LeBron Finally Does It, Calls Himself 'The Greatest Player of All Time'
The debate over which NBA player is the greatest of all-time tends to boil down to LeBron James and Michael Jordan, with the occasional vote thrown in for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (the league’s all-time leading scorer) and Bill Russell (the ultimate “count the rings” argument).
James, for his part, believes that he, not Jordan or anyone who came before or since, is the GOAT, and he said so in so many words on the ESPN+ series “More Than An Athlete” in Episode 7 of the eight-part series.
LeBron’s argument on his own behalf rests on his performance in the 2016 NBA Finals, when he more or less singlehandedly willed the Cleveland Cavaliers out of a 3-1 hole against the Golden State Warriors, delivered a Game 5 performance reminiscent of Magic Johnson in 1980, then came out just as strong in Games 6 and 7, sharing the spotlight with Kyrie Irving as the Cavs snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at the hands of a team that had gone 73-9 in the regular season.
That series forever altered basketball history. Take away that choke job and there’s no way the Warriors sign Kevin Durant that offseason; Durant would’ve stayed in Oklahoma City (which blew a 3-1 lead of its own to Golden State in the 2016 Western Conference Finals) or gone to Boston (which recruited him with help from Tom Brady and David Ortiz, selling Durant on Beantown as a city of champions; the C’s instead would end up with Gordon Hayward and with Irving.)
And none of it happens without LeBron.
“That’s what I felt,” James said during the Sunday night episode. “I was super, super ecstatic to win one for Cleveland because of the 52-year drought. … The first wave of emotion was when everyone saw me crying, like, that was all for 52 years of everything in sports that’s gone on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped, I was like — that one right there made you the greatest player of all time.
“Everybody was just talking — how (the Warriors) were the greatest team of all time, like it was the greatest team ever assembled. And for us to come back, you know, the way we came back in that fashion, I was like, ‘You did, you did something special.’ That’s probably one of the only times in my career I felt like, ‘oh, s—, like you did something special.’ I haven’t had, really had time, to really, like, sit back and think, but that … that was a moment.”
Jordan played in Chicago, which had the glory of the 1985 Bears and would later see its teams in other sports all win titles as well. Over a stretch of 26 years and five months, Chicago won titles in football (’85 Bears), basketball (Jordan’s six rings), baseball (the 2005 White Sox), and hockey (the Blackhawks in 2012).
Other cities have had similar sporting glory. Boston managed the feat in just six years and four months between the Patriots (Super Bowl XXXIX), Red Sox (2007), Celtics (2008), and Bruins (2011) and New York pulled it off in just under 14 years between the ’73 Knicks, ’77 Yankees, early-’80s Islanders, and ’86 Giants.
Cleveland? Fifty-four years just for two sports titles (the ’62 Browns and ’16 Cavs), never mind the Indians (last title: 1948) and no Stanley Cup championships thanks to the Cleveland Barons — the city’s only NHL team — lasting only three seasons before getting folded into the Minnesota North Stars in 1978.
But if you don’t believe LeBron when he says he became the GOAT on that basketball court in Oakland in 2016, the simple fact remains that the debate was settled once and for all on May 27, 2018.
That was the day the Canton Charge G-League team, somehow having wandered into Boston wearing Cavaliers jerseys and with LeBron on board, beat the Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, becoming the second time that King James had singlehandedly dragged a team that would’ve been in pole position to have the best odds in the draft lottery all the way to the NBA Finals.
Never mind that both the 2007 and 2018 Cavs got swept, the former by Tim Duncan’s Spurs and the latter by a Golden State team that didn’t even allow the word “gentleman’s” in front of the word “sweep” the way they did when Cleveland spoiled their attempt at an undefeated playoffs by winning Game 4 in 2017.
The mere fact that Cleveland was there at all stood as testament to LeBron’s greatness. That team should’ve lost to the Pacers in the first round; they were outscored by 44 points in the seven games.
But the King finds a way, and making his eighth Finals in a row overall with that godawful Cavs team was an even greater act of glory than spoiling a Warriors team that, by the time they got to the Finals, had Steph Curry playing at about 60 percent on an injured ankle that had been bothering him for the entire playoffs.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated in 2016, James said “My motivation is this ghost I’m chasing. The ghost played in Chicago.”
“My career is totally different than Michael Jordan’s. What I’ve gone through is totally different than what he went through. What he did was unbelievable, and I watched it unfold. I looked up to him so much. I think it’s cool to put myself in position to be one of those great players, but if I can ever put myself in position to be the greatest player, that would be something extraordinary.”
It’s worth noting that the SI interview was after the moment LeBron later claimed is the moment he seized the title.
But if you need any further proof of just how great LeBron can be, the Los Angeles Lakers sitting just 3.5 games back of Denver for the top spot in the Western Conference this year is a good place to start.
He took a garbage roster full of castoffs and made them into a contender. JaVale McGee, Michael Beasley, Lonzo Ball, and Lance Stephenson on the same roster should be about 6-31, not 21-16.
And while Bob Costas once famously said of Michael Jordan that “you could put him on the floor with the four remaining Spice Girls and they could win a title,” Jordan always had Scottie Pippen alongside him, a guy who led the Bulls to a 55-27 record when Jordan was off playing baseball in 1993-94.
LeBron says he’s the GOAT. It’s time we started listening to him.
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