Piece by Nicholas Cosmai
Twitter: @CozzyNick
The post season is among us once again less than 7 months after they finished. Many feel that this post season is actually the most open it has been for some time, despite a super team of offence up in Brooklyn, New York. Amongst all of this, there seems to be a certain 7 seed that is causing some fear amongst other western conference playoff teams. The reigning champion LA Lakers have had a rollercoaster year and at the front of that ride is LeBron between being an early MVP candidate to being sidelined the longest he has in his career. Now LeBron has had some all-time playoff runs, playoff series’, you name it. If you map out the possibility of the Lakers reaching the summit again, this will mean that they would be the lowest seed to win a championship. I guarantee if this is to happen, LeBron will have to go from little playoff preparation straight into being yet again, the best player in the playoffs. Furthermore, what would this mean to the age-old debate between himself and the ghost he is chasing in Chicago that wore number 23?
The general consensus from the NBA world of who is currently the greatest player to touch the basketball is between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. As the years have gone by, the people who are siding with LBJ have gradually increased since he won his first title in Miami in 2012. This was a relatively small crowd until the historical 3-1 comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals. Since then, the debate has exploded, many believe The Last Dance docuseries that aired to Netflix last year was signed off by MJ the day of the Cavs’ parade for that championship. Anyway, that is not relevant here.
So, what is the argument for Michael Jordan? Well, the reasons that always are spoken are his six NBA championships with five regular season MVP’s and six NBA finals MVP’s. But entrenched is this is why people bring up this argument, his work ethic. MJ like LBJ walked into poorly ran franchises and both had a tonne of hard work to do off the court led alone on it. For MJ he played in the brief 15-year period where the Eastern Conference was actually stronger than the Western Conference. Facing the Celtics of the 80’s along with the Bad Boy Pistons to start out his career. Where this particularly ties in with the work ethic argument is that he dug his heels in to eventually beat those Pistons. Once he finally got that Conference Finals scalp, it seemed near impossible for him to be knocked out. In 8 consecutive playoffs, only the 1995 Orlando Magic defeated him which was the season where he only played half of it due to coming back from playing Baseball. To put this in further context, between 1991 and 1998 the Chicago Bulls won 26 playoff series’ and lost once, and their playoff record was 95-31 so on average they were winning playoff series in 5 games.
We obviously know about his scoring prowess but to add to this, his defensive abilities were second to none. A former defensive player of the year, nine NBA All-Defensive first team selections along with being a three-time steals champion. In the end, I believe that MJ still has the majority of people defend him as he carried on from Magic Johnson and Larry Bird saving the league. On top of this, some of these people would have grown up watching MJ so they would still have that connection. Of course, there are other arguments also but those were the main ones.
Before I get into this season of why LeBron winning it all would put him over the top, we will first delve into why he is in the conversation. Here is a strong start as to why he is, in 2003 LeBron James came into the league a pass first player. Pretty much coming in as a point forward like Magic Johnson was for his career. 18 years later his best attributes are arguably still his playmaking abilities and basketball IQ. This same player is 3rd all-time in points, 3rd all-time in field goals made, equal 4th in points per game, 6th all-time in field goals made per game remembering this is just the regular season. In the playoffs he is, 1st all-time in points, 1st all-time in field goals made, 2nd all time in three pointers made and 1st all-time in free throws made, remembering this is a pass first player. These are just a sample of where LBJ ranks in his scoring all time and really any of his stats. For the totals, they have been helped by his longevity of playing 18 years at an extremely high level.
LeBron does not have the six NBA Championships and the six NBA finals MVP’s…. yet…. But consider his whole career. In his first stint with the Cavaliers, he led this horribly built team to an NBA Finals and one season where they went 66-16. To tell you the truth the list of players that I can remember that were on that roster is very, very short.
Then he had a live broadcast of the free agency decision in 2010 where he famously chose to move to south beach to play for the Miami Heat. He won his first two championships, going back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 and finally took out the Celtics, having at least one of his best career games coming from 3-2 down in the Eastern Conference Finals.
After a few years in Miami, he went back to Cleveland where he promised a championship for Cleveland. In 2016 he fulfilled his promise and did the impossible 3-1 comeback to defeat the 73-9 Golden State Warriors. His best work I believe in the second stint with Cleveland came in the two finals he lost to the Warriors. With Kevin Durant joining them, only the Houston Rockets in the western conference finals were the only team that threatened Golden State the most. In the 2018 playoffs, LBJ was untouchable and in my opinion, it was his greatest playoff run. Again, a case of another poorly constructed team where Kevin Love was his next best teammate and after that, the Cavs were very shorthanded.
This showed when LBJ chose to leave Cleveland again because of horrible miss management of the roster and the team once again. Since his departure, the Cavaliers have not even sniffed a play in spot led alone a playoff appearance, which unsurprisingly happened the first time around also. This is another argument for LeBron, every team he has left had periods directly after he has left without being a finals contender. Any team he joins, that team becomes an instant finals contender.
Moving to his current period with the LA Lakers. Last season as we know that the Lakers went to the bubble and won the championship and LBJ won his 4th Finals MVP through all the adversity of last season. The 2020/21 NBA season has been a huge rollercoaster ride for the reigning champions. I mean LeBron hit a 34-foot jumper to beat the shot clock to put them over the top of the warriors in there play in game. The main cause of the down periods was due to lengthy periods where both LBJ and Anthony Davis were sidelined, along with this Schroder saw a fairly long period for himself on the sideline. LBJ this season has missed more games than he has in any other season which was 2 months including only playing 4 games in the last 3 weeks, AD missed a combined 3 months from injuries. The Lakers have been able to hold onto a playoff spot despite there best starting 5 only being able to play just 4 games together all season (Schroder, Caldwell-Pope, James, Davis, Drummond).
With this all being an incredible task in itself to overcome, there are more factors externally to overcome. Those factors are James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving on the same team. Brooklyn are as good a chance as anyone to win the east and win the finals. What does this mean? Another super team that LBJ has had to overcome. This is a huge argument in the GOAT debate, the fact that LeBron has faced multiple super teams not just in the playoffs, but in the finals also. Say the Lakers are victorious against the Nets, if you were to construct a list of the 10 best players in the league that played when LeBron was drafted. Of all those players, LBJ either has not played them in the playoffs or your name is Dirk Nowitzki, everyone else he has beaten and some more than once. Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant (twice if he meets the nets), Steph Curry and Kevin Garnett are prime examples.
The Lakers will begin their championship defence with a first round against the second seeded Phoenix Suns, so there still is a long way to go. At this current time my GOAT stands with Michael Jordan, but should the Lakers go all the way once again, it is extremely hard to make a case against LeBron for MJ. The last two championships that LeBron has had to win had an extreme amount of adversity tagged along with them. I guarantee this one would be his signature playoff run.