"With the first pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select ... LeBron James." When then-NBA commissioner David Stern muttered those words at the microphone in front of a packed theater at Madison Square Garden the night of June 26, 2003, he introduced our generation to the greatest basketball player we have seen up to this point in our lives. Moreover, he introduced us to one of the greatest basketball players to ever step foot on the hardwood.
When an 18 year-old James officially declared his intent to jump straight to the pros from high school and forgo a collegiate hoops career, doubt lingered about his prospects as a professional athlete. In the time leading up to the draft, it became clear that Cleveland would select him with the first pick. However, some NBA scouts and experts questioned his natural jump-shooting abilities along with his maturity and overall growth potential in the league. These exact critics watched the Washington Wizards select Kwame Brown, arguably the biggest bust in NBA history, fresh out of high school with the first overall pick in the 2001 draft, so their skepticism held merit . Every basketball fan can agree that the Kwame Brown experiment turned out, well, just downright dreadfully for the Wizards.
But "The King" quickly crumbled any doubt about his professional career. Entering his 13th year in the league next year, the King has amassed 27.3 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game, 6.9 assists per game and 1.7 steals per game. He has won the league MVP award four times and has appeared in 10 straight All-Star games, twice winning the game's individual MVP award. The King has also proclaimed his dominance on the international stage, serving as an integral piece to team USA's gold medal runs in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship.
Despite all these revered accolades, one statistic on the James' record continues to stand out as a source of major scrutiny when measuring his greatness against some of the other common households names in basketball history. Unfortunately for the King, many NBA followers, analysts,and experts believe this statistic takes significant precedence over others in determining the greatness of a professional basketball player. At this point in his career, LeBron James has played in six NBA Finals series, and he was victorious in only two of them.
Yes, LeBron James has won only two NBA Championships so far in his career. An average player in the league would likely label two career titles as a successful NBA tenure, but the King needs to bring a little more firepower to the basketball debates that pop up ever so commonly on your Twitter timeline.
To put Lebron's alarming Finals record into perspective, let's consider those numbers for the names most commonly mentioned alongside LeBron James as the greatest basketball player of all time. Kobe Bryant, now nearing the end of his NBA career, has played in seven NBA Finals series and prevailed in five of them. The player who has been all but officially labeled as the consensus greatest to ever play the game, Michael Jordan, was the victor in all six of his trips to the NBA finals.
At one point in my life, I too hated LeBron James. I tuned into ESPN night of July 8, 2010 to watch "The Decision," a television special aired just for the King to announce his intent to "take his talents to South Beach." I wasted over an hour watching the great King bask in all his glory, dangling the suspense of his reveal in front of the entire world, just to see him greedily snub his hometown team from his home state in favor of a move to Miami to hopefully win his first NBA title alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He did, although not in his first trip to the Finals with the Miami Heat. He eased his way to the league's plateau, and I resented him for that. However, my hate subsided more each subsequent year he played in Miami, and it disappeared altogether once he returned to Cleveland. I refuse to compare him to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant anymore.
With the 2014-2015 NBA Finals concluding in a loss for Cleveland a few short weeks ago, LeBron can find his game under the public's microscope once again. Forget the fact that a fractured kneecap sustained in game one kept Kyrie Irving on the sidelines for the rest of the series. Forget the fact that Kevin Love sat out the series due to a season-ending shoulder dislocation sustained earlier in the playoffs. By playing much of the series alongside two former undrafted free agents and losing in six games to a star-studded Golden State team, LeBron prompted another thorough scrubbing of his performance's most minute imperfections.
Each time the King fails, the script never seems to change much. He "whines to the refs when he doesn't get calls." He "isn't clutch" when he commits a late turnover or misses a crucial shot. He "doesn't respect his coach" when he looks even the slightest bit disinterested in the team huddle. These accusations, along with others, may or may not hold merit. But if you ever just sit down and watch LeBron James play basketball, you simply cannot deny that his talents on the court inordinately outweigh any of his flaws. There are many great players playing in the NBA today, but none of them can assert their dominance as easily and as astoundingly as can the King.
I guess Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan never argued with referees or disagreed with their coaches. I suppose they both played perfectly in every single game of their careers. They definitely never encountered any types of obstacles on their paths to winning championships. Speaking from my own basketball knowledge, Kobe and M.J. both played on teams with remarkably greater supporting casts than did LeBron in any of his trips to the NBA Finals. But, of course, that doesn't matter, because LeBron is expected to carry his entire team all by himself. By the way, Bill Russell won a remarkable 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career, and nobody ever mentions him in debates about the greatest basketball player of all time.
Seriously, what more does this man have to prove? He has done nothing short exceptional thus far in his career, and he likely has a few more years left to cement his legacy as one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball. By continuing to ignore his current legacy in the game coupled with treasure trove of awards and accolades, the King's haters allow a deep sentiment of denial to linger.
LeBron James will never be Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant will never be LeBron James. LeBron James will never be Michael Jordan, and Michael Jordan will never be LeBron James. But LeBron James, as of right now, is the best basketball player in the NBA, and the best basketball player on planet Earth. The King has indisputably earned his stripes, and for that he deserves our unconditional appreciation. When all is said and done, this generation could have lived during the golden years of the most decorated basketball player of all time, and we should be thankful for that.
