You know, reminded me of my day's a duke, Like, oh, but we're what of this.
Is this?
You're right there where what is this?
Lebron James's checklist before the start of the twenty eleven twelve season seemed complete. Partially repaired relationship with the people of Cleveland Check a rediscovered joy for the game check. Moving Savannah and their sons to Miami check newly minted post up game check. New teammates check there as well. The most notable move that off season was the signing of free agent Shane Battier. He'd be entering his eleventh NBA season that year and had connections to Heat ownership
from his college days at Duke. After admittedly rolling his eyes at Lebron's initial choice to create a super team in Miami, Battier recognized a place for him after the Heat came up short in year one. Early on in his Heat tenure, Battier was suffering from some nagging injuries that allowed him to sit back and absorb some of what his Heat team was experiencing. As early as opening day in Dallas. On Christmas, Battier noticed this felt different.
I'll never forget the ring night for the Maps.
We played them Christmas Day two thousand and eleven, and you know, obviously none of the guys wanted to watch Dirk and those guys get their rings, and like the intensity of that moment back in the locker room waiting to go out, they just wanted to kill these guys, and just like you could feel the edge. And I'm like, I looked around and I hadn't felt like this edge ever in the NBA.
You know.
Reminded me of my days a duke, Like, oh, but we're winning.
This this You're right, then, we're winning this, and we'd go out. We destroyed Dallas, I think by thirty and I'm just like, oh, man, you know we're gonna it's gonna be a different year.
The final score would end up being an eleven point differential, but the decisive win would set the tone for a truncated sixty six game season. Starts of eight and one and twenty eight and seven would have Miami confident throughout. The games were happening so fast there was almost not
enough time to remember the heat were disliked figures. All you could do was marvel at this somehow improved version of Lebron James, his new found chemistry with Dwayne Wade, and the expanding all around game of Chris bosh operating forces.
It blocked by Wade, the defense continues to impress James. Tabash I had to finish, well, that's a nice looking fast break.
To block it.
Bust out on the dribble, find James who touches it to bosh tre mendous fast break.
Basketball, and while you were watching, the hatred was almost unknowingly melting away.
Here's battier.
It was a blur. It was a really weird season. It was crazy.
I mean, we sold out every arena we played that, and so everyone wanted to see us. Everyone wanted to come and do us. But I noticed early on that the heat and maybe Lebron became much more of a sympathetic character, the sympathetic hero, if you will, just knowing the vitriol he went through the year before and the scene in Cleveland, and it was pretty like negative there.
It was much more positive than I thought when I went on the road, and I think that was born out of the way they lost sort of the humility they had, the sort of stomach from losing to Dallas, and so the tenor of how people viewed us, especially on the road, it did change. It did change, but it was always a scene, always a scene. There are
always people at our hotel rooms. You know, we get into San Antonio two three in the morning, there were people there, and there was always people who just wanted to see this team. Want to see the bron want to see d Wade, want to see CB, just want to see us, And it was it was like like crazy, I'm not compared us to the Beatles, but it was.
It was like a hysteria that I had never been a part of my ten years in the league.
There might still have been a hysteria around the team, but there was certainly a growing sense of calm on it. Even if it looked chaotic at times. Now that was a planned chaos. It was a heat team on a string at all times, creating having on the defensive end and an offense you couldn't take your eyes off for a moment. Dare you miss an all time iconic play?
Wayne Wade with another steal three on one Jae, Holy smokes.
You shit me.
The way they get out in transition from defense to offense, it's probably the best, no question, of any team currently in the NBA.
The sense of order that allowed for said chaos came in the form of a gesture from Wade that offseason, while Lebron was fighting through that dark place and making risky leaps from second floor balconies, Wade had a conversation with James that unlocked one last feeling of home. Wade told Lebron to treat the Heat as if it was his team. Sure, it might say Wade County on a bunch of the T shirts in Miami Dade County, but on the hardwood, James should treat it as his own territory.
