It’s a hectic scene in the locker room after a team wins a championship. Interviews are taking place. Dancing is happening. Various bubbly alcohols are being splashed in every direction. Chris Bosh does sexually suggestive things with champagne. It’s a riot.
So, after the Heat clinched the NBA title last week, it’s no wonder LeBron James thought he misplaced something really valuable: his Finals MVP trophy. Here’s a snippet from Lee Jenkins’ Sports Illustrated piece on LeBron:
[A]fter James retreated to the locker room, where teammates bathed him in a Budweiser–Dom Perignon cocktail, he caught a scare. He couldn’t find his Finals MVP trophy.
“Where’s my trophy?” James hollered, rummaging through his locker. “I left it right here!” He rushed through the tunnel back to the court, where he had to give an interview, but the moment it ended he asked, “Have you seen my trophy? Who took my trophy?” On the way to the press conference, where the MVP trophy was waiting all along, he relaxed a bit. “It’s just an individual award, anyway,” he says. “It’s not the one that matters.” He took the Larry O’Brien trophy from the podium and cradled it like a third son, and when friends offered to help carry it down a hallway, he waved them off.
Way to keep a guy in the loop, NBA PR people. Nothing worse than messing with people’s stuff behind their backs.
But LeBron is right when he said that’s the trophy that didn’t matter. Nobody sets “being a Finals MVP” as a goal. That’s some LaDanian Tomlinson-like business. Everybody is fine with just being a champion. You don’t see Michael Jordan bawling over a tightly embraced Finals trophy. You don’t see LeBron getting to second base with it in TV promos. It’s all about the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
So, no offense to the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Value Player Award trophy, but you take the back seat.
H/T The Basketball Jones
Photo: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE
