Lebron was right. He should get his respect.
Tom Ball
Halfway through this condensed NBA season the Lakers sit with the third best record in the western conference, tied for the fourth best record in the league and top of Vegas’ odds to win the championship. It is no secret that their title aspirations have been called into question in recent weeks with a 4 game slide that coincided with the roster missing defensive anchors Anthony Davis and Denis Schroeder. Davis’ questionable health has been the number one gripe for the yellow and gold after he re-aggravated tendonitis in his achilles. The big man is expected to return at some point after the All-Star break. However, the press have taken this into account while watching a certain team in New York’s borough of Brooklyn. The Nets have rampaged to second in the other conference with an 8 game winning streak lead by Kyrie Irving and James Harden. While still missing their best player; Kevin Durant.
Title talk has well and truly kicked in. The media have resorted to their head to head matchup for this season. By their rhetoric you would have thought that the Nets and the Lakers were already in the finals. Of course this happened last year with the two teams in the city of angels. Only for everyone’s fantasy of an all LA western conference finals to be scuppered by Denver as the Clippers now famously collapsed from a 2 game lead to be sent home.
The media have ran with this and some are already seeing the Nets as run away title favourites halfway through a season which they traded half their roster just a few games into. Now obviously it’s easy to display that as a criticism without context. In that trade they did pick up serial MVP candidate and offensive alien James Harden to add to the two superstars they signed in the 2019 off-season. Their offensive firepower is undeniable and they, alongside a rejuvanated Embiid-lead 76ers, offer the two clear threats in the Eastern conference.
Despite the brilliance of the Nets’ recent run, which had them taking the heads of many of the league’s above .500 teams. This excitement with the Nets clearly lines up with the always present and nonsensical disrespect of the league’s most valuable asset and best player.
Lebron James secured is 4th championship and first with the LakeShow back in October, concluding the NBA’s incredibly well organised and efficient bubble in Orlando. After the title win Lebron now famously demanded his respect as well as the respect to the Lakers hierarchy and his coach. The season prior had seen a fascination with Kawhi Leonard’s title winning run with the Raptors ending with a finals MVP. This meant ‘The Claw’ was ready to rip away the crown from the King. Kawhi arrived in LA but across the hall of Staples in the Clipper locker room. He announced his presence with a New Balance commercial that insisted LA was his town. Only for Lebron to correct that very swiftly around a year later. Whether Kawhi and the Clips’ shortcomings are a byproduct of his and teammate Paul George’s performance or the insurmountable shadow cast over the city by their 17 time champion rivals. There is no doubt the main man in tinseltown originates from Akron, Ohio.
This has been a theme that has emerged throughout Lebron’s career. The lack of support he received from his bosses in his first spell in Cleveland followed by a humiliating collapse in 2011 against the Mavericks lead to no championships for his first 9 years in the league. Inevitable question marks about his ability to survive when lights were at their brightest followed.
He was favourite, had at the best team in the league and was already a league MVP but Lebron folded. Despite taking the first game the Heat collapse losing 4 straight. The King only averaged a tiny by his standard 17 points while his already champion teammate Dwyane Wade held his own; averaging 26. To this day this performance has been described as a truly remarkable meltdown. Lebron made things right by beating a fairly young Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in five games a year later. As Mike Breen called it so brilliantly, “capturing that elusive title he so desperately coveted”. Followed by Lebron saying “It’s about damn time.”, not a far stretch from what he said back in October. However, this remark was recognition. A recognition that he had failed the year before. What was then question marks; was now answers. In the decade since that Dallas series we have only had one finals without the King being involved and that was only in 2019. His first title was his second trip to the end in a run of eight in a row with two different teams.
Fast forward to now, three more titles to his name. Two memorable seven game victories over Gregg Popovich’s Spurs and the 73-9 Warriors capped off two of the greatest individuals performances we have seen in the Finals. It is a waste of time for one to try and justify that statement we all know what happened in those series. Lebron won his title with the Lakers. He proved everyone wrong who thought he was going there to be some semi-retired NBA player and movie star hybrid. He also shut anyone up that said he couldn’t do it in the Western Conference. It’ll be interesting to see where the goalposts move for these critics. That title in LA, the city that Kobe, Magic, Kareem and Shaq won in backed many of his biggest critics into a corner. Unsurprisingly, many latched onto the empty analysis that the bubble made every intangible that comes with a finals series easier to deal with. Despite nobody ever playing in that situation in the league’s history. It may be the only time a title is won in that setting. Yet that apparently doesn’t count for much, if anything, less.
That title was won in October. Just before Christmas, the NBA was back in full swing for the new season. Lebron turned 36 and the Lakers looked better than ever after acquiring Denis Schroeder in the off season. Lebron is currently favourite in Vegas to win the MVP all while the guys around him in that conversation have missed a large amount of games. You would of thought Lebron was the young gun by the insane minutes he has played. The vastly talented Nets big three have played 6 games together this season while Lebron has missed just 5 total since the start of last campaign.
When we look back on the career of ‘The Chosen One’ we can look at Dallas in 2011, the slacking at the hands of the Warriors in 2017 and 2018 and that negative finals record. However, all these low points exist in 18 years of dominance that have seen perhaps the most impressive statistical resume we have ever seen. While the guys that were meant to take his crown sit every third game and play minutes restriction with their eyes on May and June. The king of the league is playing 36 minutes every night without fail and not cheating any of us. Just like it became tradition to see Brady in the Super Bowl in February or Tiger leading every sunday. We have become a custom to seeing Lebron playing for a championship in June, unless we are in a global pandemic then its October. Many have become numb to what we are blessed with every night. If you pay to see the Lakers this season. There is one certainty, the man you paid to see will be on that court. He won’t be in a blazer or his favourite Nike Sneakers on the bench. He will be on that court in purple and gold. With the ball in his hands at 36 years old but playing like he is that kid we saw in Sacramento in 2003 but just all over again. In comparison to his 18 year career it can’t be long before he won’t be on our screens or in the box score every night. However, it still feels like we won’t truly realise what we will be losing until it is gone. If many say respect is earned then Lebron James is owed the entire house. Thank you sir. The league owes you one and you’ve got my damn respect.