King Humility

I'm not sure if anyone remembers my NBA Playoff posts. Even though I injected some humor in them, I was a bit serious with my predictions. You see, I actually think I know a thing or two about basketball. Therefore I should make some reliable predictions. Unfortunately that hasn't really been the case, especially after the first round of the playoffs. For example, let's take the Conference Finals:

In the West we had the San Antonio Spurs vs the Utah Jazz. I thought this would be close, at least 6 games. I also had the Utah Jazz winning. And while emotion played a factor in picking the Jazz (I still claim the Spurs' win over the Suns is a bit tainted thanks to the suspension incident), I actually thought the Jazz would win 3 games rather reasonably. They ended up winning 1. They did suffer a major setback when their star point guard Deron Williams had to play while ill and, later, with a bum ankle. Still, they were resoundingly beaten by the Spurs in 5 games. So, I was wrong.

In the East we, still, have the Detroit Pistons vs the Cleveland LeBrons Cavs. I thought this would go easily in favor of the Pistons. Tonight will be game 6 in Cleveland with the Cavs up 3 games to 2. Yes, the Cavs were in a similar position last year only to lose the last 2 games and go home. But this year seems to be different for one major reason. The Cavs won game 5 in Detroit thanks to an amazingly spectacular performance by LeBron James. I'm not sure how many people saw the game or highlights, but it was a performance for the ages. LeBron simply willed his team to victory by scoring the last 25 points for his team, and the last 29 out of 30. King James came to play in game 5. I highly doubt BronBron will drop 48 tonight. But his previous performance should inspire his teammates to outperform, giving LeBron a chance (at the least) in the 4th to seal victory. Of course, his teammates could simply expect another incredible performance and stand around watching him all game long, which would result in defeat. But I doubt that will happen, mainly because LeBron is an amazingly unselfish player who will make sure to get his teammates involved early in game 6. And that's why I think the Cavs will win tonight and beat the Pistons in 6 games. Which, once again, would prove my prediction to be strikingly wrong.

So the question clearly arises, why am I so wrong. I believe one of the reasons has to be that basketball, as any professional sport, is a very complex activity filled with nuance and information that the dedicated, but casual viewer will find difficult to thoroughly account for. There's also the possibility that maybe I don't know as much basketball as I like to think I do. Now, let's not jump to any rash conclusions.