LeBron Is Great, But How Will He Be Remembered?

During the 2002-2003 NBA season the Cavaliers only won 17 games which led to them drafting James. Before even stepping on an NBA court James had already been dubbed as “King James”, but he immediately lived up to the hype. In James’ first season in the NBA, the Cavaliers doubled their win total from the previous season as they won 35 games. By 2006 the Cavaliers had won 50 games for only the fourth time in franchise history and in the next season Cleveland would make their only trip to the NBA Finals with James leading the way.

From his first season in the NBA, James has been one of the top players in the league as he averaged 20.9 points per game in his rookie season to earn NBA Rookie of The Year honors. By his third season in the league James averaged 31.4 points per game as he had become unstoppable.

For seven seasons James single-handedly put the Cavs on his back, but due to a lack of support around him he then famously took his talents to South Beach in 2010. The Heat would go on to put the supporting cast around James necessary for him to become a champion and his career has gone to next level.

For his 11-year NBA career James is a two-time NBA Champion, a four-time NBA MVP, and a 10-time NBA All-Star. James is also rapidly moving up the NBA charts as he is already in the top 30 all-time for points (22,405), and top 40 for assists (5,630). But when his playing career is over, how will James be remembered?

This week James claimed that he should be on the Mount Rushmore of the NBA’s all-time players. First off all it is wrong for people to compare professional athletes to Mount Rushmore, but for some folks in this day and age that has become the talk of the town.

James is one of the best players in this current era and he is rapidly becoming one of the best players to ever lace them up, but his resume is far from complete. James is only 29-years of age and he appears to have four more years of dominance in him. The Heat have been a championship contender in each season that James has been affiliated with them and he is on pace to finish his career in the top five for all-time scoring in the NBA.

When you talk about the greatest players in the history of the NBA, fairly or unfairly some people are going to look at the championships that have been won. Before James ever stepped onto a court in the NBA he was immediately compared to Michael Jordan. By some James has also been compared to current Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant. Jordan is a six-time NBA Champion while Bryant is a five-time champ. Aside from that James has a different skill set from both Jordan and Bryant. In the past few seasons James has become a better perimeter scorer while Jordan and Bryant developed their outside game earlier in their NBA careers. But James is a more physical specimen as he is deadly running the fast break while also simply overpowering defenders in the process of driving to the basket. More than anything James’s game is closer to that of Basketball Hall of Fame point guards Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson as he is a penetrator, scorer, and facilitator.

There were the haters that wanted to condemn James for “The Decision” in 2010, but he made the right move. James was able to televise his decision to join the Heat on ESPN due to the fact that he knew that the world would captivated by it while he was also raising money for charity. Some people immediately cried that Jordan and Bryant never had to take their talents to another teams. Jordan spent the majority of his NBA playing career with the Chicago Bulls while Bryant has spent his entire 18-year career in Hollywood with the Lakers. Los Angeles and Chicago are two of the bigger media markets in the country while the Laker and Bull organizations consistently put talent around Bryant and Jordan respectively. Bryant played with arguably the best center of all-time in Shaquille O’Neal and later an All-Star power forward in Pau Gasol while Jordan played with arguably the best sidekick of all-time in Scottie Pippen. Jordan and Bryant were both coached by Phil Jackson during their combined 11 championship seasons.

While with the Cavs, James was relegated to playing with a who’s who of nobodies that the NBA had to offer as he was asked to carry his Cleveland squad on a nightly basis. No offense to the people that live near Lake Erie, but the city of Cleveland has never been a hot bed for pro athletes in any sport to play. The longer that James stayed in Cleveland would mean the longer that he would be wasting his talent there.

James was humbled in his first season with the Heat as they made the NBA Finals, but they fell in six games to the Dallas Mavericks. James and the Heat have come back with a vengeance in the past two seasons as they have knocked off the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs respectively to win the last two NBA Championships.

James has now gotten over the hump of winning an NBA Championship and now he is on another level with two titles under his belt, but he still has the hunger or in the words of Survivor, “The Eye of The Tiger”. James could have stayed with the Cavaliers and he would be lucky to win one title. But by joining shooting guard Dwyane Wade and power forward Chris Bosh in Miami, James did it solely to win titles because one man cannot do it by himself in the NBA. James appears to have more titles in the NBA on the horizon which will put him in the conversation as one of the greatest to ever do it. James cannot be compared to Jordan or Bryant because he is not cut from the same mold.

When James’ career is over he will be regarded as one of the best to lace them up, but it is tough to critique a book when there are chapters still left to be written.

Source: Basketball-reference.com