James’ legacy stands up against NBA greats
Even in recent Finals losses, Cavaliers star set new marks
The LeBron James Legacy topic fascinates.
Not so much because his place in NBA history is discussed, but because hot-takers believe his legacy hinges on the outcome of each Finals appearance he makes. It doesn’t. James’ legacy is secure. When it’s said and done, James will go down as one of the top three players ever to play the game, and his Finals record will have no impact on how he is judged.
Jerry West went 1-8 in the NBA Finals. Elgin Baylor was 0-8. Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar lost two Finals series in sweeps. Do we remember that? Not so much. Time sands the rough edges of a Hall of Famer’s career.
James’ 3-5 Finals record with three Finals MVPs holds up against any measurement of greatness, and, if anything, his performance in his last two Finals losses — against the Golden State Warriors in 2015 and 2017 — adds to his legacy.
In the 2017 Finals loss to Golden State — a 129-120 victory in Game 5 secured the championship for the Warriors — James became the first player to average a triple-double in the series, posting 33.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game.
It was an efficient effort, too. James shot 56.4% from the field and 38.7% on three-pointers ( just 64.9% on free throws). In Game 5, he finished with 41 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in 46 minutes.
The Cavs needed James on the court for almost the entire game just to have a chance to win, and if anybody is going to beat the Warriors over the next two seasons, it will require a team with James on it to do so.
“I left everything on the floor every game,” James said. “I have no reason to put my head down. I have no reason to look back at what I could have done or what I shouldn’t have done or what I could have done better for the team. I left everything I had out on the floor every single game for five games in this Finals, and you come up short.”
James made his eighth Finals appearance, and his seventh consecutive, joining an elite group of Boston Celtics players from the 1950s and 1960s to play in seven in a row. It’s a remarkable achievement in this era, and it’s realistic that he’ll make it eight consecutive next season.
He is the all-time leading playoff scorer (6,163 points) and is No. 3 on the all-time Finals scoring list with 1,247 points, trailing just West and Abdul-Jabbar.
With two triple-doubles against the Warriors, James now has a league-best nine Finals triple-doubles, passing Johnson in Game 4.
In his postgame news conference, James was not deflated, but he wasn’t content with the outcome. Asked if he had any joy that his friend Kevin Durant finally won a championship,
James said, “Well, I’m not happy he won his first. I’m not happy at all.
He wasn’t as downtrodden as West after the Los Angeles Lakers lost the championship for the sixth time to the Celtics in 1969.
“Probably the main reason I wanted to walk away from basketball,” West wrote in his biography, West by West: My
Charmed, Tormented Life, “was that I honestly didn’t think I could endure any more pain. … It was the most helpless feeling because I was sure I was going to be labeled a loser forever.”
That didn’t happen. West is the NBA logo and revered, one of the best shooting guards of all time. With three titles, James is comfortable with who he is and what he has accomplished. He knows it’s better to have played in the Finals and lost than to have never played in the Finals at all.
“I put in the work individually every single day to prepare myself for whatever obstacle that this ballclub entails,” James said. “Does it always result in us winning? No. This is my third year here, and we haven’t won every game. We haven’t won every Finals, obviously.
“Like I’ve always told myself, if you feel like you put in the work and you leave it out on the floor, then you can always push forward and not look backwards.”
So James looks ahead to 201718, searching for ways to beat the Warriors.