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LeBron James will play in his 19th NBA season in the 2021-22 campaign. The superstar forward is already one of the greatest players and icons in NBA history, no matter where you rank him in the GOAT discussion.
King James has had a unique NBA career that started in 2003 when he was the first pick of the 2003 NBA Draft after coming straight from high school. He gave years of greatness to the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning two MVPs and carrying the team to the 2007 NBA Finals.
However, his first look at the Larry O'Brien trophy came in 2012, after he had switched to the Miami Heat to form a 'Big Three' with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. After two titles with the Heat, two more regular-season MVPs and two Finals MVPs, James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers and gave them a title in 2016, and three other appearances in the NBA Finals.
LeBron James is now a four-time NBA champion (after his title with the LA Lakers in 2020), a four-time Finals MVP winner and four-time MVP of the league. He has many other accolades and records and could finish his career as the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. He could, perhaps, also reach Michael Jordan's record of six Finals MVP trophies.
LeBron James' legacy is filled with too many accomplishments and big moments to try and define his career by only one iconic play or situation. In this article, we will give you the five greatest moments of LeBron James' NBA career so far.
Without further ado, let us take a look.
#5 First NBA title in 2012
As mentioned before, LeBron James' individual greatness was not in question throughout the first years of his NBA career. But after failing to win the title in his first season with the Miami Heat and falling in the 2011 NBA Finals, pressure started to grow.
But in the strike-shortened 2011-12 NBA season, LeBron James had a brilliant year. It ended with his third NBA MVP award and his third appearance in the NBA Finals after an epic performance against the Boston Celtics in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.
In the Finals against Kevin Durant's OKC Thunder, James put up a huge performance and guided the Miami Heat to a five-game win. James averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game to earn the first Finals MVP trophy of his career.
#4 'LeBronto' performance against the Toronto Raptors in the 2018 NBA Playoffs
The Toronto Raptors had the best record in the Eastern Conference during the 2017-18 NBA season. They were looking to finally end their struggles against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the postseason.
James guided Cleveland over Toronto in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals and into the second round in 2017 with a four-game sweep. However, Toronto fans were looking forward to facing a Cleveland team that had finished only fourth in the East.
The matchup came in the second round, and LeBron James put up one of the greatest performances seen in a postseason series to guide Cleveland to a sweep over Toronto.
The first game was highly competitive, and Cleveland took a one-point win on the road. LeBron James scored 43 points, grabbed eight rebounds and signed out 14 assists to put Cleveland up 2-0 with a 18-point win.
Cleveland completed the sweep at home, and James averaged 34 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists and made 55% of his field goals in the series.
#3 Unique performance in Game 6 of the 2012 ECF vs Boston Celtics
Possibly the biggest pressure put on LeBron James' shoulder came in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.
Boston turned a 0-2 deficit in the series into a 3-2 lead after a big win in Game 5 at Miami. The Heat lost in the 2011 NBA Finals, and there was the possibility of the team breaking up if another failure occurred in the postseason.
However, it all disappeared when LeBron James pulled for 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists at TD Garden to lead the Heat to a big win on the road. He made 19 of his 26 field goals in the match, a game that will always be remembered for the look on LeBron James' eyes.
The Heat eventually won Game 7 and went on to win the 2012 NBA title after beating the OKC Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals.
#2 2020 NBA championship with the LA Lakers
When LeBron James arrived in Los Angeles, championship expectations were placed on his and the team's shoulders. A groin injury and some inconsistency hindered LeBron's first year in LA. Anthony Davis' arrival from the New Orleans Pelicans made the LA Lakers as a clear championship contender for the 2019-20 season.
The LA Lakers grabbed the top seed of the Western Conference in the shortened 2019-20 campaign (due to the Covid-19 pandemic) and entered the postseason as one of the favorites in the West.
When the season resumed in the Orlando bubble, the LA Lakers looked locked in, and LeBron James guided the team through a dominant postseason run.
Anthony Davis was an essential piece too, leading the team in scoring throughout the regular season and postseason, but James was the leader of the squad. The Lakers won each of the first three rounds of the postseason in five games against the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets.
The LA Lakers took the Miami Heat down in six games in the 2020 NBA Finals, while LeBron James earned MVP Finals recognition for the fourth time in his career. He averaged 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.5 assists in the series with 59/41/66 shooting splits.
James also became the first player to win the NBA championship and Finals MVP trophy with three different franchises.
#1 Brilliant comeback from a 1-3 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals
The 2015-16 NBA season saw the Golden State Warriors put up the greatest regular season record ever for a team, with 73 wins and nine losses. The reigning champions were expected to face LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season. The Cavaliers weren't really tipped as favorites heading into that series.
The Warriors took a 2-0 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals with two comfortable wins at home before the Cavaliers struck back and won Game 3 at Cleveland. However, Stephen Curry's 38 points in Game 4 were good enough to give Golden State a 3-1 lead. It was an advantage that no team was able to overcome on the previous 32 occasions in the NBA Finals.
LeBron James scored 41 points in Game 5 on the road to save the season, and then forced a Game 7 with another 41-point effort at home in the sixth match of the 2016 NBA Finals.
Eventually, Kyrie Irving hit the game-winning three-pointer in Game 7 and the Cavaliers won their first NBA title. LeBron James earning his third Finals MVP trophy after leading both teams in every statistic tracked in the series.
LeBron James also had a triple-double in Game 7, and made arguably the greatest defensive play in NBA history. He made a huge block on Andre Iguodala to maintain the game tied with less than two minutes on the clock.
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