SAN JUAN (William Rosario's Somewhere in the Americas) - The end of this season's NBA Finals left us with a sense of hope over the fact that the San Antonio Spurs, a squad with a team first mentality, won the title in such convincing fashion.

But, it also left me with a bitter taste over the superficiality of some of the consensus comments the fans had about the future of basketball and the character of LeBron James.
 
The first comment that got thrown around after the clinic put on by the Spurs in the fourth game of the series was "the NBA is a copycat league, so this is good because now teams will look to be like San Antonio". Some outside the NBA bubble even expanded that thought to the basketball world not only at the club level but also on the national team stage.

Do we really think it is really that easy becoming the San Antonio Spurs in the economically driven business that is running an NBA team? Do the likes of RC Buford, Peter Holt and Greg Popovich grow on trees?

We need to be realistic about the contemporary basketball world and the society in which it is being played. In a Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Mass Billboard, superstar sponsored, Millenial me me me generation society, there is very little room for a thing like the Spurs to happen. The stars have to align for there to be three front office men like the ones I mentioned before who have shown humility and selflessness in every decision made by the team, truly achieving the globalization dream of David Stern for the league.

Then there's Tim Duncan. You need a guy that understands his leadership role on the team but that doesn't demand the ball and has a horizontal approach to being a teammate.

I'm sorry but I just don't see many situations like this one in the professional or even national team basketball today. Having that kind of a grounded combination is something unique to this team and we should celebrate them for what they have done as it was masterwork on all fronts; like we should have done with the Detroit Pistons team that won it all with no superstars in 2004. But we were busy focusing on the Los Angeles Lakers' demise that year, and I'm afraid some of that is going on right this moment.

A great social media topic during these NBA finals was LeBron James. In the first game it was crampgate and then it was the criticism that he was unable to win it, losing three of his five Finals appearance. It was a ridiculous downpour of memes taking shots at Lebron and his inability to win this season.

Can somebody tell me what has LeBron James done wrong as a player and human being to deserve such stupidity?

He is an extremely charitable person who gives back to his Akron community, even after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers; he is an educated person who has never exhibited bad conduct and hasn't thrown a punch, insulted or disrespected anybody in his career; he is an amazing teammate willing to pass the ball in big moments and give up the spotlight, but also ready to accept blame if thing go wrong; he has been a fantastic representative to his country in Olympic competition; and you have never heard his name involved in a scandal.

In his 11-year career he has been MVP four times, is a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP, two-time Olympic gold medal winner, eight-time All-NBA First Team and five-time All NBA defensive team.

In this playoff run alone he averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 56 percent from the floor.

LeBron is already one of the best ever and, if you are still not over his "decision" to sign with the Miami Heat, well, grow up. The guy is the perfect ambassador for the basketball world.

Actually, both of them, LeBron and the Spurs are a blessing for basketball in this superstar era. Now we just need to not fall into the trap of expecting this to always be there. San Antonio is unique, LeBron is unique and they both achieved it the right way.

William Rosario

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