Everyone is always talking about this guy. Whether they love him, hate him or both, basketball fans today always allow LeBron James to enter the conversation of the sport. When you look at what he’s done on paper, beyond the stats, LeBron really hasn’t done much. He has one NBA Finals appearance and a scoring title. Yet, when people talk about this generation’s all-time great players, you simply can’t leave this guy off the list. Maybe it’s because there’s more to basketball than what can be read on a sheet of paper.
LeBron James was probably the most hyped player in history coming out of the draft in 2003. The guy was supposed to be Dr. J, Michael and Magic all rolled into one. That may seem a little ridiculous, but that was what people were saying about this 17 year old kid. That could have to do with the fact that he looked and played like a 25 year old NBA pro. LeBron James, even then, possessed a combination of size, speed and strength that had rarely ever been seen in the history of the sport. I would argue that no one player has had as many physical gifts as that of LeBron.
LeBron James didn’t set the world on fire when he first came into Cleveland. In his first few seasons the Cavs didn’t make the playoffs. That certainly wasn’t Jordan-like in that Michael never failed to lead the Bulls to the playoffs. LeBron James had won the Rookie of the Year and had thrown up some great individual stats, but his team simply didn’t win. The question of “Is LeBron just another Vince Carter?” was one that I heard quite often back then, and by knowledgeable fans and/or writers.
In 2006 LeBron would carry the Cavs into the playoffs, and would finish second in the MVP voting behind Steve Nash. To this day, I think if there ever was a playoff series that was fixed, it was the one the Cavs had against the Wizards in the first round of that year. Not so much in that I feel anything wasn’t on the level, but you couldn’t write a better playoff debut. Let’s see, in his first playoff game LeBron James walked out with a win and a triple double. He would follow that up with two game winning shots and a very memorable moment of punking out Gilbert Arenas in the deciding sixth game.
After that, LeBron was launched. He went out to push the Pistons to seven games, and then would overcome that same team with one of the all-time great performances in NBA history the next season. Sure, the Cavs would get swept in the Finals by the Spurs, but the fact that they were in the Finals through the will of their superstar was amazing. LeBron would follow that up last season with defeating the Wizards for the third straight year and pushing the eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics closer to the brink of defeat than the Hawks, Pistons or Lakers could come close to. All of this brings a lot of speculation of when, not if, LeBron will get his trophy.
I’m picking the Cavs to win it all this year. I don’t feel that Boston will repeat, and they’re going to miss James Posey come playoff time. The Lakers have too many questions about them. Until they can prove otherwise, they’re too soft to win a championship. The Cavs picked up Mo Williams, and while he’s not the Scottie Pippen that they needed, he does make the Cavs a better team than they were before. The team they were before was one that was a Delonte West three pointer away from facing the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. We already saw how that worked out the year before.
Then if you assume the Cavs would’ve beaten the Pistons, they would’ve faced the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Then the Lakers would’ve faced very similar match up problems with the Cavs that they did with the Celtics. Point being, last year, if the stars had aligned just right, the Cavs would’ve had a path to the NBA championship. They’ll be a better team this year, and that path remains viable.
The only question is not if LeBron will be great next season, but will he be great enough to win it all. I’m predicting that he will.
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