(Michael Jordan and LeBron James at the conclusion of their 7th season)
Whether you look at age or years of experience in the NBA, Michael Jordan has accomplished more than LeBron has. LeBron is in his 7th year of basketball. His accolades include ROY, 2 MVPs, 6 all NBA's, 2 all NBA defensive teams, 1 scoring title, and 1 embarrassing Finals appearance. Not saying this isn't very impressive.
By Michael Jordan's 7th year of basketball he had: ROY, 2 MVPs, 6 all NBA's (the only reason he didn't have 7 was his injury in 86) a defensive player of the year award, 4 all NBA defensive teams, lead the league in steals twice, 5 scoring titles, a ring and a finals MVP.
Accolades aside, how about reputation. Michael Jordan established himself early in his career as a clutch performer with that amazing buzzer beater over Ehlo in the deciding game against Cleveland in '89. I know LeBron had that buzzer beating 3 over Hedo in game 2 against Orlando, but its in a series that he eventually lost, so what good is it? LeBron still isn't a clutch player, let's think back to the game before where missed free-throws by LeBron eventually resulted in a 1 point loss. Or 2 games later when he missed consecutive 3 pointers that complemented his 8 turnovers in an OT loss. This year against the Celtics, he was terrible. Forget the bullshit elbow injury, he just simply couldn't get it done when he needed to. His triple-double in game 6 was nullified by 8-21 shooting and 9 turnovers.
Choo-Choo! Here comes the excuse train, allow me to derail it.
1. HIS ELBOW HURTS!- Yeah, his elbow hurts when he plays like shit, but is fine when he drops 35-7-7. Kobe Bryant is playing his best basketball all year with a broken finger and a trick knee, get over it.
2. HIS COACH SUCKS- Oh right, Mike Brown said to LeBron "Hey, go out there and play like crap. So I can lose my job. I deserve it, even though as soon as I stepped in, Cleveland made their first play-off appearance since 1998. Out of my five seasons 4 of them were over 50 wins, 2 over 60 wins, had a finals appearance, and won coach of the year in 2009. Please LeBron make this look like its my fault. I'm supposed to coach my team to victory when my best player shows up for 2 out of 6 games."
3. HIS TEAM SUCKS!- I guess 4 players that have been named to an all-star team, an all-defensive team player, and one of the deepest benches in the NBA isn't worthy of the all mighty King James. This team was built to win a championship, but LeBron wasn't.
What was most important about Micheal's 7th season is that he not only won the championship, he defeated Magic Johnson. Defeating the consummate NBA player allowed Jordan to enter the elite class and become the definitive best player in the NBA. Well, what has LeBron done that gives him the right to steal the torch from Kobe? Nothing, hasn't won a damn thing that wasn't voted on by the press.
So can somebody please explain to me why LeBron is King? What does he rule over? Correct me if I am mistaken but don't Kings have rings? I just can't figure it out, here is my list of possibilities.
1. King of the Regular Season
2. King of the Media
3. King of Crying
4. King of Choking
5. King of Showboating
P.S. Can we quit the speculating where he is going to play next year based things he said yesterday, five years ago, what fans were chanting in the Boston Garden and how he took off his jersey? Just let it happen.
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