2012 NBA Finals: Settling The “Best Player Alive” Debate.

It’s here. Can you feel it? We’re all about to bear witness to what could be the most explosive, exciting NBA Finals since 2008’s Celtics-Lakers clash. Before that, it would probably be Bulls-Jazz in 1998.

If you aren’t an NBA fan then how dare you, get into the game. If you think this league is a bunch of thugs and idiots, it’s not the case. The Malice At The Palace was years ago and there are more than enough good guys and talented players to go around, and maybe twice.

Maybe you think that there are too many guys who don’t know how to play the game, or all of the players are street ball specialists. That is also shortsighted and the opinion of someone who doesn’t watch the league at all. These are the best athletes in the world and they play a difficult game in front of millions of people every night.

That said, I believe that you’d have to look far and wide to find someone who isn’t interested in this particular Finals. Whether you love LeBron James or hate him, you’ll be watching to see how he responds to making his third Finals appearance. If you love him, you’ll want to see him shut the Thunder’s Kevin Durant down and dominate him on the other end as the Heat win in five games. If you’re a hater, you want to see him fail, go down with a whimper and shrink from the moment as many say that he always does.

When Christian organizations began to burn Beatles records because John Lennon said that his group was bigger than Jesus, Lennon quipped “fine by me, in order to burn them, you have to buy them.” The same idea goes for James and the Heat. You can object to how their team came together, curse James, Wade and Pat Riley’s name and root vehemently for someone, anyone, to topple Miami, but you aren’t turning the channel when the Heat are on TV.

In this scenario, David Stern is John Lennon. The Heat take all the flak while he’s sitting in his office towering over the hottest professional sports league on the planet.

As I’ve said before, Stern probably didn’t hatch the idea to join Wade, James and Chris Bosh up in Miami, but he couldn’t have possibly objected either. Has there ever been a team that’s been this famous? Sure, everyone knew and loved the Chicago Bulls in 1990’s and the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980’s, but that was a different era. In this media-centric era of 24 hour a day coverage with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and all of the rest, it would be virtually impossible to argue that any other team could even compare to what the Heat are and have become.

On the other side, you have Oklahoma City, the second-smallest market in the NBA. If Miami came together overnight, the Thunder came together gradually, growing a little each year. Their team was built like teams used to be built; add a piece, obtain draft picks, save cap space and make smart personnel decisions. It isn’t popular nowadays because of that “win-now” mentality that most fans have, but you can’t deny that it’s been wholly effective.

In a lot of ways, the Thunder’s rebirth started seven seasons ago and strangely enough, it started with a loss in the second round of the western conference playoffs after the 2005 season.

A six game loss to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs left Seattle with a bitter pill to swallow, but hope for the future. When the team underachieved in the 2005-2006 season, the Sonics allowed a key cog of their machine to leave in free agency as Rashard Lewis signed a maximum contract with the Orlando Magic.

After missing the playoffs after the 2007 season, Seattle got their big break by jumping into the top 2 of the 2007 NBA Draft Lottery. Normally the first pick is the ultimate goal, but that draft featured what many believed to be two franchise players in Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. By finishing second, Seattle knew it was taking whoever Portland did not. The Blazers took Oden and Seattle broke a land speed record by rushing to the podium and grabbing Durant.

The Sonics played one last season in Seattle, moved to Oklahoma City and struggled another season before breaking through and making the playoffs in 2010. 2011 saw them take another huge step forward by making the Western Conference Finals before the rebuild peaked yet again in 2012 with a Western Conference Championship and a berth in the NBA Finals.

In a lot of ways, Durant is regarded as the anti-LeBron and it’s not entirely clear why. There are a ton of similarities between the two, they’re the only two acceptable answers for “who is the best player in the NBA?” even if James has been cast as a selfish guy because of his Decision during the 2010 off-season.

That said, Durant has displayed just as much loyalty to Oklahoma City as James did to Cleveland at this point in their careers. Time fades a lot of memories, but it’s not as James left treadmarks leaving Cleveland. He stayed for seven years, and poured his heart and soul out on the floor. His last two seasons, the Cavaliers led the NBA in wins for the regular season, only to lose in the playoffs. When James left, the supporting cast logged the worst record in the NBA.

Durant signed a maximum extension with Oklahoma City at the end of his rookie deal, just as James did with Cleveland. It was only at the end of that maximum deal did James depart for Miami. Things are going well for the Thunder right now, but if the Thunder don’t win between now and then end of his deal, Durant will have to make a decision of his own.

