At the end of Spider-Man 2, there is a scene where Harry Osborn finally finds out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and they have this exchange.
Harry Osborn: Now… lets see who’s behind the mask
[pulls off the mask to reveal Peter]
Harry Osborn: [stumbles backwards] Peter? No… it can’t be.
Peter Parker: [gets up] Harry, where is she? He’s got MJ!
Harry Osborn: No… all he wanted was the tritium.
Peter Parker: Tritium? He’s making the machine again. When he does, she’ll die alone with half of New York, now where is he?
Harry Osborn: [pause] Peter… you killed my father.
Peter Parker: There are bigger things happening here than me and you.
Right now there are bigger things happening with the Heat besides dealing with the San Antonio Spurs. Granted that is a big problem, but in the grand scheme of things something else bigger is going on.
When some teams lose in the NBA Finals, yes it hurts, but in the long-term that is all it is, a loss. Over the last decade or so, we have seen teams like the Magic, Thunder and even LeBron’s Cavs lose in the NBA Finals, get a pat on the back and move on.
The Heat though aren’t built like that. Making it to the NBA Finals for most teams is a great accomplishment. Making it three years in a row is exceptional. Losing two out of three wouldn’t be devastating for most franchises, but it would be for the Heat. It would put things in motion maybe a year earlier than most would imagine.
The Heat have dealt with two major challenges in their three-year run to the Finals.
The first was Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals to the Mavericks at home and they folded. The second was Game 6 against the Celtics in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals on the road when LeBron turned the corner on his career.
The 3rd challenge starts Tuesday night.
I am not sure what is going to happen. It is 50/50 and could go either way, but if it doesn’t go the Heat way, the ramifications are going to be severe.
There is one big domino that could fall that would make the Heat more of a footnote in NBA history than the dynasty LeBron predicted when he said this.
Dealing with the Spurs is hard enough, dealing with the weight of your own arrogance is harder. When I was in high school I had a friend named Reggie. We use to call him Psycho Red, because he was a bit crazy. He would say things that didn’t make any sense most of the time, but every once in a while he would produce a gym.
We were on the football team to together and I dropped a pass in practice because I started to trash talk before I actually caught the ball.
He came up to me and said, “Don’t Speak it, Be It”, then he walked away. I always remembered that because once you speak you have to back up whatever you say. If you just let it happen, then people talk for you. The Heat spoke before they produced. They are batting .500 now, but unlike baseball if that average drops to .333 it won’t be pretty.
This is about who is mentally stronger. The Heat set a high expectation and now we will see if they can live up to it.