Kevin Love looks as if he is going to be calling Cleveland home for the 2014-2015 season. Love has spent his entire six-year career in Minnesota, longing for a playoff berth at the very minimum. Too bad for Minnesota and Love, the Timberwolves couldn’t clinch a spot in the postseason even once with Love on its roster. Fast forward to summer 2014. Love wants out and LeBron James heads back to Cleveland, thus creating a want for star players such as Love to join him. Love has been rumored to go be headed different teams such as the Lakers, Bulls and Warriors but it’s the Cavs of all teams that have a deal in place with the stubborn Wolves to acquire the all star.

Kevin Love seems headed to Cleveland, will he Kryie Irving and LeBron help Cleveland finally win a title?

In a deal that will send #1 overall picks Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett along with a first round pick, the Cavs somehow got the Wolves to agree. It’s not the Warriors proposition of David Lee, Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson but it’s a close second right? The Wolves didn’t want to end up like many other teams and call Love on his bluff only to have him leave Minnesota without getting anything back for him. With Love presumably on his way to Cleveland to join LeBron James and fellow all star Kyrie Irving, the question now comes about, which big three featuring LeBron is better? LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh or LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving?  I would also like to point out that although LeBron had much of the spotlight during his time in Miami and it was well deserved but Dwayne Wade was the most crucial player on those teams. The two seasons that Wade played up to his ability the result was a title, coincidence? I don’t think so.

The new big three in Cleveland is much more of a shooting bunch with Love and Kyrie but adding LeBron to that mix with his excellent passing skills should put fear into opposing defenses. Plus this new big three is much younger being that LeBron probably won’t have to worry about any teammates’ knees going out after every game. Many may look at the two big threes and break them down and compare stats and how they predict the new one will do but for me, the answer to the question shouldn’t even be a thought.

Kevin Love has been in the league six seasons; Kyrie Irving has been in for three for what do they have to show for those seasons? Neither one of them has even played in one single playoff game, not one. I understand that neither had much help on their respective rosters but the point remains the same, there is no individual winning whatsoever from either of them. It’s an unfair comparison, but Kobe Bryant carried a team with Kwame Brown and Smush Parker in the starting lineup to the playoffs and almost a playoff series win. Looking at the Miami big three, when LeBron joined Dwayne Wade had won a title with several playoff appearances and Bosh also had a few sightings in the postseason with the Raptors. Of course being fair to at least Kyrie, he has only been in the NBA for a few seasons but the Miami big three was light-years ahead of LeBron’s new one in Cleveland.

The Cavs are on the rise and could prove me wrong but for now at least, LeBrons’ old gig gave him more of a chance to win a title in the next season or two.

On ESPN and other networks, I’ve heard more than one analyst (in fact not one, not two, not four, not five, etc…) say that they “feel bad” for the LeBron James in this year’s finals.

So it’s a question I ask myself when Miami struggles in this year’s version of the NBA Playoffs. Can we feel sorry for these guys? Can we feel bad for a team so closely contrived by its major pieces? A team that was supposed to be a team of destiny. A team that was supposed to be, In the words of Jack Burns, “an unstoppable rebel force.”

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHSLw8DLm20

When Miami got together, it was not inconceivable that they would win multiple titles with their version of the “Big 3.” James and Bosh were still on the upside of their career and Wade was championship-tested. But something happened a year ago. The Heatles faltered when it mattered most and the public perception swung wildly away from the South Florida juggernaut.

Fast forward to this strike shortened aberration of a season. What has really changed but perception? Before the series this year, nearly every media outlet I listen to picked Oklahoma City over Miami. And, while I haven’t agreed with that pick, I’m not arguing with it. I am arguing with pity.

Analyze the game. Talk about why the Heat aren’t winning. Go ahead and dissect Chris Bosh’s injury or Dwayne Wade’s lack of explosiveness. Just don’t tell me to feel sorry for LeBron.

Because when you feel sorry for him, you are giving pity based on a personnel situation that was orchestrated by the three best players on the team, especially LeBron. James, Wade, and Bosh took ownership, leadership, and put a bulls-eye on their backs when they joined forces two summers ago. The Decision, the ensuing rally, the smoke machine, and LeBron’s deteriorating image as an entourage-wielding, self-absorbed loser have not helped the perception of the Heat’s chances of winning a title. If James had planned to make himself more and more unlikable, I would argue, he couldn’t have done a much better job.

And now the Heatles are feeling the unanticipated burning eyes as they are on the brink of losing another finals series. Down 1-0 after Game 1, everyone was ready to throw dirt on their grave.

One year ago, public perception of the Heat shifted to mostly negative. They ripped the title of most-hated team from the Lakers. And at the center of the negative pushback was the most talented player that the NBA has possibly ever seen. Only an NBA Championship will turn the tide again.

Which brings me back to Wade, James, and Bosh. James is the best player in the league and he cares too much about public perception to let this go on. He has seemingly tried every other way to improve public perception and, I would argue, come to this conclusion. The only way to really do it is to win. Just ask Kobe.

As Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said recently, “Nobody likes getting dirt thrown on your face before you’re not even dead.”

LeBron isn’t dead yet and neither are the Heat. And what will there be to feel sorry other than the pundits who will say they knew Miami was going to win all along.

There is equally a reason why so many fans scoff at the synthetic construction of the Miami Heat. And its not because those fans are simply “drinking hater-ade.” Its because true fans of the game appreciate natural development above truly manufactured assembly.

