The Chosen Won: Miami Heat Take NBA Title To South Beach

Obviously, it’s early, and there are several mitigating factors. But if the Heat are to win the 2013 NBA championship, they would do well to follow the 10 steps spelled out by SB Nation’s Tom Ziller. One key recommendation was to find someone who could guard bigger players.

For more on the Heat, head over to Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay. ForThunder news and notes, visit Welcome To Loud City. And for news, analysis and everything else revolving around the NBA Playoffs, be sure to visit SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

Some of the highlights:

But by far the best sequence was this one:

The Miami Heat just won the 2012 NBA Championship. But this club wasn’t built to win one championship -- LeBron James told us that himself. It was built to win multiple championships. So how can Miami repeat as the victors next season? We have a simple 10-step plan.

1. Get Dwyane Wade on the first flight to Germany. If you had to pick one 30-or-under NBA player who most desperately needs Kobe’s doctor to work some odd Frankenstein procedure on his knee, you’d pick Greg Oden. If you had to pick two, you’d pick Greg Oden and Dwyane Wade. Wade was great enough to matter, but bad enough at some points in the Indiana and Boston series to look like a major anchor. He needs to be healed.

Plenty of people assumed that Spoelstra wasn’t the right man to coach Miami when the Heat unveiled their Big Three of LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, because young Spo wouldn’t be able to handle the egos and manage the players. They’d run right over him, the pundits thought, and Pat Riley would come out of the stands at the rescue of the recluse. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was hardly the only one that criticized Spoelstra, but his comments after Spoelstra sat Chris Bosh in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals demonstrate the disrespect Spoelstra received.

Spoelstra, the first Filipino head coach in any of the major American sports, does a lot more than look goofy in backwards hats and talk fluently in cliched coachspeak, so it’s time he gets a bit of the credit. The players Spoelstra has at his disposal certainly don’t hurt his chances of success, but the fact that the Heat were able to overcome all of the scrutiny while reaching their potential was due in large part to those not actually wearing a jersey with HEAT across the chest.

The 2012 NBA playoffs featured one momentum shift after another. Time and again, a team that had been more or less counted out came storming back to take a series from a team that had previously seemed unstoppable.

The Finals weren’t quite so dramatic -- Miami never faced elimination as they did against the Celtics. But after their Game 1 win, the Thunder were 13-3 in the playoffs, undefeated on their home court, and looked to be on an unstoppable roll. Of course, the Heat stopped it by winning four straight behind the stellar play of Finals MVP LeBron James.

In fact, Westbrook said he wants to do the exact opposite, according to a column from Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix.

There are surely more fun ways for NBA players to spend the summer than “embracing” a blowout loss, but that might just be the motivation needed for the Thunder to come back better than ever.

Miller has been a non-factor, basically, since taking his talents to South Beach. Our friends at Welcome To Loud City even went so far as to surmise that the Oklahoma City Thunder wanted Miller to have to beat them .... and then he did.

It just goes to show how hard the Heat were to beat this season -- even when the Thunder were able to somehow cancel out the stars, the role players played better than anyone could have expected.

Perkins doesn’t seem like the type of player to issue excuses, but one was given for him on Friday morning (courtesy Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski):

Playing basketball at the highest level with a “partially torn” anything is less than ideal, but starting in the NBA Finals with a torn groin is something else.

MIAMI -- Half an inch of puddled beer and champagne had turned the plastic floors into a Slip N’ Slide, rap music blasted from the speakers, and as the Heat celebrated an NBA title and a hundred different people squeezed their way around the Miami locker room, you couldn’t help but get lost in the whole scene.

There was Pat Riley covered in champagne, lecturing a reporter, saying, “I’m not the coach of this team” and pointing to a grinning, beer and gatorade-soaked Erik Spoelstra a few feet away. There was Jalen Rose pushing his way through the crowd to find Juwan Howard at the center of the room, diving into his arms while someone shouted “Fab Five!” and showered them with champagne. There was Udonis Haslem, shirtless and standing on a chair off to the side with teammates at both sides, chugging champagne and nodding his head. A few feet away, Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade’s famous girlfriend, stood on a chair bobbing her head to “N***as in Paris.” Then back at the center, one of the players lifted his son on top of his shoulders, and they danced along, too.

At one point, as James answered questions, he reached out to give the Larry O’Brien trophy a good rub almost to make sure it was real.

Oh, it’s real, LeBron, and it’s spectacular. As he stood up to leave the press conference, both trophies in hand, James paused and took one final victory lap before leaving the stage.

Then came Game 5 and Miller’s sudden and unexpected revival. He scored 23 points in the clinching effort and made seven of his eight three-point attempts. After the game, Miller acknowledged his unexpected contribution.

“I’m just glad they didn’t take me out back to the barn and put me down,” Miller said in the postgame press conference.

Every time we think the New York Post reaches a plateau, it raises its troll game to another level.

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Well, the championship aftermath in Miami wouldn’t have been complete without Shaq finding a way to jump into the fray. If you’ll recall, Shaq works for TNT, as well as NBATV. He was in the arena doing some work with Charles Barkley and the NBA crew. He was not, however, working with ESPN.

That didn’t stop him from crashing the set.

Kevin Arnovitz noted a bit later that the term “Congrats LeBron” was trending in Cleveland. I’m happy to report that it appears we have all moved on from The Decision ... right?

There’s really only one way for Mike Miller to get rid of his back pain after putting together a strong performance virtually out of nowhere on Thursday night. He’s going to the club, and he’s getting his drink on.

When Charles Barkley asked Miller whether the back pain would stop him from performing said activities, the answer was concise.

Shortly after time expired, and the Miami Heat had their first NBA championship, Nike ran an ad on ABC commemorating LeBron James’ feat. Given that LeBron and Nike have been inextricably linked since The Chosen One entered the NBA at age 18, it was only fitting that his greatest achievement would be so closely tied to the sneaker company. In a bonus to fans, it’s a great little ad.

Here it is in full:

“That’s for you guys to write, to say if I’m the best player in the league, number one player in the league. All I know is I’m a champion,” James said. “Hey, I’m an NBA champion and it don’t matter. Love you guys.”

Troooooophy! I’ve been asking Santa for this forever!

Time to pop bottles and pour champagne like a Bosh.

Always so dang giffable. Chris Bosh’s championship face is better than his everyday face, which is a pretty high bar.

Lock the doors, Floridians. Things are going to get out of hand.

This scene was preceded by an odd, but somewhat understandable image: Durant hugging a celebrating James, congratulating his friend on his accomplishment. I don’t know how Durant did it, but he found a way. I don’t know if I could have.

It’s easy to say that Durant’s time will come. Just try telling that to him right now.

On Thursday in Miami, LeBron James accomplished that which has escaped him to this point in his career: He won an NBA championship, racking up a(nother) triple-double to lead the Heat in a blowout victory over the Thunder. The most important question: What the Hades is Skip Bayless, LeBron’s mortal enemy and consistent detractor, going to do in response? SB Nation’s Amy K. Nelson and Matt Ufford ponder the question.

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James was phenominal throughout the NBA Finals. For the series, James averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists. He capped off his finals performance with a triple-double in Game 5. James scored 26 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and dished out 13 assists in the clinching performance.

James scored at least 26 points in all five finals games and finished with three double-doubles. He led Miami in scoring in every series during the postseason and averaged 30.5 points during the 2012 playoffs.

Something about this just looks ... odd.

That goofy grin? It’s his “not gettin’ fired, ya’ll” smile.

But Pat Riley still seems nervous, I think.

Nervous, or assured? You tell us.