Waite talk to me about it at length for a story I wrote for ESPN dot com in twenty twelve, and while I don't have the original audio of an interview that was likely recorded on an iPhone four, I can't read to you Dwayne's comments. He said, quote, Lebron is probably the most talented player we've seen in a while.
But how good can we be?
Are we going to be good if me and him are both scoring twenty seven a night?
Yeah, we're going to be good. But it would be too much.
Okay, it's your turn. Now, it's your turn. I wanted to give him the opportunity where he didn't have to.
Think about that.
It's kind of like I told him, listen, I'll find a way. Don't worry about me. I'll be there, but you go out and be the player that we want you to be. It was considered an extremely selfless move from a player who was going shot for shot with Lebron just two years earlier. The clarity of thought for James allowed him to win his third MVP Trophy that season, announcing himself back to his top of the league's self. But it wasn't just the Wade gesture that suddenly put
him back into that space. Eric Spolster also drew from his first season coaching James, Wade and Bosh. He and assistant coach David Fizdale decided to flex their basketball knowledge and change up the predictable offense that doomed Miami, most notably against the Mavericks.
Here's battier and I.
Give Eric Spolsor a ton of credit. I don't think he gets enough credit for that run we had. He really changed the way that we played. And you know, we ran a lot of sets, or they ran a lot of sets when they lost to Dallas, and it's just a lot of like, isoball my turn?
Your turn?
And there wasn't a.
Lot of I guess you could say creativity to the offense, and that you know, that's what Lebron do. Way and CB needed to just have a little more creativity, a little more flow a little more to really take their talents to the max, to their highest potential. And the next year it was a much different offense, much more I wouldn't say democratic offense, but it allowed these guys to utilize their skills better. And that was just a process changed by Fizdale and Eric Spoltra, and so they
really left their mark on by our play style. His biggest regret from the year before, he said, was he was too afraid to make a drastic move and do what's right, and so I think he kept trying to, you know, just bludgeon the MAVs to death with the plays that they had run in the last ten years of the Miami Heat, and there wasn't a lot of innovation.
The Heat played with more pace, which was a bit easier with the year of chemistry under their belts and a system with Lebron now clearly at the head.
The result was a.
Forty six and twenty final record and a number two seed in the Eastern Conference.
The rushed tempo of.
The regular season and the Heat success throughout it would never really allow for the pressure of the previous season to show itself. The playoffs would more than make up for that. It actually started with a pressure free, gentlemanly game defeat of good buddy Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks. Here's Lebron James with David Aldridge talking about the first round win and the Heat's next opponent.
You are obviously very close with Carmelo Anthony, Olympic teammates together. You embraced them after this, after this game was over.
What did you say to him?
Man, it's some brotherhood that goes beyond basketball. It's my first opportunity to go up against him in the playoff series and it was It was fun man too. He's one of the most competitive players I ever played against in the series, so it was fun.
Man.
Wish them the best of the time. I see him this summer and as we go for go.
You have some other obligations right now. You got the Indiana Pacers in the second round preview of that series. Quickly you took three or four from him in the regular season.
Uh, they're very well coached team. You know, they play inside and out. You know, with David West and Roy Hibbert, No, guys do a great job controlling the pain and then they have some perimeter play in George Hill, Danny Granger. I mean, they do an unbelievable job. Paul George and those guys off the bench as well, give him a big, big boost. So, uh, you know we will savored us way tonight. But then we get to work tomorrow and get ready for En dawn Ron.
Congratulations, we'll see in the second round game.
Miami had been preparing mentally for their other East rival, the top seed a Chicago Bulls, but those thoughts were dashed when Derreck Rose tore his ACL in his left knee in the first game of Chicago's playoffs that season against Philadelphia. When the Pacers settled in as Miami's second round matchup, they didn't realize the group led by David West, Paul George, Danny Granger, and Roy Hibbert would create the
kinds of problems Miami didn't have great answers for. And when Bosh injured his hip flexer in Game one after being fouled by Hibbert on a made basket, the Pacers suddenly seemed more formidable than anyone could have imagined.
Oh out of the basket took a hard hitt as he finished.
That three point play.
