LeBron James Is Not Michael Jordan!
"The Decision" has come and gone, the Big Three came together, and the hate from the mainstream media and fans has not stopped ever since.
LeBron James has been mired with accolades and praise since the circus that followed his high school team and beyond since getting drafted by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. He was immediately dubbed to be "The chosen one," we were all going to be "witnesses," and he was going to be the player everyone wanted him to be, the next "Jordan" and the star that carried the torch from Kobe moving forward.
We know he is not Jordan and there may never be another Michael. The Cavaliers kept on overpaying role players to fill in the gaps at constructing a championship team around LeBron. They kept feeding this Jordan image calling isolation plays, and having LeBron go 1-on-5 at the end of every game.
In sports, and especially in basketball, the media and fans are constantly trying to pigeonhole players into positions, roles and past players. If the player has any significant passing talent and is 6'8" he is immediately compared to Magic Johnson. If the player is in the 6'6" range and is a flashy dunker, we go the MJ route.
In my opinion, the reason Pat Riley was able to get LeBron to buy into this thing when he met with him this summer was change. I think he got LeBron to realize he was headed down the wrong path in terms of the player he had become, instead of the player he was once becoming.
LeBron is the single most athletic player to play in the NBA. He is a physical specimen with a unique combination of speed, strength and athleticism that has never been seen. Keeping in mind the amounts of money Riley is paid to speak to top executives of Fortune 500 companies, I can see this sales pitch now:
LeBron, you are not Jordan, you are not Magic, you are not________ whether you subscribe to Artest, Pippen, Rodman or Michael Cooper, fill in the blank with your greatest defender of choice.
It is far too early in his career to determine where he ranks among the all time greats unless we are talking about defense.
After what I have seen this season and the first three rounds I am ready to put him at the top of the list here, however. If he is not the greatest all-around defender of all time, I need someone to show me footage of someone that is better. What he did to Derrick Rose in this series is the greatest defensive performance against a superstar, the MVP nonetheless, that has ever been seen. If this were a fight, the towel would have been thrown in before Game 5.
In his first playoff run, not yet complete with the Miami Heat, LeBron is fulfilling that Riley vision. He has been "Michael" clutch by hitting shots at the end of games. He has been "Magic"-like by having triple-doubles along with a 10-assist, zero-turnover game. He has also shut down the MVP Rose like nobody has, to the point that Rose himself was muttering how someone LeBron's size could stay with him one on one.
The journey is not yet complete, although the Heat are now in the Finals and once again meet the Dallas Mavericks, that's another story for another day.
One thing is clear: LeBron is not the next Michael Jordan or Magic. He is different than anyone else that has played in the NBA, he may be a combination of those two players and more into one. Who is he actually? He is the first and only LeBron James, and according to Scottie Pippen is already the greatest player of all time. Well, that depends if you go by his initial statement or his tweet four hours later where he takes two and says he can get to that level down the line.
I know he is not at Jordan's level with regards to his career and individual and team records. I do believe he is already a better passer who makes his teammates better and is an all-around better defender because of his size and strength. The rest is yet to come!
