LeBron James Summoned His Elite Dad Strength To Get The Rest He Craved

LeBron James has been on a mission this postseason. In the first round, it was to avoid his first ever first round series loss, carrying the Cavs to a 4-3 win over the Indiana Pacers behind some incredible individual efforts. In the second round, his mission was not just to win, but to do so quickly as to give himself and his teammates a much needed opportunity to rest.

LeBron and the Cavs accomplished that goal too, sweeping Toronto in four games to send the Raptors into the offseason and giving Cleveland at least five days off before the Eastern Conference Finals begin. James, like so many elite athletes, is great at taking a perceived slight or unfair disadvantage and turning it into motivation. The Toronto series provided many opportunities to find that extra edge as James entered a second round series against a team he’s eliminated two straight years as a significant underdog.

While James may have taken offense at being a near 2-1 underdog to the Raptors, it seems as though his focus was on the NBA not giving him any extra days off between games. LeBron noted it was “weird” that the Cavs and Raptors were the only series that didn’t get a stretch of two days off between any of their games. While that was the fault of Cleveland letting their series with Indiana go on so long, it nonetheless produced some added motivation for LeBron, which proved to be bad news for Toronto.

Look how excited that man is about getting some rest. He can’t even finish a sentence! This is unbridled joy, and I don’t think we fully understood what was at stake here when looking at this series. We were focused on the wrong things when talking about this matchup on the court and whether the Raptors’ deep bench would give them an edge over a Cavs supporting cast that was struggling to do anything. This wasn’t just a dominant athlete picking apart a Raptors team he quite obviously owns on the court. This was also a dad wanting some time for himself, and that was never going to end well for Toronto.

LeBron is now the father of three children, which means he can tap into deep reservoirs of dad strength at any given time, which is an almost unfair advantage given that he’s already inhumanly strong and strong-willed. There is nothing dads covet more than some god damn peace and quiet and the opportunity to take naps at their leisure, and the Raptors were the ones standing in the way of America’s second-most-powerful dad’s opportunity to sleep and relax for five days — all due respect to LeBron, but The Rock is America’s most powerful dad.

Everyone on the Cavs needed some rest because it allows them to get right for the Eastern Conference Finals. Kevin Love needs some time for his thumb to heal. George Hill needs time for his back to get right. J.R. Smith needs time to golf. Everyone needs this time for something, but as with everything with the Cavs, LeBron’s needs are most important, and he needed rest more than anyone.

LeBron is now able to sit on his porch, sipping wine and doing dad stuff for almost a full week. Hell, he might just tell the landscaping crew to take the week off cause dad’s finally got some time to work on the lawn. An aside here, I bet LeBron has some incredible lawn care equipment, like one of those high-end zero-turn mowers and just the best Husqvarna trimmer on the market.

He’ll still be putting work in at the Cavs’ practice facility, but there are no more late nights required of James for five more days. No more flights or hotel beds to deal with. LeBron gets to preside over his kingdom in the Cleveland suburbs, doing things at his pace, and preparing to face maybe the only foe he’s tormented more than the Raptors recently in the Boston Celtics.