The NBA Finals concluded Sunday in a very forgettable fashion, as the San Antonio Spurs got revenge on the Miami Heat in one of the most lop-sided series in NBA history. Before game 5 even ended, my Facebook and Twitter feeds blew up with a lot of anti-LeBron James sentiments. I can understand the average basketball fan not liking LeBron. If someone wants to cheer against him (as most America seems to do at this point), that's fine - it's certainly more reasonable than hoping both teams win. But on the whole, the posts I've read in the last few days were either nonsensical hyper-criticisms on his career to date or ignorant predictions on the rest of his career. Everyone is entitled to their opinion (Full Court Press is basically a pseudonym for Kos' opinion!), but if you're going to share those thoughts publicly, at least try to back it up with some facts and coherent thoughts.
I'm going to take a few minutes to do something very unpopular: defend LeBron James (not Tony Parker defend LeBron James, but court of public opinion defend LeBron James). It's not so much that I'm a "fan" of the guy, although I don't hate him - as you'll see in the disclaimer below. I can provide plenty of reasons to criticize the man, too. However, I just can't sit by idly and watch people irrationally take away from what has been a stellar NBA career. The focus will be on two trending claims: LeBron is overrated, and LeBron will never be as great as Michael Jordan.
Disclaimers
As I said, for the most part, I am not an avid LeBron James fan. I'm certainly not a Miami Heat fan - that honor belongs to the Utah Jazz (yes, that's a real basketball team). I do, however, remember watching LeBron when he was in high school, and I was excited for him to enter the NBA. I had a feeling he would be something special, and as a fan of sports history, I was curious to see if he could grow into a legend. It was obvious he would never be surrounded with the talent he needed to win a title while in Cleveland, so I didn't mind the fact that he took his talents to South Beach. Besides, nobody deserves to be in Cleveland - except Johnny Manziel, and he's already there. So, while I don't rock the 6 jersey (formerly 23 - no, not that 23, we'll talk about him later) and don't watch every game, I quietly pump my fist each time he hits a career milestone.
I say quietly because I can admit there's much not to like about LeBron. I can honestly say I was sick to my stomach about "The Decision," which is now one of many reasons I no longer watch any ESPN original programming (i.e. I'll watch the games, but not SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, College Gameday, etc). Is the man arrogant? Absolutely. A crybaby? Certainly. And am I the only one who rolls his eyes as the size of his headbands continue to match the recession in his hairline? So yes, LeBron is less than charming, which is why I didn't lose a whole lot of sleep when the Heat lost on Sunday.
So while this is clearly not a fully objective defense, I think I don't care enough to label this biased either.
The Best in the Biz
As stated above, some people seem to think every time Lebron loses, it's safe to say he's a loser, overrated, untalented... and the list goes on. Let's get something straight: regardless of how you feel about him, Lebron James is the best basketball player on the planet! He has more than earned the nickname "King James." While not the league MVP this season, he won it last year, giving him a total of 4 (in a span of 5 years). He was an All-Star (his 10th). Yes, I know All-Star appearances are a little skewed because they're a popularity contest, which is why it's important to note that he was selected to his 8th All-NBA 1st team. Definitively, though, he "only" made 2nd team. It's also his "only" selection to the 2nd team. That's because in the previous 5 seasons, he was selected to the 1st team.
Some might knock him for only winning one scoring title. A big pet peeve of mine is evaluating players solely on points scored. There are many other factors to consider, and in fact, a player who scores a lot but doesn't do much else can fairly be criticized as one-dimensional. First, LeBron averaged 27 points per game this season, which is consistent with his career average. It is also a lot of points. There's not a team in the league that wouldn't take a 27 point scorer just because they weren't the league's leading scorer. So the guy can score, but as I said, there's more than scoring. He also averaged 6 rebounds and 6 assists this season - averaging 7 and 6.9 respectively for his career. Again, those are league-leading numbers, but they're darn good. Most teams would love for their leading scorer to grab 6-7 boards a game. Those same teams will trade up in the draft to get a 6' 8" 250 lb. forward that can dish out 6-7 assists a game. He's also the ONLY player in NBA history to average at least 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists for his career. If my point's not sinking in yet - this guy does many significant things at a high level. Also consider his aforementioned size when he runs the floor - people that big should not be this fast:
He not only lights up the stat sheet, he a freakish athlete. You want to know the real reason people are so upset with LeBron taking his talents to South Beach? He didn't take those talents to their team. I live just outside of Dallas, and I vividly remember the summer of 2010. Everyone around here was clinging to the hope that Lebron just might be interested in being a Mav. I remember New York had quite a buzz around him as well. Chicago was another suitor that courted him. Everyone wanted the best basketball player in the world, and many of those same people are calling him overrated today - because he didn't pick them.