Now that was an explosion and Boss going strong to that left hand guy Hibbert, who picks.
Up his third.
A Heat team that wasn't rich with size, had just lost its starting power forward and was about to face the Pacers for potentially six more games without him. That meant a six foot eight, two hundred and twenty pound battier would have to get.
Big after you know, CB gets hurt, Spoke comes me after the game and says, hey, we need to play small. You know, will you will you be the power forward? I said, hell, yeah, let's go. You know, it takes me back to my Dukee days. So I knew I had to bang with David West and he was a big bully, and bangal with Roy Hibbert. I'm like, hey, let's let's go, man, let's do it.
Fortunately the Heat still had a healthy big man it could throw into the mix, the reliable you, Donnis Hasli.
If there's one team that I could give too is Indiana.
Oh okay, let's get out in front of that right away. Haslam was not a fan of these Pacers, but it was this series that actually reinforced that distaste.
It wasn't just Bosh that was injured in this series.
Wade was playing through soreness and the left knee that would need to be drained before the start of Game three in Indianapolis. The Pacers had already won Game two by holding Miami to just seventy five points at home, and in Game three, after that procedure that was supposed to provide relief for Wade, he had the worst playoff game of his career, with five points on two of thirteen shooting, as the Heat were held to seventy five points again and suddenly trailed the series two games to one.
Game four in.
Indianapolis would become the first test of the resolve built in those previous finals, except this time it was Wade who seemed to be carrying the weight of the franchise. He had just come off his worst career playoff game on a sore knee, and the idea that he could be Lebron's partner in winning multiple championships suddenly seemed bleak. Wade even visited with his Marquette coach, Tom Crean, who was coaching Indiana at the time.
Here's battier, and.
We felt horrible for him because he was obviously in pain. His knee was swollen, so it wasn't like you. And D's a warrior, so you know when he's when he's banged up and say he's banged up, you know he's really banged up.
But that's what makes Hall of Famers.
That's why d Wade, you know, behind Kobe and Mike's probably the third greatest shooting guard of all time, with respects to Jerry West.
You show up.
You show up when you're when the pressure is on the line the most. And that's why I argue that you need to go to the NBA Finals, win championships to be considered one of the greatest because of their consequences. And if you never put yourself in that position where your legacy is in the line and people are gonna talk about you and downgrade your entire career, you can't be in that conversation. And that's why ultimate respect for d Wade and Lebron and Chris and Ray Allen, all
these guys. They show up when legacy is on the line. And that was that that game four against in Indiana.
Wade was vintage and scoring thirty points with nine rebounds and six assists in this legacy marker of a game.
Wade coming to the basket, so he's got a three ended up. Get a couple of field goals here for Dwayne in the last nie and that was beautiful Lebron.
James yelled up battye a cleared out and then they ran a back door move with Wade running on the baseline.
Beautiful bass and look by Lebron.
Lebron scored forty of his own with eighteen rebounds and nine assists in what was one of his best statistical playoff games of his heat tenure, showing he'd had more than Wade's back games.
Attacking Barbosa, bang and a fucking for Lebron thirty seven. Now that's a sheer upper body strength and then acrobatic ability to take the contact.
Fittingly, Wade got some additional help from his most familiar of teammates in this crucial clash. Haslam was coming off the bench at this point, but he knew he'd find enough opportunities to support Wade, his teammate of nine seasons. Miami had tried second year center Dexter Pittman in the middle in Game three, and in Game four it was Ronnie Torioff getting the starting knot in the middle, but it was Haslam that gave Miami twenty five critical minutes.
With the Heat leading by just a point in the fourth quarter, Haslm followed a way bucket by drawing an offensive foul in Indiana's lou Adminson. The collision left Haslm bleeding from above his right eye, but he wouldn't allow Heat trainer Jay Sable to take him to the locker room for the necessary stitches.
I I remember get hit the eye when I got hit my damn, I you know what I'm saying. I was pissed, and I think Jay tried to take me.
To the locker room.
But I knew if I went to the locker room to get stitches that I probably missed too much of the game to be able to help win, right.
