LeBron close to catching Jordan
The breakout star of these NBA playoffs is not Jayson Tatum or fellow rookie Donovan Mitchell. It’s not the do-it all Al Horford or the coming carnivore Joel Embiid. It’s not Anthony Davis, in case someone hadn’t already figured out that he’s the second coming of no one we’ve ever seen before on hardwood.
The breakout star of these playoffs is LeBron James.
We thought we had seen everything we could from LeBron. I sit down to watch the Eastern Conference playoffs for the same reason I frequent the neighborhood Sonic. More of the same.
But now has come incredible buzzer-beaters to magical shotmaking to the shoulders that only grow stronger in carrying a city far beyond its dreams. And the evergreen argument — is LeBron approaching Michael Jordan as the greatest NBA player ever? — has more validity than ever before.
At age 33, LeBron is defying time. He is better than ever.
We didn’t believe that. We figured the MVP voters sort of knew what they were doing. LeBron won four most valuable player awards in a five-year span, 2009-13, then has finished second, third, third, fourth and wherever he lands this season. Third or fourth.
Even when Kevin Durant won as a Thunder in 2014 and Russell Westbrook did the same
a year ago, I theorized that the MVP award had become MVPBL. Most valuable player besides LeBron.
But heck, I even started believing that LeBron’s value had started to subside. There’s a deep well of history that shows athletes decline in their 30s. Happened even to the great Jordan.
And yet, it’s not happening to LeBron. Not yet.
He’s better than ever. His Cavaliers are a total mess and might not survive Boston. LeBron might not make his eighth straight NBA Finals.
But the Cavs have survived this far, and LeBron is better than ever. In these playoffs, he’s averaging 32.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 9.4 assists and shooting 54.5 percent from the field. The last-second plays against the Pacers, the ridiculous fadeaway jumpers against the Raptors, now the giving-Clevelanda-chance-against-theobviously-better Celtics. It’s crazy.
The LeBron-Jordan debate is not meant to be won. It’s like arguing
Rome or Paris. Corned beef or pastrami. Casablanca or Gone With the Wind. You’re on solid rock with either side.
But a few things to know as LeBron keeps going:
•Jordan’s NBA Finals record does not carry the day. Jordan was 6-0 in Finals. LeBron is 3-5. Jordan’s feat is more impressive. But not that much more impressive. If you want to say that ends the argument, then the argument never should have started. Bill Russell was 11-1 in NBA Finals. His Celtics lost to the St. Louis Hawks in 1958. Russell played 13 NBA seasons. If the Finals is the argument-ender, Russell reigns supreme.
But while we’re on the subject, making eight NBA Finals is crazy in this day. Tim Duncan played 19 seasons for the regal Spurs. Duncan made six Finals. They are hard to make.
LeBron has won more playoff series than did Jordan. LeBron is 34-9 in playoff series; Jordan was 30-7.
•This NBA is better than Jordan’s NBA. That’s really not debatable.
The NBA twice expanded during Jordan’s prime. It added four teams in 1988 and
1989, then two more teams in 1995.
The NBA has expanded just once, in 2004, with the Charlotte Bobcats.
Every expansion waters down the league. Six extra teams in a span of seven years? That’s some bad basketball. But even worse, the Jordanera expansions came without the international invasion. In the 1990s, only a few European players came to the NBA.
But about 20 years ago, the floodgates opened. Now, almost 25 percent of the players are from outside the U.S.
It’s like baseball’s integration. The baseball of the ‘60s and ‘70s was far superior to the baseball of the ‘40s and ‘30s, because a mass of new and talented players suddenly was available. Same with the NBA. LeBron is excelling without the benefits of watered-down expansion but also against the best players in the world.
•Jordan was fabulous in every way except possibly staying on the court — baseball, gambling, boredom, who knows why he took those two years off in midcareer? — but LeBron is equally fabulous. Yes, the rules allowed for more physical defense in the ‘90s, but while that impeded some Jordan offense, it also enhanced Jordan’s mighty defensive reputation.
And there’s this. The one part of basketball in which everyone can agree that Jordan was vastly superior — plainold sweet shooting — might not hold up to intense scrutiny. LeBron is a better career 3-point shooter than was Jordan; .344 to .327. And that’s with Jordan playing when teams invited you to shoot the 3. Who saw that coming?
If it sounds like I’m trying to make the case for LeBron, I’m not. I’m just trying to enlighten the debate and remind everyone it goes far beyond number of titles.
And besides, if LeBron keeps this up another couple of years, the debate is gone. He’s the greatest of all time. And LeBron sure looks like he’s going to keep it up. Which means we can move on to other unanswerable questions. I’ll take Rome, corned beef and Casablanca.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.