Monday

Apparently the Miami Heat’s 88 – 86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night had people groaning in disappointment from Maine to San Diego – that’s if you believe what the Los Angeles Times is saying via their sports section. Writing for the Los Angeles times online Mike Bresnahan claims:

Miami pulls out a dramatic victory in pivotal Game 3, and America weeps . . . or at least sighs in disappointment…

It’s hard to believe an entire nation would be united in their hatred of a basketball team. To want a team to win or lose so badly that you feel an emotional response of joy or sadness depending on the outcome and whether or not it’s in your favor, you necessarily need to be remotely interested in the sport to begin with. It doesn’t seem like there are that many Americans who are all that much interested in basketball that they would get as emotionally invested as that. The people the times writer is referring to, the ones who apparently sighed in disappointment over the heat victory are probably not fans of any particular basketball team. They probably can’t name very many players aside from LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and the only reason they know or care about these guys is because of the excessive media coverage; and the reason they hate them is because they were told they’re supposed to. They were told these three committed a heinous crime against the establishment by electing to play on the same team and having the arrogance to believe they will win multiple championships; and for this crime they must be hated and people must come together and root for them to never win an NBA championship.

In reality these millions of Americans who supposedly hate the Miami Heat don’t really care one way or another. They are merely puppets being controlled by puppet masters in the media who know how to pull their strings to get them to react how they need them to react. It keeps their publications and television programs relevant. It ensures they  continue to take home their six and seven figure earnings. They are in the business of playing the public and they know it’s pretty easy to unite people in hating on rich and famous people who don’t pretend at being humble and don’t apologize for being supremely gifted.

Hatred of the Miami Heat comes down to the fact that people don’t like LeBron James. They think he’s arrogant. He lacks humility. He dares to walk around thinking he’s good; and he left the Cavaliers because he didn’t think a player of his caliber should have to play on a team of their caliber. He insulted people and bruised egos by making a choice to go where he felt he had a better chance of fulfilling his dream of winning an NBA championship trophy.  Apparently he was supposed to think about what was best for Cleveland and the fans of Cleveland and not what was best for himself; and then there was “The Decision”. People basically want to see LeBron James fall because he showed them up for being exactly what he thought they were, puppets who could be played with for financial gain. At least they are blaming him for their embarrassment over the fact that they watched “The Decision” but really it wasn’t LeBron who made a big deal over the whole thing about where he was going to play after he became a free agent. LeBron had no power to persuade millions of people to give enough of a damn where he was going to play to make them sit down in front of their television sets on July 8, 2010 to watch the ESPN Live announcement. The media had that power. These people hating LeBron were victims of the media. They were played by the media, but LeBron makes for the perfect scapegoat–a self important, high and mighty rich athlete who stops short of showing his detractors his backside and gesturing for them to kiss it. People are angry that they got used for ratings and money; and the puppet masters know how to keep playing them by using their misdirected anger to continue getting ratings and money. They fuel the fire by using their powers of persuasion, knowing people generally tend to believe what they read:

Rejoice, South Beach. Cheers, Fort Lauderdale. And before excitedly dropping that mojito on the marble-tile floor, understand that everybody else in the country wanted to see Dallas win Game 3 on Sunday.

Nothing personal. But nobody likes to see a team drop down to a stunningly low two players under contract before building back up with a brief live-on-ESPN joint announcement by Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, followed a day later by the “The Decision.”

There was little joy from Maine to San Diego after the Heat took a 2-1 series lead with an 88-86 victory Sunday. ( link )

In reality, not as many people care as the media wants you to think and certainly not everybody, or even nearly everybody, in America watching the NBA finals is rooting for the Heat to lose.