With another title and Finals MVP trophy in hand with the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James gave you another reason to appreciate his greatness unlike any we’ve ever seen.
It isn’t as sweet as the first championship he claimed as a member of the Miami Heat back in 2012. Nor is it as emotionally everlasting as the one he brought to Northeast Ohio and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. With a 106-93 Game 6 victory over the Miami Heat, LeBron James claimed a fourth title unlike any other, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Where it lands him in the GOAT conversation is an article for another day, but not even His Airness himself has what to hold weight to all the ways James has kept himself on top all these years.
Remember when he first came to Los Angeles? It was a move to set himself up for life after basketball. Dinners with Pacino and DiCaprio came to the dismay of Laker Nation that cautiously welcomed him in (at best), patient to embrace a man who had done nothing donning the colors only they cared about.
The first year was rough, but what guaranteed Year 2 would reach the level needed to deem it a success? The arrival of Anthony Davis could not overshadow the hiring of the Los Angeles Lakers’ third head-coaching choice with a roster quickly pieced together after the gamble in pursuit of Kawhi Leonard came up short.
At the center of it all was LeBron. Because it always is. Whatever concerns arose from all those choices fell at his footsteps to make work. Such is the responsibility of a leader. Especially because he had certainly done plenty with less.
But James had his own matters to deal with. That Christmas-day injury in 2018 and the 27 missed games brought him face to face with his basketball mortality for perhaps the first time in his career.
Yeah, he’s LeBron James and things like durability seem to work on a different scale for him, but the initial decline comes for every athlete. Coming off the first major injury of his career pushing 35 in Year 17 seemed like the logical starting point, no matter how minor.
More than 365 days have passed since the Lakers first got together to kick off training camp for the 2019-20 season. The 35-year-old in his 17th season? Second in MVP voting with an All-NBA First Team Selection that passed several legends for the most all-time. The Western Conference that was supposed to swallow him whole? Didn’t stop him from leading LA to the No. 1 seed.
17 years of greatness from @KingJames 👑 pic.twitter.com/ioHCGHjSZW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 12, 2020
James happily nudged over to concede some of the spotlight to his new running mate, who wound up leading the Los Angeles Lakers in scoring during both the regular and postseason. Though he hardly became anything resembling a bystander.
He simply reinvented himself, leading the league in assists with playoff memories sure to be lost amid a vast collection spanning almost two decades. Like the 29 he posted in the first half of Game 3 against Houston or the 16 fourth-quarter points he put up to punch a ticket to his ninth Finals in 10 years.
Yet all the way through even the Finals, you felt like those moments were few and far between because Davis’ emergence made sure it could stay that way. You felt like James was leaving something in the tank for when LA really needed it, but three consecutive five-game series victories rendered them unnecessary.
Then you’d look up his playoff stats and see 27.6 points on 56.0 percent shooting with 10.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. 29.8 points (58.6 percent from the field and 39.0 percent from three), 11.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game in the Finals. Sometimes, the bar is set higher than our comprehension allows.
Most guys his age are retired. No player with similar mileage exists in the history books. Combine the two and you’d get a laundry list of different career points before you produce a man who just won his fourth championship and Finals MVP trophy.
LeBron created the door to the player empowerment era and continues to raise its bar by becoming the first-ever to win three Finals MVPs with three different franchises. Quiet games for him are some of the best performances for others.
The prestige of 6-for-6 might be out of reach and the GOAT title with it in the eyes of many. Such became the case with his first Finals loss back in 2007. So LeBron James charted his own path to legendary status.
Six Finals losses ensured it wouldn’t always look pretty, but another challenge completed, this one returning a proud franchise back to its habitual perch with all the baggage he had to carry along the way, became another reason for those shortcomings not to matter.
“We just want our respect,” James proclaimed after the job was finished. “…and I want my damn respect too.”