‘Best-ever’ debate highlights NBA Finals
OAKLAND >> Maybe this NBA Finals matchup gets old. But LeBron James never does.
The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar continues to defy age, as well as gravity, and arrives for his latest showdown with the Warriors as if he’s finally getting the hang of this basketball thing at age 33.
There he was again Wednesday in Oakland, the greatest player of this era getting ready to face the greatest team of this era. (In both cases, that phrase “of this era” could someday be wiped from the equation.)
James heads into Game 1 against the Warriors tonight having scored 30 points or more in 108 career playoff games. One more game like that, and he’ll tie the NBA record set by Michael Jordan, a man he is chasing in more ways than one.
“We’re lucky. I’m lucky. He’s going to play 10 feet from here tomorrow night,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said of James, while standing courtside Wednesday after practice. “That by itself is something to enjoy.”
This marks the fourth consecutive year in which Cleveland will face the Warriors for the NBA title. Never before have the same two teams faced each other for the championship four straight times. Not in the NBA, and not in any other major professional sport, either.
“I mean, it may not be as suspenseful as a lot of people want it to be, or as drama-filled,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said, almost apologetically. “But that’s what you’ve got movies and music for.”
Even three times is rare. And in each case, it occurred at least a halfcentury ago. It happened in the NFL (from 195254), in the NHL (1954-56) and in baseball (1921-23).
And if you’re sick of seeing this annual Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry on auto-replay? Well, that’s on the 28 other teams, Warriors guard Klay Thompson said.
“I think the rest of the NBA has to get better,” Thompson said. “It’s not our fault.”
Maybe the pattern will change when James retires. So check back in, oh, 20 years or so. The four-time MVP keeps extending his prime years that, for most NBA stars, wrap up around age 31.
“I don’t know. I’ve just never really bought into that,” James said before practicing at Oracle Arena on Wednesday. “I’ve never bought into a ceiling either. You (reporters) have always asked, ‘What’s your ceiling?’ And I’ve always kind of told you that I don’t really have a ceiling.”
The only reason that this NBA Finals is not a foregone conclusion — the Warriors are preposterously, embarrassing, overwhelming favorites — is that James has a knack for beating the odds.
He somehow willed Cleveland past the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. All he had to do was become the third player in league history to post at least 35 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists in a Game 7, joining Dolph Schayes (in 1959) and James Worthy (1988), according to Elias Sports Bureau.
James did it with a Cavaliers supporting cast that, to put it delicately, isn’t exactly about to borrow the Warriors’ famous “Strength in Numbers” catchphrase. His teammates were spoofed in an unaired “Saturday Night Live” sketch earlier this month, but it made the rounds on the internet.
The sketch parodied the “important” roles James’ teammates play, which is to say picking up his laundry, sweeping up his chalk and offering him free-throw highfives. (“No, I don’t watch that stuff,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said Wednesday.)
As it stands, the oddsmakers list the Warriors as plus-1,000 favorites to win the NBA title. That means that bettors have to wager $1,000 to win $100.
On the other hand … well, on the other hand there’s James. And that’s a compelling argument. He recounted on Wednesday how a sideline reporter asked him early this season how he was still able to reach such heights after all these years.
“And I told her at that particular time: ‘This is the best I’ve felt in my career,” ’ James said. “I don’t know if she believed me, and I don’t know if you guys believe me, but I really felt that.
“And I continued to just play at an all-timelevel standard for the rest of this season. Hopefully I can continue it in this Finals also.”
Because he also made it four consecutive times with the Miami Heat, James is now the sixth player in NBA history to play in eight consecutive NBA Finals. All the others were from the same Boston Celtics dynasty in the 1950s-’60s: Bill Russell (10 in a row), Sam Jones (9), Tom Heinsohn (9), K.C. Jones (8) and Frank Ramsey (8).
“I don’t care who he’s faced. … Eight straight times is eight straight times,” said the Warriors’ Thompson. “The fact that he’s doing that in the modern era is pretty remarkable.”
In these playoffs, James leads the NBA in scoring at 34 points per game, while adding 9.2 rebounds and 8.8 assists.
“His IQ is ridiculous,” Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith said. “He can process things extremely fast, on the move, while things are happening. It’s pretty remarkable. If I could pinpoint anything, I think it’s his ability to change the play as it’s happening without anybody else knowing. That’s an extremely important talent that he has that people may not see.”
James, as he tends to do at this time of year, is fueling the best-ever debate. And even some longtime disciples of Michael Jordan, or even longer-time disciples of Wilt Chamberlain, might — in a private moment — at least give James some serious thought.
He enters this series as the all-time NBA Finals leader in triple-doubles (9), while ranking third in points (1,247, trailing only Jerry West’s 1,679 and Kareem AbdulJabbar’s 1,317). He is also third in assists (339, behind Bob Cousy’s 400 and Magic Johnson’s 584).
It’s his all-around game that makes the strongest case. James has 82 career playoff games in which he had at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists. Next on the list is Jordan (51). followed by Kobe Bryant (37), West (35) and Larry Bird (32).
But he has one big check mark against him. Jordan was 6-0 in his Finals appearances. James’ record is at 3-5 heading into perhaps the longest shot of his career.
“For me as a competitor, it’s fun,” James said. “It’s truly fun to know when I’m done playing the game of basketball to know that I played against some of the greatest teams that ever played, ever been assembled. And this is one of them.”