You know what I mean?
By the time I go get stitched up and try to come back, who knows. So I was like that, tap it up, we don't have time.
I gotta go.
And it was also around the time where they thought that the game plan was to leave me open. I don't know what they were smoking, but their game plan was to make me beat them. I understand Lebron and Dwayne is great, but don't disrespect the work that I put in. Don't disrespect my craft, don't disrespect who I am. And I felt like that was disrespectful.
Heats the dribble alive. It's Haslam prospect, way go, you've done. It's Haslam. What a quarter he's had.
Wade, James and Haslam scored eighty four of the Heat's one hundred and one points in the series evening win, and yet he'd save his most memorable moment for the next game. It was the second quarter of Game five in Miami, with the series tied at two games apiece and the Heat leading by only seven points at the moment,
and Bosh was still not healthy enough to play. Just about ninety seconds earlier in the game, Tyler Hansbrough committed a flagrant foul on Wade, drawing some blood and the ire of Haslim.
The previous a couple of games as he goes, so whoever gets fouled, But it's so difficult, and Wade looks like you got hit pretty hard.
But Hansbrough came.
Over his back and they contact with him theck and Lebron James is appealing to the.
Officials looking for the flavored called I think the officials are discussing that right down on the class.
That handshake is what pissed me off, because I get it, it's a physical game. At last game, the lou Munskin gout hit me, he was the guy hit me. See, I don't forget that stuff. Musen hit me and gave me stitches. Hansburg hit d Wayne and gave him stitches. Now, right after Hansburg hits the Wayne, I watched Hansboro, who hit d Wayne, and Munson who hit me, go slap each other five like good job. At that point, the decision was made. That decision is made, you know what
I'm saying. And at that supposed set and I say, supposed toy out of this. As soon as the time out, I walked to the timeout and I said, I'm somebody up.
Spoe looked at me and he said whatever he said. I don't know. I couldn't hear him. I had already went.
To that dark place, and I said, supposed to stay out of this, stay out of it.
That's it, you know what I'm saying, That's it.
And I made my and it was crazy because the very next play I couldn't have drew it up any better.
I couldn't have drew it up any better.
I'm the low man on the rotation of a pick and roll, hands burros coming right at me.
I literally thought in my head.
Like if I don't take this opportunity, I might not get a better one.
And I just did. I handled my business.
It's more so like, you know what I'm saying, like, just understand, we're here to play basketball, but we ain't finna, you know, just turn the other cheek to certain things that are going on. You know what I'm saying. My stitches, the Wayne stitches, the handshake. It's starting to seem a little intention here, you know what I'm saying. So we're just gonna let you know we with all that too. I had no intentions on blocking the ball.
Oh hauck, I may flayrant turn it off. I was hands woman, play thing out some of the fuck Gray that he paced off Cup that was shuffer the other night and things.
They're getting very threaten though.
First well they've been physical throughout this series, but now it's getting ugly. Mark, and for Eudanna's has them, this is clearly paidback. He just clubs with two hands hands bull The problem here, Mark, the crowd loves it. But if this is a flagrant too. Remember Haslem is their best post shooter with Bosh out, He's the one that provided that.
Spacing the other day in Game four.
If he's kicked out, no Bosh, no Haslm, that.
Is a major blow for Miami. Well, they're saying there's a flagrant in one. I think that's a flagrant too.
Yeah, like I say, is I made my mind it once I went to the huddle, it's going to happen. I didn't know it's gonna happen in very nice play, but the lower working mysterious waves. I mean, everybody just like laughing and talking about it. But most so it was like the reaction of their players. Nobody approached me after I did that, for all the tough guys in this locker room, for everybody who's supposed to.
Be big and bad.
Nobody approached me from your team when I did that, and Matt let me know we had your heart. Nobody from your team came and did nothing to me, not even come my weight, not even looked my weight.
We got your heart.