While the talents of Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh are as undeniable as the sun rising in the East, the ersatz teaming of the trio is just as contrarily conspicuous as is evident the display their elite skill.

They are roundly rooted against, and rightfully so.  Every unbiased eye wants to see the prognosticator who has the nerve to suppose instant gratification while holding a stacked deck, bust out in the end.

When the Heat are compared to great teams who featured great superstars of years past, the incontrovertible fact remains that the level that the Heat have hyped in plastic has never been seen before.  Call it a factor of today’s free-agency culture if you so choose.  To do so is a cop out on the real underlying themes and bona-fide idiosyncrasies of all-time great winners.

The everlasting royalty of champions that have endured similar burdens all share one abiding trait – losing at the pinnacle didn’t make them look instantly for alternate ways around the obstacle.  They stayed steadfast, and ultimately in the end, reaped the benefits.  This is something LeBron James will never have the opportunity to experience, by his own discretion, due to the decided departure from his native franchise, in which he transparently, hastily and prematurely decreed could never become a winner.

This is the result of his “decision.”  A now artificial attempt by his own naive decree.

The prime example of this true winners dynamic is the plight of Jerry West.  After being unceasingly beaten by Boston and even New York, year after year, in seven straight attempts at an NBA crown, did he strive to team up with the Celtics or the Knicks at any point therein?  No.

That was the last thing a true champion like West ever considered.  On his eight try he finally made good on his crusade, which in his own words, eventually made it all worth it.  And I’m quite sure it truly did.

This is what true champions do.  They don’t relinquish to become some sort of Robin on a team that already has a Batman, they instead, endure, endlessly, and live with the results, without the expense of selling out.

The supposed “best player in the NBA” has never been obtained before through free-agency, in accompaniment with another top 10 NBA player through the same avenues, to already join a team that features a top 3 NBA supernova.  All other great champions past have accrued, wait, there’s that word again, organically.

There is no precedence that can be sited that equals the lengths the Heat have grasped in their effort to fabricate a champion.  The level at which they have reached to tops them all.  This is precisely why fans defy them, and this fact needs to ultimately be recognized and realized, whether you can see through the “modern, free-agency world” smokescreen or not.  It is abundantly evident, staring all in denial square in the face.

All this being considered, there are still fans who want to load their salad with packaged and commercialized ingredients, who’s only purpose is for the sake of getting over on the system at the expense of the authentic element.

I’ll always pay more to have something brought to my plate that was grown and cultured and tended over time – not pay less for something that was thrown together in short-cutting imitation for a cheap bite.

Take it back to the chef.  Thanks.  Check, please.

In today’s cotton candy world, both hollywood and sports stars are interchangable. The incestuous relationship between the two has tainted the NBA’s mid-classic, one filled with amazing memories of the leagues true stars battling it out for supremacy and the right to call themselves not only stars but superstars.

Which according to Andy Stevensfrom fansmanship.com, is the reason the “boring” though best power forward in hoops Kevin Love, nearly missed out.  20 and 10 for Love is like tying his shoes. He’s the first player to go for 30 and 30 (that is not a typo) in 28 years. And yet had it not been for the blessing of Yao’s injury prone career; curse rather if you are talking to the Rockets front office, K-Love would of better known as a christian radio station.  The guy is so methodical in his approach toward the game that he rebounds without jumping. Why? He is smarter than any other forward in hoops, and knows that 80% of the time the ball will carom to the opposite side in which it was shot from. Not only has this approach made him the best rebounder in basketball (15.5 per), but wisely conserves his energy and his knees, which in the end increases his longevity.

“BUT HE IS NOT FLASHY OR PRETTY ENOUGH!” Pretty? Since when do NBA stars have to be pretty or hollywood made? And since when did Paris Hilton have a say in things anyways?

Unfortunately a player like Love is too Beethoven. His ability to out-think individuals is boring, like watching Bobby Fischer dominate a 70- something Russian man at a game of chess. Where are the Jay-Z’s? T.I’s? Lil Weezy’s? Why listen to the abrupt pause and finishes of a Beethoven, when we can stimulate our cultures sub-par brain with cheep beats and kindergarten hooks?

Which is exactly the reason our pop culture is to blame for everything; we are insightfully deaf and dumb. Like Dumbo we sail with our ears instead of slicing skies with intellectual jet-planes. We’re more intrigued when candy chewing L.O.blows a kiss to Khloe Kardashian than we are when Love records another twenty rebound night on an over-hyped big, i.e. Andrew Bynum.

“But Andrew, your dimples remind us of an innocent school boy.” Really pop world?

Love is the better version of our eras Kevin McHale, a guy who won three titles in the 80’s with the Celtics, on a team of forgettable- boring- athletes.  McHale and the Celtics were self-less back country farm boys who graced sports with less one dimensional athleticism, than they did a team oriented intellectualism.

Instead we get Lamar Odom because his swag aloofness is adorable. Or Yao, because he’s the face of an entire nation (which by the way is ridiculous, if this is the case, vote in Eduardo Najera.) Next thing you know, Lil Bow Wow, who currently plays ball at USC, will be the first college athlete voted into a professional mid-classic.

In the end, who gives? It is only the game of some-stars. Kobe? Of course. LeBron, Wade, Durant? Without a doubt deserve it. Let them steal the show, literally, percolate desire from fans with about as much intelligence as Sarah Palin’s economic plan. When the game ends, K- Love will go back to shutting up every critic on the planet. You can count on that.

–Luke Johnson