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So when LeBron claimed to try and be the greatest basketball player ever to play the game, all he did was paint a huge target for the media, fans, players, savants and the pundits to scrutinize. To his mind he was ready, as he set about making one hyperbolic play after another. He made many highlight plays, and changed the definition and role of the Small Forward. He had a little bit of many greats – he could push the ball and pass like Magic and he could do the aerial stuff like, maybe, Elgin Baylor and Julius Erving. He was the Point Forward in the true definition of the word, a role that maybe Scottie Pippen made popular, but LeBron proved that he could take it to a whole new level. The savants and the legends took notice. They knew he had the talent. Did he have the heart and the clutch mentality to rise to the pedestal and do what separates champions from the crowd?
Sadly, it took LeBron 9 years to rise to the pedestal. 9 years in which he had to face maybe the greatest amount of criticism that any basketball player ever had. Not Charles Barkley, not Wilt, not even Ewing and the Knicks faced anything remotely close to what he had to go through. His mental toughness, his heart, his ability and his pride – all were questioned, exploited and dissected.
He failed to deliver when it mattered as he went into a shell, and despite him putting up great numbers he couldn’t get the job done. He won multiple individual honours, the NBA All-Star MVP, the NBA MVP, etc. He was far and away the best player in the league, but if you want to be the greatest in the game, you have to do better.
Suddenly everyone was fishing for flaws in his game. He didn’t shoot the three-ball well enough, wasn’t a great defensive player and beyond his marauding drive to the rim, didn’t have much to boast of. They critiqued him, questioned him and got under his skin.
LeBron fought his best, but with age and time he realized that he couldn’t do it all alone. He needed a team like his high school one, a team of friends he knew and he could trust; players who would have his back when he would inadvertently be fighting through demons in his mind. Luckily, he had always been a jovial and nice guy, and had managed to befriend two of the top 10 players in the game. The beginning of “take my talents to south beach”. Magic had Kareem, Michael had Pippen. LeBron just didn’t get sidekicks. He went ahead to make a Superteam.
The Superteam faced a rampaging tirade of hate from the basketball fraternity, but they bore it all knowing that they had a chance to do something very special. The media and the savants were intrigued, and the biggest question was who would come across as the alpha dog in the “BIG THREE”. Who was the face of the franchise for the Heat now? Wade, LeBron or Bosh? Was it an escapist act on the part of LeBron?
Three years hence, the answers are there for everyone to see. A demolishing loss against the Mavericks, a vindicating win against the Thunder and a re-iterating marathon win against the Spurs. LeBron ended with two Finals MVP titles and a sure place in basketball immortality, and as a much wiser man. The doubts had been quenched. LeBron was playing like a champion, doing the dirty defensive chores, making the highlight plays and leading the team through.
If anything, the NBA Finals of 2013 were a sure showcase of how far LeBron had come from the NBA Finals of 2007. He had started the series saying that he was almost 20, 30 or even 50 times better. Popovich acknowledged his growth, but wasn’t taking it as a sure fact. He did exactly what he did in the 2007 NBA series. He got his defenders to back off LeBron and give him the jump-shot. He clogged the lane and whenever LeBron did manage to get to the paint, he was smothered and suffocated between a maze of bodies. He couldn’t use his much-improved post-up game, because the Spurs were too efficient with their rotations.
