The Unlikelihood of Rooting for LeBron James

What did it take for LeBron James, a man who is so blessed with the physical and mental gifts for playing basketball that he was nicknamed the Chosen One as a teen-ager, to finally become an underdog? It took a team as good as the Golden State Warriors, who beat the Cavaliers in last season’s Finals, and who, just a few days ago, seemed poised to do it again, when they went up 3­–1 in this year’s series. The Warriors won an unprecedented seventy-three games in the regular season, and featured a star, Stephen Curry, who many say represents the future of basketball. James has been stubbornly hard to love over the years, but the Warriors made it safe to root for him. They also let us forget that the Cavaliers themselves were a super-team, packed with stars assembled by James, with the express purpose of winning a title—the kind of basketball gerrymandering that many frowned upon when he did it during his years with the Miami Heat. The Warriors made basketball look easy all season, and on Sunday night, as James dragged his team across the finish line, winning the title-deciding Game 7 on the road, in Oakland, California, there was pleasure in watching him show that it is hard.

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