Experience was of no help to LeBron James this summer.
His disappointment after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the NBA title to Golden State was as agonizing as it had been the other three times he’d come up short in the finals. Worse, actually, because the familiarity was just another reminder of failure.
As James stewed about what might have been and what almost was for a fourth summer since 2007, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it. If the end result was going to be the same either way, maybe it was better not to even make the playoffs.
“That’s a very valid question to myself,” James said Monday. “It’s like you get all the way there and then you lose. I’d like to have those two months back, I could’ve been somewhere laying out, helping my body get better.”
Except James isn’t wired that way. He wasn’t in the early days of his career and he sure isn’t now at almost 31, when he knows Father Time is becoming as formidable an opponent as the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls or Golden State Warriors.
“Every year that you lose in the Finals it gets worse and worse to get over,” James said. “But for me, I will take all the pain that comes with competing for a championship at the end of the day. I’ll take all the bumps and bruises that I get when I’m done playing because I know that I left it all out on the floor.”
As James and his teammates prepare for a new season, it's little consolation to remind them that just getting to the Finals last season was a huge accomplishment.
With a rookie head coach and youngsters and newcomers being counted on for critical roles, chemistry was an elusive and fluid concept during the regular season. The Cavs eventually settled into a rhythm only to lose Kevin Love to a shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs. Kyrie Irving joined him on the bench after fracturing his left kneecap in Game 1 of the Finals.
“We made it to Game 6 of the Finals last year with two out of five of our starters not being there,” Love said.
That’s not a recap, that’s a warning.
If Cleveland could come within three games of winning the NBA title with half a roster, imagine how formidable the Cavaliers will be with Love, Irving and Anderson Varejao healthy.
“The main thing is still the main thing, and that’s to win a championship,” James said.
He has two of those, and it is worth remembering what led to his first one.
After James teamed with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, it wasn’t a question of when the first version of the Big Three would win the NBA title but how many. They reached the 2011 NBA Finals, only to be beaten in six games by the Dallas Mavericks.
Details sounding vaguely familiar?
When the Heat returned after the lockout, they didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the loss. There was no need.
“We was angry. We was very, very, very, very angry. And everybody that we went against knew it,” James said. “That whole year, it was like, there was no wait process. We was like, `OK, we messed around and lost one, but, right now.’ ”
There’s a similar feeling with these Cavs.
Irving is determined that his Finals experience go beyond one game. Love re-upped with the Cavs when everyone thought he’d run back to L.A. because he wants to win a championship. Ditto for veterans Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson, free agents who chose Cleveland over other suitors.
As for James, chasing a title is all he knows, having played in the Finals in six of his first 12 seasons. But he also wants to avoid another summer of discontent, and it’s hard to say which will drive him more as he gets closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
“It’s indescribable. You have to go through it to really understand how heavy the burden of losing is,” said James Jones, who played with James on those Miami teams that lost in 2011 and then came back with a vengeance to win the next two NBA titles.
“But once you come back out of it, it’s the ultimate motivator.”
Runners-up have pity parties. Champions have parades.
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