NBA Finals 2012 Prediction

The NBA Finals that we have all been waiting for since Christmas last year, and looks like Santa delivered. We will get to watch the two best basketball players on Earth go head to head as Lebron James’ Miami Heat and Kevin Durrant’s Oklahoma City Thunder match up for the 2012 NBA Finals.

Here is a look on how we got to this point.

The Thunder’s story is so compelling and easily likeable, while the Miami Heat story is hated by many fans nationwide. Oklahoma City beat three Western Conference powerhouses on their journey. They beat the Lakers who have won it all 5 times this decade, the Spurs who have won the finals 4 times in the past 13 years, and the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. Also the Thunder built their team from the ground up through the draft, and they did not have televised events and premature celebrations before the season started. If you couple that with the fact that the Thunder are young and humble, they are the more likeable team.

On the complete other side we have the villains. The Miami Heat are either hated or loved by pretty much every fan of the game. The fans love the way the stars were aligned in South Beach, but those opposed to the Heat have endless complaints and jokes lined up for any Heat fan they find. (Trust me). The Miami Heat’s road to the finals was comparably easier than the thunder, though they made it as tough as possible. They beat the cant get right Knicks in 5 games, and this series should have been a sweep. They then beat the Pacers in a physical 6 game series, but they were a much better team and it should not have been that close. Also in that series Chris Bosh went down, which made Miami’s journey that much harder. Lastly this was the reason Lebron and Wade got together, to get over the hump that was the Boston Celtics. The Heat won in a very action packed game 7 against the Celtics to make everyone’s dreams come true. I cannot remember the last time the NBA has gotten the finals that they wanted.

We have yet to get the Lebron vs. Kobe finals that we all wanted, but I will definitely take the consolation. At this point I doubt Kobe reaches the finals again, so I look forward to witnessing these two future hall-of-famers face off for the next 5-10 years.

The Prediction: Miami Heat win in 7, and Lebron finally gets his ring.

After considering everything carefully, I see the Heat winning this one in 7 games. I would have gone 6, but I know how the Heat like to let teams hang around. The Thunder definitely look like the better team going in, but in the end I am going with the team with the much better defense. They say defense wins championships, for Lebron’s sake lets hope they are right.