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"FacebookPinterestGetty Images\n\nBefore James became a universal object of unfiltered scorn, the biggest knock on him was simply, that he was boring. Maybe he was arrogant or lacking in seriousness; that invariably came up at some point. But the real gripe, one that spanned the whole of his charmed career and applied even to his virtuosic style of play, was that LeBron James was simply too much of a given. He was bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and more skilled than anyone on the court. He could take over games, cause defensive schemes to crumble, create turnovers, and dance his way to the basket no matter who or what stood in the way. When his jumper was falling, the feeling of total dominance could be almost sickening. When it wasn't, the fear that it might was enough to let him shape the game. Of course James would win MVPs; the outrage over his last few seasons has been as much about his failure to realize the obvious (especially with Wade and Bosh on hand) as a desire to see him come up short. James should rule basketball. It's only natural.\n\nThe Thunder's appeal never really lay in their humility or Kevin Durant's good-natured charm. They aren't the good guys to LeBron's rumbling villainy; Westbrook, arguably the Thunder's most important player in this series, is a sower of chaos who opens himself to all sorts of criticism every time he touches the ball. And he never runs from it; nor does the team, itself a wobbly, sophisticated assemblage of young, flexible talent, ever attempt to reign itself in. For all the misplaced descriptions of the Thunder as wholesome or humble, their play is unpredictable and exhilarating. Westbrook lighting fires everywhere, Durant sneaking up to drop 30, Harden the eternal riddle of a super-sub turned prime performer.\n\nThis team is anything but inevitable and it's hard to imagine they would be as ridiculously charismatic if we did have a better sense of what was coming next. A vote for the Thunder is a vote for full-on basketball dynamism, ideas about the future that embrace uncertainty and even crazed risk-taking. No one even knows if Coach Scott Brooks is brilliant or inept. Maybe the Heat suggest tyranny and the Thunder insurgency. But isolate LeBron, always the real focus of Miami, and you get a contrast between the league's ultimate given and a bunch of blazing wild cards.\n\nI'm still numb from last night's game. I had thought it was because, again, the Thunder came so very close and couldn't deliver. This was their calling card in 2008-09; they were the lottery-bound team nobody wanted to play. I'm realizing, though, that it's not disappointment setting in. It's the sense that LeBron James can't help but win titles. Sealing fourth quarters on an obviously cramped leg, perhaps the most relatable injury in sports? It just doesn't come as any surprise. James can do anything, everything. The view of him as an underachiever isn't personal; it's cosmic. If James doesn't rule the NBA, the natural order of the universe is somehow upset. That has a way of getting under your skin. At the same time, seeing it finally happen is at once awe-inspiring and banal, like a sunrise or the tides. That is LeBron James's role and if it comes as a relief, it simply restores things to where they should have been all along.\n\nLet's step back for a moment, though, and remember the way we first met James, and the way he presented himself. He was The Chosen One, a talent of supernatural proportions. Maybe success seemed inevitable, but what did it means for there to be an athlete who could legitimately aspire to this kind of career? Maybe there's a fine line between prophecy and cliche; maybe we take James for granted because the buzz of his arrival long ago wore off. But to see LeBron likely clinch his first title with play that confirms all those long ago expectations for him, as well as satisfying all macho checklist items, brings us back to 2003. We were promised an unstoppable, unbelievably versatile player. That in itself was the revelation.\n\nOver time, if James did indeed make good on all his promise, he would become something like landscape. James was to be a king rising, not the action-packed end times fantasy suggested by the Thunder. Inevitability has been his calling card all along. It was a thrilling possibility in 2003. By now, it has hardened into recognition of its practical implications. We're getting what we asked for, finally, and in its own way, it's awesome. The secret is, we prefer the Thunder's far less stable brand of destiny, one ordained rather than engineered. There's a reason why doomsday has more fans than the Second Coming."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/lebron-arrives-world-shrugs>