5 unrealistic dreams for the 2015 NBA Finals

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May 26, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) celebrates after beating the Atlanta Hawks in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

1. Moratorium on Analyzing LeBron’s Legacy

I can see it now *shudders*: Five minutes have elapsed in the first quarter of Game One, and LeBron James has already missed three shots and turned the ball over twice. Sports media personalities, both professional and not, are flaying him alive on Hot Take Twitter, screaming about how this poor showing in the opening few minutes of the first game of a seven-game series is emblematic of all of his failures as a player, all of the ways in which he’ll never be like Mike. LeBron’s legacy? #Tarnished.

Now cut to the end of the third quarter: LeBron has helped lead an impressive comeback, bullying his way into the lane on every drive and swarming the glass on both ends of the floor. The Cavaliers hold off the Warriors during the fourth quarter, escaping with a win thanks to a 30-11-7 game from King James. LeBron’s legacy? #GOAT.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of how the media (and fans in general) are obsessed with analyzing LeBron’s legacy with every game, every quarter, every shot either made or missed. One night he is a fraud, a coward; the next he is a nonpareil talent, transcendent and unstoppable. Arguing about LeBron’s legacy is an infinitely deep well from which content creators can repeatedly draw, and I just think it’d be nice if people took a freakin’ break for five freakin’ minutes and let the series play out before reshuffling their Simmons-y Pyramid Mount Rushmore Tiers of Talent or whatever.

Will that happen? Of course not. Such is irresistible the power of the LeBron Hot Take. Of all the dreams on this list, a ceasefire when it comes to assessing and reassessing LeBron’s legacy is the most unrealistic, but it’s the one all of us who wish to keep our sanity most need. At the end of this series, LeBron will be either 3-3 or 2-4 in the Finals, and then we can all discuss his placement amongst the legends of the game. But until that final buzzer sounds and the confetti falls, let’s put a kibosh on the legacy talk, ‘K?

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