I could go on about his rookie of the year and 2 Olympic Gold medals (funny how the biggest honor in sports gets so easily lost in the talk of league championships), but it should be obvious by now this is not just a good ballplayer, but exceptionally great basketball player.
*stats courtesy of NBA.com
It Ain't Over
"Well, he's good, but he's no Michael Jordan," or "He'll never be as good as MJ." That's probably the most common complaint out there. It's also the most unreasonable. Of course he's no Michael Jordan - there is only one. Just like Jordan was no Magic Johnson, who was no Kareem who was no Wilt Chamberlain who was no Bill Russell. Great players cement their own legacies, but they do so standing on the shoulders of other greats. LeBron is the first Lebron, and he's done some special things in his career. I already mentioned the skill-to-body size ratio. It's unique. That's why there was so much buzz about him in high school. Speaking of which, he came straight from high school. You can't do that anymore, but we have yet to see anyone that NBA-ready at the age of 18. That includes every Kentucky freshman in the John Calipari era. That even includes Michael Jordan.
Because of how young he entered the league and how ready he was able to compete, he's hitting career milestones faster than anyone in NBA history - youngest to reach 20,000 career points, youngest to record a triple-double (7th on the all-time list, most among active players), youngest to average 30 points per game in a season, youngest to be named to the All-NBA 1st team... and the list goes on (source: wikipedia.org). The man is only 29 years old, and he's done what countless players have never done playing deep into their 30's. The sky is still literally the limit.
The elephant in the room, of course, is titles. Michael Jordan has 6, and apparently that's the benchmark for LeBron. Allow me to hop off this soap box onto another one for a moment: championships in team sports is the most ridiculous way to measure an individual's greatness. Jordan was great, and he was certainly the leader of 6 title teams. But his supporting cast was waaayyy better than what LeBron has had to work with, and that includes the "Big 3" era. Statistically speaking, LeBron actually had more support from his 2007 Cavs runner-up team than he did this year's Heat team. If we gauge a player strictly on titles, Trent Dilfer is a better QB than Dan Marino. The title does not define a player's ability. When the North Carolina Tar Heels won the 1984 NCAA National Championship (a game Jordan hit the game-winning shot), it was the first for legendary coach Dean Smith. When asked after the game how he felt to "finally win the big one," Smith simply responded by asking if he was any better at coaching now that he was 5 minutes ago. Furthermore, if we're counting strictly on titles won, Michael Jordan doesn't even have the most. Does that make Bill Russell the greatest of all time?
Now, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Championships are important. Basketball is a team sport, and teams play to win championships. AND LEBRON WON 2 TITLES!!! Both as Finals MVP! Hello?! Have we become so jaded that 2 championships aren't enough? That's 2 more than hall-of-famers Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, et al. have won. LeBron is a champion. I know he's lost 3 finals, and yes, I agree that losing this recent one is a blow to his legacy. But remember what we looked at before regarding his age - he's 29. 29 years old playing in 4 consecutive NBA Finals and winning 2 is remarkable. Look at how old Tim Duncan was when he won his 5th. To put it in perspective, if we're to compare him to Michael Jordan (which is still ridiculous), Jordan was 29 when he won his second title. But supposedly LeBron will never win 6. And he may not, but you don't know that, and neither do I. The window is still wide open.
Hate, but Appreciate
I'm not advocating that people open their arms and embrace LeBron. One thing Jordan had that LeBron may never have is charisma. Every sport needs a bad guy, so if you hate LeBron's guts, you owe it to the integrity of fan-hood to cheer your heart out against him. But please try to do 2 things in the process:
- Respect the talent. I mentioned I'm a Jazz fan and that Malone and Stockton have no rings. Do you think I liked Michael Jordan from 1997-1998 when the Bulls beat the Jazz in consecutive NBA Finals? Certainly not! But I understood that I was witnessing greatness. I count it a privilege that I watched all 6 titles (that's another thing - a lot of current LeBron haters were in diapers during the Jordan's first three-peat and just learning how to read during the second - so I take those evaluations with grain of salt). LeBron is the best player in the world right now, can we at least begrudgingly agree on that?
- Let time do its thing. You can't truly evaluate or even appreciate a player's legacy while they're playing. Why do you think there's a waiting period for Hall of Fame inductions? LeBron is still writing his story. Even Jordan needed a few years after he retired (for the third time) for us to forget about his one-man shows in the 80's, his botched baseball career in the 90's, and his Washington Wizards experiment in the 2000's. LeBron may still have another 7-8 great years ahead of him, and if he's stubborn, another 3 useful ones after that.
