NBA Finals
OK, Game 1 of the final series to cap a completely unpredictable NBA season is tonight.
It was unpredictable in almost every way but one.
LeBron James is in the Finals. Because, despite Corona or controversy, through pandemic and passionate causes, above all the things that have become our new daily expectation in 2020, there is one old normal that simply remains unchanged.
LeBron James is in the Finals.
Staring at the chance to grab his fourth title with his third different team, LeBron’s interviews have been terse and direct.
Be it the brain-blurring bubble or the important conversations that LeBron has been willing to wage, this feels like a different time and a different guy. Rightly or wrongly, that’s your call. But different seems almost undeniable.
With one exception: LeBron James is in the Finals.
He’s a lot of things – again, the adjective is your choice – but he is an unquestioned all-time great. Which, on a Which Way Wednesday, begs a familiar question for our country’s most famous team-sport athlete this time of year.
What would this championship mean for LeBron? Yes, a title with the Lakers would secure his spot in the legacy of a third franchise, and in a lot of ways all of those legacies are layered and different.
With the Cavs, he was the Chosen One who left and returned to deliver a title few thought was ever possible.
With the Heat, he brought that franchise to national notoriety and made an expansion team the talk of the sport.
With the Lakers, a team that ranks among the best franchises ever, he has returned the glory after close to a decade of irrelevance.
But for the player, woulda fourth title really matter.
Of course, down the road it will. But in the here and now, I’m not sure it matters. Those of us who think he’s the best to ever play the game are going to think that whether some time next week he’s 4-6 in NBA Finals or 3-7.
For those who think James will never surpass Jordan, a fourth title is not MJ’s six, and even if James wins the next three, the most important 6 in the GOAT conversation would be LeBron’s 6 NBA Finals defeats. (Side question: How did we get to the place that losing in the first round – which Jordan did more than James – or losing in any playoff series before the Finals – which Jordan did more than James – is better than losing in the Finals?)
So there’s that. As for the series, well, the NBA is a star-driven sport more than any other, and the Lakers have the best two players in the series.
Sure the Heat have four of the next five best players in the series, but AD and LeBron are too much.
Lakers in 6. (And either way, Chas will have multiple Wildcats celebrating a title.)