LeBron James: Time for Haters to Concede, He Is the Most Talented in NBA History

LeBron James is the most talented basketball player to have ever roamed this earth.

It’s not that bold of a statement when you begin to realize nothing about this man screams human. Through three rounds of this year’s playoffs, it’s no longer an opinion. Just as the sun shines, it has become fact.

Before you label me as delusional, please soak in the evidence.

First off, don’t confuse greatness with talent. Greatness is continued success manifested from talent. Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the all-time greatest. LeBron is great, and we know this, but how great he will become is still an unknown. His NBA journey is far from finished and appears to be have been reborn with his new teammates named Bosh and Wade.

But has there ever been a more talented player? As defined in the dictionary, talent is the “capacity for achievement or success.”

LeBron’s capacity for success on the basketball court—and it very well could have been a football field—is in another realm. Let’s first take a tour into the world of LeBron’s strengths, and this trip ain’t short.

“He’s special,” said teammate Dwyane Wade after Wednesday’s practice. “He’s one of a kind. There haven’t been many guys at his size who have been able to impact the game like him.”

Imagine a Hummer cross-bred with a Ferrari and you’ve been introduced to the David Stern-science experiment gone good that is LeBron James.

He has the ideal frame at 6’8″, 260-something pounds. His elite speed and agility, combined with that size, is just wrong. It’s like dating Brooklyn Decker and Penelope Cruz at the same time. Unfair.

There has never been a more feared player in the open court. Just ask Kyle Korver.

There has never been a more diverse offensive player. Throw a big on him and he’ll out-quick him. Throw a small on him and he’ll out-muscle.

He has the passing awareness of a John Stockton, seeing the play in his head before it happens. Sometimes I feel like he’s playing the game with a DVR inside of him. It’s like he’s running through the current game for the 400th time, similar to what I do with the comedy Wedding Crashers.

Just as I know the part when Vince Vaughn is about to get fondled under the dinner table in one of the funniest scenes in movie history, LeBron too knows he is going to whip a no-look pass to D-Wade for a weak-side slam. It already happened in his head.

There has also never been a more versatile defender. That was on full display in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday night when he forced Derrick Rose, who many consider the fastest player ever with the ball in his hands, to 0-for-5 shooting in crunch time. He made Rose—the league MVP—look ordinary, sub par even. He replicated his defensive dominance over Rose last night.

Would it be at all surprising if he were to defend Dirk Nowitzki in the upcoming NBA Finals? Not in the slightest, because LeBron is talented enough to defend any player in the league. Whether it’s Rose or Dirk, he has the skill-set and body to match up with anyone, well, minus Joe Johnson because he gets paid more.

During the season, the “Hate LeBron Craze” usually began with how bad he was in the game’s clutch moments. That’s all these social misfits had. Through the 76ers">76ers">Philadelphia series he was 1-for-8 on field goal attempts with 10 seconds or less remaining in games when the Heat were tied or down by three points or less.

Now, I could go into an entire article about how atrocious of a figure that stat actually is, but for my heart’s sake I’m going to pass. Through Thursday’s dreamy comeback victory over Chicago, LeBron is 5-for-10 from three in clutch situations, whereas the league average is 26 percent (stat courtesy of ESPN’s Tom Haberstoh).

He’s been a killer in clutch moments on the game’s largest stage, and has been doing it with a perceived weakness, his perimeter jumper. He clearly has the “it” factor in late-game situations, so no more of this LeBrick nonsense.

There has been a small handful of talents who bring the same skill set LeBron brings to the table. Oscar Robinson and Magic Johnson come to mind, as both were elite passers, scorers and big bodies. But did either have LeBron’s brute strength? Could either defend any player in the world? Sorry Magic and Oscar, physically you were no match.

LeBron’s inhumane physical talent fused on that Herculean body is what separates him from anyone else in NBA history.

We talked about his versatility, but he’s still not getting his due. Has there ever been a guy who can constantly change his role to better his team? LeBron shifts from scorer to facilitator seamlessly.

He’s wired to instantly adapt to the best possible role for his team in that particular moment. The man obviously doesn’t care about the numbers or he wouldn’t be here. His number one job is to make his teammates better and he’s mastered it.

When I was younger, I used to play NBA video games like NBA 2k and NBA Live. In fact, let’s be real, I still do play on occasion. In those games they offer a feature where you can create a player and customize everything from their size to how high they jump. You would assign a 1-100 numerical value for each particular skill. My player would always be around 6’8″ with all 100′s. Little did I know at the time, I was creating LeBron James.

Through seven seasons and career averages of 27.7 points,  7.1 rebounds, 7.0 assists, .8 blocks, and 1.7 steals on 48 percent shooting from the field, he has raised the bar for what the prototypical basketball player should look like.

Through three rounds of demolition in this year’s playoffs—on both ends of the court—he’s proven he has what it takes when the pressure mounts.

Now whether the greatness everyone is obsessed (MJ?) with talking about ever catches up to the most talented player ever is an unfinished tale.

Armed with championship caliber players at his side for the first time in his career, LeBron is holding the pen.

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