James’ decision was a terrible idea and played out even worse, but people dislike James because they feel like he stacked the deck against the rest of the league, he went to the place to make it easier on himself. I personally believe that if he could do it again, he would. His time with Miami has been far more difficult than he could have ever imagined.

The most exciting thing about this Thunder-Heat Finals is the game beyond the game. Obviously, the best team is going to win the series and it’s probably going to go seven games and I couldn’t be happier about that, there’s something much bigger at stake than just an NBA championship. I mean, they give one of those things out every year.

I’m talking about the title for “best player alive” status. It’s real and it will go to whoever wins Finals MVP this year.

We know at this point that if the Thunder win, it will be because Durant was awesome and made a lot of big plays. Ditto for James and the Heat. Yes, there are other players involved and they will be important in the outcome as well, but this series is really about James and Durant. Neither team will be able to win if their star isn’t awesome. It’s the way it is.

The reason this is so exciting is that we never get to see the two best players’ teams go head-to-head like this. Until last season, the two best players were always LeBron and Kobe and we never got to see them in the Finals. Before LeBron’s ascent, the two best players were probably Bryant and Steve Nash. The Lakers and Suns played in the playoffs two straight years (2006, 2007) and the Suns won both times. Nash was even named the 2006 league MVP.

Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’ Neal, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki were in the conversation at times as well, yet it was never settled in the Finals.

In fact, by my count, the last time it happened was in 1987 when the Lakers and Celtics played to decide whether Bird or Magic was the league’s alpha dog. Right on cue, Magic hit the baby hook in game 4 and led the Lakers to the title.

(EDIT: I clearly forgot about Bulls-Jazz in 1997 when Michael Jordan was the league’s best player again, but everyone voted for Karl Malone over him and the 1993 Finals when Jordan was the league’s alpha dog again, but Charles Barkley won the MVP. Jordan’s Bulls won both series and a ton of MVP voters ended up feeling pretty dumb.)

It happened recently in the 2009 Super Bowl as the “best Quarterback alive” debate was settled on the field when Drew Brees’ New Orleans Saints beat Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts for New Orleans’ first title. Before that, you’d have to go back to the 2006 Super Bowl when the Colts beat Rex Grossman and the Bears. Alright, maybe that wasn’t quite the same.

Basically, being able to solve a debate so thoroughly on the field is a rare and wonderful thing and we should all enjoy it while it lasts.

To add even more intrigue, James and Durant play the same position. They’re going to be guarding each other for seven games on every trip down the floor. I can’t think of a more fulfilling outcome for this season that was in such jeopardy just eight months ago.

Whether you love the Heat and hate the Thunder, vice versa or just don’t care, I bet you’ll be watching this series, and rightfully so. This is an important series that’s really been six or seven years in the making. If you like the scrappy, small-market underdogs from Oklahoma City, then you should be stoked. If you like the juggernaut and think that the cream rises to the top and approve of the way the Heat handled the 2010 off-season, then you’ll clearly be pro-Miami here.

Even if you hate the NBA, think they’re all overpaid thugs and want them to go away…. yet you can’t turn the channel because you care so little, you can thank LeBron James for your interest in this series. His Decision turned even casual observers into die-hard haters, even if it was to James and his team’s detriment.

If your team didn’t make the Finals, then you’re in my boat. As much as it sucks, you know this series is going to be awesome because instead of sitting around and arguing with your buddies about who the best player is, there will be no more doubt after the Finals. No matter who your guy is, we’re all going to have a clear, obvious answer and for a world that can be so unclear at times, I think we can all appreciate that.

All the while, David Stern will be living it up. The Decision will have happened two years ago in July, but the wounds are still fresh. People still hate LeBron James and the Miami Heat and while many don’t really know why they hate him, they still do. To prove their hatred, they’ll tune in and jeer James from their sofa. Ratings will skyrocket and the Heat and Thunder will battle for league supremacy for at least four games and probably seven. You will watch and no matter what you think of the league, you will contribute to another important season for the NBA.

Stern will salute a portrait of John Lennon as he will finally understand his quote. The Decision brought some bad press to his league, but in the grand scheme of things did more for the NBA than anyone could have ever imagined. Whether you hate the Heat or love them, you’re going to watch them, but this series is about even more than good old-fashioned sports; this series is about settling a debate that hardly ever has a clear answer. This year, we get that answer.

Only one team will win the NBA World Championship this year, but the only “losers” will be whoever comes up short in the Finals. Stern, the winners and the fans all stand to profit from these Finals and you can’t say that every year.

Thanks, LeBron.