Haslam would be suspended for Game six, as with Pittman, who got suspended for three games following a flagrant two he took on Lance Stevenson seconds before the Heats blowout in Game five was complete with an even thinner front court. The Heat went to Indiana and bludgeoned the Pacers in Game six to clinch the series. Wade turned Banker's life Fieldhouse into his personal playground again, scoring forty one with ten rebounds in the clincher.
Now the Pacers need to stop something they have not been very successful on with this man. Wait to the basket, pound it out a foul, want to.
Play from weighing on a chance for a three point per.
We got a lot of them basketball left, you know. I think when you talk about three games, you know, two guys, you know, being dominated at the same time. I think this is probably the most that we have
been when it talk about playoffs. I don't know regular season we've had some good games, but I think the way that we've played off each other, we've played very well, and you know, obviously we envisioned this at times, you know, So it just happened that we needed more than a series because we was missing a very big piece with Chris Bosh being out.
It couldn't possibly get more intense than that. Right, Wade's legacy on the line, and by extension, Lebron's brothers bloodied, and the team's depth tested to its capacity because of an injury and suspensions, Well it could. All it required was two words. Boston Celtics weren't the two thousand and eight Celtics. That team won a championship with instant chemistry around a trio of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
This team, four seasons later, had a lot more Rajon Rondo in its formula, and while on court chemistry was still strong, off court issues were arising. Allen had been a part of trade rumors, and the future Hall of Famer was effectively being told Rondo would be Boston's future and it's quite possible to move to the bench would be an Allen's near future. KG wasn't his two thousand and eight self, the depth wasn't great, and even Pierce's
production would suffer some from Rondo's emergence. This four seed wasn't the team that was supposed to take out the Heat. Yet there were the Celtics, having eked out a series tying Game four in Boston in overtime by outscoring the Heat four to two in the extra five minutes.
Wait picked up by Daniel's final seconds looks up Head's fake.
Puts up a three for the win. Look good Celtics winning.
Then the conference final is tied at two games apiece.
Surely Game five in Miami would settle the Heat. It did quite the opposite. Bosh would return and play off the bench, but the Heat offense was miserable, shooting under forty percent from the field, and the Celtics stunned the Heat despite a combined fifty seven from James and Wade Down a five.
Seconds wave puts up a three, won't go rebound Garnett Crowson.
Ahead to two.
It the Pufficks win Game five, take a three two lead, a huge win on the road.
Is Miami now one loss away from elimination? A stunning result here at the American Airlines a Raider.
The narrative shifted mightily for the Miami Heat. In a span of just two games. The Heat went from a team looking like it would coast to another finals appearance to a team that had everything on the line in just one game, and that game would be played in Boston.
Here's Levitard.
I don't believe that there has ever been a game in South Florida that had more pressure on it, not a Game seven in the World Series, because a Game seven in the World Series wasn't for the blueprint of the franchise, wasn't for the architecture of this thing is going to break down in laughter if you lose Game six, the America is going to celebrate your epic echoing failure four years because things will change if you lose this game.
I don't believe that there has ever in.
My lifetime covering sports in this market a more pressurized game than that one that Lebron James played in Game six in Boston. I doubted that that team would be able to do that. I doubted that Lebron would be able to do that.
I did not.
Trust based on the previous what would it be one hundred and sixty some odd games that that team had played, that that performance was available to anybody. I did not think that that's how that would go when they went into Boston. I expected them to lose that basketball game.
If the Heat don't win Game six and the Game seven that would follow, major adjustments would be on the way it's possible Chris Bosh would get traded. It's likely you Donnis Haslam, the Miami native, doesn't finish his twenty year career with the Heat. Lebron James's attempt to win a championship with his friends and change the league as a result would have been deemed a historic failure, not to mention another year.
Of being the butt of jokes.
Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press tells a story of when Shane Battier watched Lebron deal with those thoughts in real time before Game six.
There was Shane Battier told me a really cool story. The night before Game six. They are in Boston, they're going to dinner. Car pulls up as they're walking on the street. I don't know how big the group of Heat guys was. There was a few of them. Shane and Lebron were quoted. Car pulls up, rolls down the window, Lebron, you suck, and then the guy starts laughing at himself and drives away. That's it, Lebron, you suck. And they're
all sitting there like, well, that just happened. And about twenty minutes later, Shane told me that he realized that Lebron had not said anything yet, and he's like, and that's what I knew.
