It’s About Damn Time

Finally, he did it. The monkey is off his back, and everybody especially Skip Bayless can step away from criticising Lebron James and start praising the strengths of his game rather then scrutinizing the flaws. Everyone knew this day would come, Lebron is too talented and well rounded a player to not win an NBA championship.  Now that Lebron has one ring, we can most likely expect more due to the saying the first is usually the hardest. Lebron is now the king. Nobody can take that away from him, there is no more debate about Durant vs Lebron. No more debate about Prince vs King. He is the man now.

With 3 MVP’s, a finals MVP and a championship ring I think he is really close to the brink of Jordan-ness. He was always in the conversation of greatest ever, that was clear as soon as he won rookie of the year. We just weren’t sure where he compared to Jordan, Bird, or Chamberlain. He hadn’t proved he could win, he couldn’t carry his team to a victory yet. But now that he’s a winner he is so close. He’s most definitely the most well rounded player in the history of the NBA, and I think what separates him from Jordan is the rings, but that can’t all come in one season. If we want to measure the greatest of all time by rings then Bill Russell might as well be the best to ever play the game. He will earn the rings in time, but the constant ruthlessness of Michael Jordan may be something Lebron is lacking. I think Jordan is the best competitor in NBA history and one of the best ever in sports, which is why it’s so hard to compare anybody to him because nobody else possesses the drive that he had. It may not even be the ruthlessness but Michael Jordan’s ability to ignore a defensive scheme and be aggressive no matter what the circumstance. For example, Lebron’s “choke-filled” series last year against Dallas. They did a great job of keeping him on the perimeter and forcing him to settle or make bad decisions with their zone, and their pressure around the perimeter match-ups. He couldn’t succeed under the defensive pressure of the Mavericks, Michael Jordan rarely ever had games where he settled against a defense or a defense played him so well that he couldn’t succeed. That also attributes to Lebron’s jump shot, an area where Jordan is much stronger. They both shot around 50% from the field and 33% from downtown, but I can’t imagine a world where Lebron hits 7 three pointers in the first half. Jordan was more versatile offensively, but all around Lebron is the more versatile player.

Now that the ring has arrived, his spot in the all time greats top 5 list is cemented. Maybe i’m being over ambitious and naive to think anybody could even compare to Jordan, but Lebron’s numbers of 29, 10 and 7 in the Finals make me excited for his future in the NBA. With more time, comes more rings, watch out Jordan.