Lakers’ title puts James in category of his own making
He went to Miami and became a champion.
He went back to Cleveland and won another title.
He went to Los Angeles and now the Lakers are back atop the basketball world.
LeBron James is in his own category now. He has led three franchises to NBA titles, something nobody has ever done. His legacy was complete long before Sunday night, when the Lakers became NBA champions for the 17th time by beating the Miami Heat and winning the title to cap a season like none other, in a bubble in Florida like none other.
But that legacy is just a bit brighter now.
“I guess, as Frank Sinatra would say, I did it my way,” James said earlier in these playoffs. That’s not up for debate. He has four titles. He’s a fourtime NBA Finals MVP, the second man to win that many. He has done it all with the NBA’s biggest target on his back, with every action and every word scrutinized and often criticized.
James has become the epitome of the independent superstar athlete, something many try to be but few even have a chance of pulling off. He does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants and makes it work. Bill Russell will forever have more rings and Michael Jordan will forever be the choice of many as the NBA’s greatest player. And that’s OK with James, who has forged his own path.
“The game of basketball will pass me by,” James said as the title loomed. “There will be a new group of young kids and vets and rookies throughout the course of this game. So, I can’t worry about that as far as on the floor. How I move, how I walk, what I preach, what I talk about, how I inspire the next generation is what matters to me the most.”
He hasn’t forgotten that he was once a broke kid from Akron, Ohio. He’s on a Wheaties box now, saying its unveiling last week was “one of the best moments of my life.” He founded a school and stays involved with matters there. He’s actively trying to get more people, particularly Black people, to vote than ever before.
“I just hope I make my guys proud, and that’s all that mattered to me,” James said. “I make my guys proud, make the fan base proud, my family back home, I can’t wait to get back home to them. Akron, Ohio, we did it again — and that’s what it’s all about.”
Bulls’ shakeup: New Chicago head coach Billy Donovan shook up his staff, letting assistants Karen Stack Umlauf, Dean Cooper, Nate Loenser and Roy Rogers go. A player for Northwestern in the early 1980s, Umlauf joined the Bulls as an entrylevel ticket representative in 1985. Hall of Fame general manager Jerry Krause shifted her to the basketball operations department soon afterward and she became Chicago’s first female assistant when she served as associate coach at the 2018 summer league. Loenser was in his third season with the Bulls.