Who is NOT a LeBron Fan?!

Because this time, even I'M on the bandwagon! After last night?! You gotta be kidding me!

I'm not a Cavs fan, but I never had anything against 'em; I'm actually a Detroit fan, so I should be mad 'cuz we lost, right? But I'm gonna be honest with you: I want the Cavs to beat us. This is a moment in history, and I wanna see it pan out.

LeBron was one of the most hyped players to ever enter the NBA. But here's the catch: he was the only one that lived up to the hype. Fully, that is. I mean yeah, a few others lived up to hype... but not to this degree. Keep in mind, for those of you who saw the game last night, LeBron is still only 22 YEARS OLD; I'm 24 myself, and I could never see myself, or anybody in my circle for that matter, doing what LeBron did on that court last night.

LeBron tapped into his Emjay last night. You know... that force that players once tapped into to make old school basketball look like a video game? And with a team still under construction and coming into its own, LeBron was able to single-handedly muscle one of deepest, most-respected, and most-slated-to-win franchises in recent history... IN DOUBLE OVERTIME... UNDER EXHAUSTION AND FATIGUE...

But you know what? There's no secret to LeBron. There's one super-rare quality that LeBron has that not many people on this entire Earth have. It's the ability to LEARN. And get this: LeBron doesn't learn from his critics. You know how I know that? Because his critics don't even agree with each other! They're all spectators reading off a paper, attempting to break spontaneous reality down to an equation.

Well, here's an equation for ya: LeBron learns from his own experiences at ground zero. This is why you see noticeable improvements, not merely from game-to-game, but IN the game from quarter-to-quarter. LeBron pays attention, uses introspection, analyzes and critiques the play of his teammates, respectfully gauges his opponents, and adjusts accordingly. He is a STUDENT, in Tim-Duncanesque fashion, sitting in the lockeroom watching video. And this is the wild thing about LeBron: in a series like this, where the Cavs come back from being 2-0 to win 3 in a row (not to mention the fact that the first two games were WINNABLE for the Cavs), you've got a LeBron James who has gained 5 games of playoff experience at home and away, playing both uphill and downhill, against one of the greatest teams of recent NBA history!

Let me break that down to you RPG style: the boy's gaining XP; XP means "experience points"; EXPERIENCE POINTS = UPGRADE. The LeBron of the regular season is dead; the LeBron of Game 1 is dead; the LeBron of game 2 is dead; the Lebron of Game 5 is all that exists.

See, when LeBron finds a chink in his armor, you can guarantee that he's going to work on that weakness until it becomes a hidden strength. Therefore, when critics pull out statistics, it's futile; you're trying to film a documentary with a snapshot quick-cam, and your finger is NOT fast enough, patna. Now a LeBron, who was being criticized for bricking a mere shot or making a bad pass, is being lauded for hitting pretty much EVERY shot that he "wasn't supposed to" make. The stats never woulda showed you that coming.

But lets talk more about game 5, because there's something soooo rare that happened there. I'm not gonna talk about points: he scored all of em. I'm not gonna talk about good decision/bad decision: he won the game, period. I wanna talk about the Forbidden Zone of Playoffs Overtime. Take into account everything that I said earlier: the man learns on the fly. These are the things that he's learned from DOUBLE overtime against Detroit:

1. He can DO IT.

2. What it's like to be truly exhausted.

3. Even when he's truly exhausted, he can DO IT.

4. If it's an unmakeable shot, even if he's exhausted, he can DO IT.

5. If he's got to dunk on somebody, even if he's exhausted, he can DO IT.

6. If he's got to break up a pass, even if he's exhausted, he can DO IT.

See, this game pushed LeBron to his limit. So now, from this point on, his reserve will be even DEEPER. For you Christians out there: LeBron is David, and this game is his TESTIMONY---that lion, that bear that David had to slay for his sheep. So now, David can step to Goliath and square that playa up in his forehead.

But lemme divulge for a second. Let's talk about the team. You know what the Cavs have learned? They've learned that they've got a fit-for-real LEADER, who would carry the entire load himself if he could. Last night, in double overtime, the team began to falter; but they watched their leader press on like a man crazed. Do you know what that DOES when you see your leader go deep for the squad like that? So now, the mentality of the team is, "Our leader came through for us; we will NEVER allow him to be on that court by himself again. EVER." And don't get me wrong, the Cavs played a relatively good defensive game toward the end just with their persistence; and their persistence contributed to the missed shot at the end that made the difference... All I'm saying is that, next time, they're gonna put up points too.

I haven't been excited about basketball since the fall of the Lakers dynasty. I'm not saying LeBron is going to win the championship, or even that he is going to make it out of this series. What I am saying is that THIS is what I come to see. A humble man willing to learn, executing the impossible multiple times out of sheer need, pushing his team until they need to be carried, and then carrying his team when they can go no further. Winning the respect and admiration of his team, his opponents, his fans, his city, and even those who criticized and counted him out. That's a King right there. And I like to believe that, even in Detroit, there's a lot of people that, in their hearts, are cheering for this man right now.

Bravo, Number 23; I Respect Your Emjay... B-J