We were good.
And the next night forty five, fifteen to five.
The butterfly effect from losing Game six would have been so massive it's hard to imagine how different the Heat franchise and the entire league would have looked. But only one look truly mattered. On the evening of June seventh, twenty twelve, in Boston's TD Garden, it was the one on Lebron's face. Battier certainly noticed.
We know what that game meant. Everyone who came to that, you know, the garden, what are they called? They knew if we went today, it's the end of the Big three eras everyone came to barry the Heat, everybody, all those all those Celtic fans, right, and so we we like, we didn't have to like do this big speech.
We knew what was on the.
Line, right, But the look, the look on you know, Lebron's face, I got this, I got this.
The last time Lebron had faced this level of championship pressure, he looked to be shrinking on his way to an eight point finals game and a loss to the Dallas Mavericks. So there was some hope for the Celtics, but the heat's pregame commute from their hotel to the arena offered another source of motivation for Lebron. It was much longer than usual, with the team bus fighting heavy Boston traffic.
Here's e Donnis Haslam.
I already knew he was gonna go crazy because they tried to pull some trickery. You know, we got to the game, like sixty business before the game, the bus, the traffic.
I don't know, it's a little skeptic. I'm a little skeptical behind that all played out.
But we literally walked in about with sixty on the clock and Bron was pissed and he looked at me and.
Dwayne, and I don't know Dwayne said something to him.
He just gave us his face and he said, don't worry about it. And we was like, oh, they'd have made him mad, they'd have made him mad. We were right, yeah, we'll follow, leave, we follow. You know, he made it very clear, he made it very clear, don't worry about it. I got it, And I think he was a little pissed off, just like we were. Man, come on, man, at that stage, at that point, there's no way you should show up to the arena with sixty.
On the clock.
Maybe the shortened pregame experience gave James less time to weigh the massive consequences, but this was a version of Lebron James no.
Had seen before.
Sure, he'd scored twenty five straight in a playoff game against the Pistons, but this game was a calculated mission from beginning to end, in a place where the distaste for him runs thicker than anywhere else in the league. Battier could feel it from the bench.
You know when Lebron in Deed and c he played a certain level of force, You're just like, holy crap, this is this is why they're generational players, the force and just like you just like let's go. And it was so inspiring and like it was almost like throwing a no hitter. Like you didn't want to talk to Lebron. You don't want to like look at him like you're doing it. We don't want to, Jake say it. Like we knew we were sitting there on the bench going holy,
like this is this is crazy. But he was in such a zone that day and in Boston knew it, and Boston knew they had no shot.
Even Jackie McMullen, who knows Celtic's history and tradition as well as anyone else, understood what a series win against the Heat would have meant for the franchise, and her eyes were fixed on one person only.
I'm not watching anybody else.
I don't really care what anybody else does.
This is this is Lebron's boom er Bus moment.
And he starts off with six for seven, fourteen points in the first quarter and just looks absolutely like he's ready to wreck a team. And you know, looking back, people say, oh, you're only saying that based on the result, but Lebron didn't really look like that very often.
James for three pucks. It in Lebron, James from Town Town. He's got twelve already, and that he could have scored.
Ten in a row.
James spin's trying to draw some contact. What a great start to Lebron. James six of seven from the field.
And he's in the paint.
He maintained that look in the second quarter, going six of seven again from the field to score thirty by halftime and carry his team to a thirteen point lead at the break.
James tries again and puts it in again. Nine for ten from the field right now unstoppable and some of these are tough, tough shots games again leave right now is on a special zone here on the first half, Fosh down low against Ray Allen turns he'll jump football.
Go James, let's flying in and throws it down. He's got twenty seven first half.
Points extra special passes as change fits another a thirty point first half.
