You can “IF” a lot of things in your life, but it doesn’t change the results about what happened. Especially sports almost every game has an “IF” moment.
What “IF” there is no tuck rule, what “IF” Jordan never retired, What “IF” Bill Buckner could field a baseball and etc.
So, while it is possible that Cavs could have won the NBA title, it isn’t a given and we will never know, but it seems to haunt LeBron a bit as he speaks about it in his latest SI cover story.
LeBron James lay in bed at 2 a.m., listening to his wife and one-year-old daughter sleep.
Three hours later he remained restless and turned on the television in his bedroom, muting the sound. He needed a show to help him wind down, maybe a program on his beloved Food Network, where he knows all the top chefs even though his lone specialty is a grilled cheese sandwich. Chopped, The Kitchen or Good Eats would have done the trick, but he queued up an unsettling alternative, recorded earlier that night: Warriors-Raptors. He might as well have mainlined Red Bull.
He recalled how the team hummed through the second half of the season before power forward Kevin Love was injured early in the playoffs and point guard Kyrie Irving in the Finals. “I don’t think we were outcoached or outplayed,” James concluded. “I think we were outmatched.”
LeBron seems on edge this season. The SI piece points out that he has played more minutes in his career than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I assume he sees great players like Kobe, Duncan, KG, Dirk and etc coming to the end of their runs and knows in a few years his time will come.
He has a young roster that he doesn’t believe takes things seriously enough, so I get why he is pushing them.
We will see if his methods work or not come playoff time.