Pablo Torre

And this can be a difficult political exercise for somebody who loves karaoke as much as Shane Battier does, as we need to explain in a bit.

But this takes us to a moment, for now, on the court, when the human yellow light wasn't actually trying to slow down a superstar.

Because it was June 2012, and Shane was playing for the Miami Heat, and the Miami Heat, for those not familiar, fetishized culture more than any other team in sports, as our own Ryan Cortez will gladly tell you.

And it's to the point where the Heat would go on to later hire Shane as an executive.

But on this June evening in 2012, what Shane Battier was mostly trying to do was just not get in the way of one of his fellow starters.

The issue, however, was that LeBron James, one of the best scorers ever, obviously, who was now being given the greenest possible light...

had won zero titles at this point.

Speaking of measurables, LeBron had joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, only to be humiliated by Dallas in the finals the year before this.

And so here the Heat were in 2012, overhyped and trailing in one of the most tense Eastern Conference finals in memory, and they were about to be eliminated by their most hated rival,

And by the way, there's just salivating from everybody who talks about sports.

Because you guys are villains.

You guys are Goliath.

Again, that's the other key part of this is that it's what does Goliath do to save his own ass?

Because this is now, in terms of his character study.

The LeBron game.

Yes.

And also, like, had he done it.

I remember watching this game and imagining what must it be like to be around him in this moment.

And so we win the game.

You win big.