A Date With Destiny

It's as if LeBron James & Co. are sort of coasting through these playoffs. Granted they have lost the first game of each round to upstarts that were touted on giving the Los Angeles Lakers the best run for their money only to have their respective dreams go pop💥 inside the #bubble. 

And now The Finals are in sight. The Lakers should be able to douse the flames 🔥 of the latest hottest upstart. Yet what possibly awaits for them on the Eastern side of things may be the fight that they are looking for.

The Miami Heat, barring a reversal of that which has transpired thus far (at this writing they were up 2-1 in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals), will be the foil that eagerly awaits LBJ & Co. Eagerly it would seem because, as the great Michael Wilbon points out, their feerless leader is the only player in the league with a .500 winning percentage vs the King🤴🏾. 

Jimmy Butler would be that feerless leader. Jimmy Butler is the only NBA player without a losing record in their career vs LeBron James. A mark of 17-17 to be exact. (Thanks again for those numbers Mr. Wilbon). 

We won't get into everything about his background. All you need to know is that it made Butler tough.* It also makes sense that Butler would find a team with the same DNA which resides in him, in the form of the Miami Heat. Pat Riley and Erik Spolestra are about as tough as it gets this side of Gregg Popovich and Bill Belichick. 

What seems like ages ago, both Riles and Coach Spo had the King 🤴🏾 in their employ. You know the history of that relationship and its time in South Beach: mutual respect on both sides. Mutual respect which may have fell by the wayside when the King 🤴🏾 informed these men that he would be taking his talents back to his hometown of Akron for the benefit of the city of Cleveland. Riley would be crestfallen about the departure; opposite of the elation he most certainly expressed upon the King's 🤴🏾arrival. 

Riley doesn't seem to be the vindictive type. He also doesn't seem to be the type to let memories of "little things" like the departure of "a king and his court" fade away into the far recesses of his mind.

It would seem then that the basketball 🏀 gods have divined a path of jurisprudence that will result in a meeting at the mount between the two factions, as facilitated by their teams. Riley, not that he could ever be accused of being vindictive (as mentioned), will finally have the opportunity to prove to LeBron why he should never have left the Sunshine State.

A victory in The Finals, would not only add to his trove of rings as a player, coach, and front office executive, but even decidedly more important, would keep the 4th NBA Championship (which LeBron so obviously craves and desires in his quest to be entered into the pantheon of NBA players who have won four, five, or more titles) out of his reach. At least for now. At least for this, the longest season in NBA history. 

Riley has his foil in the form of one Jimmy Butler. Will the opportunity to finally show LeBron why he should have finished his career in South Beach be within his grasp? Will Butler be given the opportunity to show that he is just as tough as one LeBron James? 

We already know Butler's personal W-L record speaks to that toughness anytime he and James have occupied the same 94 feet. What we don't know is if there will be a date with destiny that involves the Heat and the Lakers deciding the fates of their respective franchises and, almost more importantly, their respective leaders: James and Butler. 

Time will tell. 

Maybe this thought process will not ever even matter if and when the Lakers and Celtics bump heads in The Finals. Again. For a record-setting twelfth time. If that happens we will have afforded ourselves, once more, the best that the NBA has to offer. 

Just don't tell that to Riley, Spo, & Co.

*Note  When Butler left the Philadelphia 76ers to join the Miami Heat last summer I questioned the move. I felt that Butler appeared to present himself seemingly as a selfish individual who wanted the spotlight all to himself. That notion couldn't be further from the truth than the Sun is to Pluto. He has found the team that he was meant to be with. He has found the executive and coach that believes in him. He has found like-minded teammates that believe in him as he does them. Most of all, he believes in himself