The Big Lead

Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks (and the World) in Game Six

By Jason McIntyre

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Drama!

And then, there’s this:

" Two years ago, an All-American college player told his coach that James called him and the young player didn’t recognize the number. “This is the King,” the voice said. The kid was like, “Huh?” “This is the King.” Uh, who? “King James.” Oh, right."

Wonder who that was. The only hints are All-American player and two years ago. That narrows it down to these 15 players:

"1st Team DeMarcus Cousins Kentucky Wesley Johnson Syracuse Scottie Reynolds Villanova Evan Turner Ohio State John Wall Kentucky 2nd Team James Anderson Oklahoma State Da’Sean Butler West Virginia Sherron Collins Kansas Jon Scheyer Duke Greivis Vasquez Maryland 3rd Team Cole Aldrich Kansas Luke Harangody Notre Dame Darington Hobson New Mexico Damion James Texas Greg Monroe Georgetown"

By process of elimination, we can assume it wasn’t Reynolds (not in the NBA), Anderson (non-factor), Butler (not in the NBA), Collins (not in the NBA), Scheyer (not in the NBA), Aldrich (come on), Harangody (yeah, right) or Hobson. Based on LeBron’s history with Calipari, the two most likely names are Cousins and Wall. Maybe LeBron called Turner and Monroe, but I doubt it. My guess would be LeBron called John Wall.

Game six prediction? Miami wins, but it’ll be close: 92-88. Since the Heat are at home, and LeBron’s had some dominant performances in South Beach (see Boston, Chicago), I think he’ll finally play strong in the fourth quarter, and close the gap on that 52-11 scoring advantage Dirk has in the final 12 minutes.

Ratings for game five were off-the-charts – it was the 2nd highest rated game in the NBA in the last seven years (12.6) behind last year’s game seven between Boston and Los Angeles (12.8). If you feel like comparing (and you probably don’t) World Series numbers over the last six years to the NBA Finals, tonight’s game could surpass any non-Yankee World Series game from 2005-2010. If there is a game seven, we could see a late 90’s Michael Jordan-type rating (18 or 19).