King James? Hold Your Horses, LeBron Fans...

“He plays for USA basketball.”

“That’s awesome.”

“He took his team to the NBA finals.

“Even better.”

“He is one of the leading candidates for MVP this year.”

“Amazing!!!”

“He is the “heir apparent” to Michael Jordan!”

“WHAT?!?!?”

You probably know by now that I am talking about the one and only LeBron James. After all, all of the aforementioned attributes describe him don’t they? Well…all except one of these that is. Well, you are probably thinking about now, “I don’t understand. They all describe him. What are you talking about?”

What I am talking about is the belief that LeBron is the “heir apparent” to MJ, and the bull about us all being witnesses.

Skip Bayless from ESPN has it exactly right when he refers to LeBron as “Prince James.”  LeBron will never, ever be on the same plain as Michael Jordan!  It is utterly ridiculous to think such a thing!

Sure LeBron is putting up a staggering 30.8 points, 8.1 boards, 7.4 assists, two steals, and one block per game, but last time I checked the measure of greatness was about winning ballgames, and beyond that, especially beyond that, championships.

Don’t get me wrong,  James is a superb player. He has a freakishly great ability to get to the hoop whenever he wants, but there is more to the game than showing off your ability to dunk on anyone at anytime. Fans love to see that, don’t get me wrong, but I’m pretty sure that if you were to offer a fan, or even LeBron himself for that matter, being remembered as the “guy who could dunk really well” or being known as the guy who won all of those championship’s, anyone in their right mind would take the latter.

Now I know that there is still time for him to do this and surpass Jordan, maybe even win seven or eight championships, but it seems kind of silly to me to deem someone as the next in line to become the greatest basketball player of all time until he has actually shown us something to merit that attention.

For one thing, LeBron needs to work on his shooting…a lot. A lot of you are probably thinking to yourselves right now, “But what about those couple games a week ago where he was almost automatic from three?”

Big whoop. Until he starts doing that on a much more consistent basis, I’m not convinced. Are you going to tell me that if Yao goes out and makes a couple of threes in a few consecutive games, that all of a sudden, we’ll just deem him a three-point shooter? I don’t think so.

So why don’t we hold off the awards ceremony until it has actually been earned? Go get it LeBron.

Oh, and another thing. Stop copying Kevin Garnett on the talc powder.