It wasn't the best statistical game of Lebron James's career. It would only be the most important and a stat line that Lebron and most Heat fans will never forget. Forty five points, fifteen rebounds, five assists in a ninety eight seventy nine win that saved the Miami Heats championship experiment and shifted the narrative around Lebron even faster than that game four in Dallas did.
And this has been one impressive dominal before it's James flips it up left handed thanks to then He's got forty five. The Heat forced the game seven the Eastern Conference Finals, all tied to three games a piece.
Here's Lebron on the court with Doris Burke after his career defining masterpiece Lebron.
No player has to play under the kind of scrutiny and pressure that you do. How do you stand and deliver the kind of performance you did tonight.
I just wanted to try to leave my team the best way I could, whatever I needed to do out on the floor. I tried to be there for him to night, and you know, I'm glad we was able to get this win and now you know, force the game seven.
What is it like knowing that regardless of what happens with the team, the failure rests on your shoulders.
Well, you know, I just go out and just do what I've been taught, and that's to play at a high level and have fun with it. And at the end of the day, I won't regret anything. If I know I played hard and I gave it to my own I won't regret anything, no matter the outcome. And you know that's why I've been this whole season.
James didn't win the Gold Trophy yet, but as LeBatard explains, he secured one important item, everyone's respect.
You rarely get the story arcs that go from your mentally frail, your choker, your week. You're someone who can't and doesn't know how to win a championship. To oh, Holy, against my will, you have begrudgingly made me respect you. I have to respect that because what I just saw is something that knocked over any doubts I had about you, your character, your strength, what you just did. And as I recall that stat line, he wouldn't get a lot
of help in that game. That was just him again and again and again with a Dwayne Wade who was, you know, a little bit banged up, and I just remember that he had what Tom Brady has, which is, no matter how much you might hate this guy or not want him to win, or think that he's got athletic gifts that that are put by a crib in a crib, by a holy man, that you have to respect what you just saw.
Coach Spoe, Chris Bosh, and d Wade all saying Lebron's praise is after the game, it.
Was he was absolutely fearless tonight and it was contagious. Best I've seen, one of the best this league has ever seen. And you know, he he's helped us a lot so we can live to play another day. He played amazing.
You know, he was locked in from the beginning of the game like I've never seen him before. I Mean, the shots he was making was you know, unbelievable. You know, some good defense and he just he just made it. So, you know, he really put on the MVP performance tonight, and not just on not just scoring the ball, but rebounding the ball defensively.
He did it all tonight, you know.
So it was great.
It was great to see him come out and lead this team the way he did today. We just gave him the ball and got out the way.
After a Game seven in Miami that's still provided more tension than expected. The Heat actually trailed in the fourth quarter of that game. Lebron in the Heat felt as free as ever. They need to feel good about themselves too, because the team they were about to meet in the finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder team that was playing in Seattle when Lebron first entered the league, they looked like they could out heeat the Heat, bringing in a trio of
high end stars they drafted themselves. That team, led by a young Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, would put an immediate scare into the championship. Ready heat the city Feller take came on, still to come on, four years of heat.
Like I always want to leave my Mark in whatever championship, whatever series. I mean, just so you could say we need to rely on Mark.
On top of being the baddest man.
In the world. Now he's a champion, on top of.
It, you know, today being an NBA champion, you know, you know that loss, you know, and that heartbreak was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I'll admit.
That's the way I mean.
I'm sitting in Orland.
I'm saying, well, Lebron couldn't beat it in Cleveland, and Chris couldn't beat us in Toronto, So yeah, run on down to Miami and get some you know, get some help from Dwayne, and now you guys can.
Be good if I bring that mentality into Miami, like I'm.
Supposed to play more, I'm supposed to start, I'm supposed to do all these things.
Then I'm setting myself up for failure.
They was just assumed we were just gonna walk in here and beat these people. And people don't understand you add gasoline to the fire. We go in here and play these teams.
We have Hall of Famers up and on the line, we're defending champs, and we just got into a zone and like I said, it was easy. It wasn't, but it just felt like, Okay, yeah, we're gonna win every single night.
We stuff on the floor.
Four years if he dies, A production of iHeartRadio and the NBA