Stop debating LeBron James’s legacy
It isn’t even time to start talking about it
COMMENTARY
Here we go again.
In recent weeks, two-time NBA champion and now four-time runner-up LeBron James has been declared anything from better than Michael Jordan – in other words, the best to ever play the game – to not quite as good as Larry Bird.
Stop. Everyone. Just. Stop.
I know it feels like Bron-Bron has been around forever. That’s because he has. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated on February 18, 2002 as a high schooler with the headline, “The Chosen One’’. In June of the following year, he was selected first overall by his hometown Cavaliers in the 2003 NBA Draft as a 19-year-old. Since, he’s been an All-Star in every year but his first, a nine-time First Team All-NBA choice, and a four-time MVP. Properly crediting his accomplishments would require far more words than you’re willing to read.
James would be in the Hall of Fame if he walked away today. He’d be a consensus top-10 player to ever pick up a basketball.
But the versatile forward is just 30.
Think about that.
Sure, James has logged 43,330 career minutes in his 1,089 regular season and postseason games but, you know what? He could play another decade if he wants to. He inevitably won’t, but he could.
Jordan’s age 30 season came during his first hiatus from basketball, trying to make it as a professional baseball player. After returning to the hardwood at 32, Jordan would go on to win three more NBA titles, retiring once again at age 35 after his claiming his sixth championship.
Do you know how much more James can achieve in the next five seasons, especially if he stays with a competitive team in an Eastern Conference that appears destined to be inferior for years? He’ll never go 6-for-6 in the Finals like MJ – that ship sailed a long time ago – but that doesn’t mean he can’t win seven.
Do I believe that will happen? No, but the sheer fact it’s possible makes this whole conversation premature. If the Cavs retain Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving gets healthy, James could play for a title each of the next five seasons in the four-and-bore conference! Odds are his 2-4 Finals record is just a placeholder set to change at least a few more times.
James ranks 25th on the NBA/ABA’s all-time scoring list with 24,913 points, 7,379 behind Jordan and a cool 13,474 points back of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If someday someone tells James the only way the vast majority of basketball historians will declare him the best-ever is to pass the former Lew Alcindor in scoring, he might just hang on long enough to do it because he cares what you think that much. Then again, how many people are putting Kareem at No. 1, and he’s a six-time champ like Jordan.
When it comes to debating legends in sports, I understand comparing Tom Brady to Joe Montana. Like his idol, the Patriots quarterback is now a four-time Super Bowl champ and the 39-year-old’s NFL tenure is in its final stages. When a career is over, that is the most logical and, to me, the only really reasonable time to dispute an all-time great’s status in relation to his counterparts.
Is Brady the best-ever to play his position? That question may never be answered – whether because of time periods, equipment, parity, strategy, allegedly deflated footballs or whatever the hell else – but at least all the statistical facts will be finalized over the next couple of years.
If you want to say LeBron deserved Finals MVP honors for guiding two Knicks rejects, two limited big men, an enthusiastic Australian whose stock went down under as quickly as it rose, and another guy named James to two wins against one of the best teams to ever take an NBA court, I’ll happily agree with you. All due respect to Andre Iguodala and his stifling defense, but what the King did was absurd. Sure, he took just short of seven million shots in the series, but he’s also the first player in Finals history to lead both teams in points (35.8), assists (8.8) and rebounds (13.3). The Cavs should have been swept when Irving went down. They won the next two before James ran out of gas trying to carry a team and city on his back.
The Cleveland roster we watched in the championship round might have won 10 games during the regular season without LeBron James. That might honestly be generous.
But that doesn’t mean James is the best ever. It’s another feather in his cap, notch on his belt, chapter in his book or scene in the movie that will all inevitably be referenced in a painfully self-indulgent acceptance speech in Springfield one day. Just like Jordan.
Until then, could we please, please hold off on knocking Jordan or whomever else off his pedestal? Would you want your legacy written at 30? Me neither. Stop finalizing LeBron James’s career. It’s much more satisfying reflecting on a book at the end, not in the middle.
These Celtics made 5 straight Finals before LeBron
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