What Are We Witnessing?

About LeBron, everyone seems to want to know: who is he like?

Is he like Jordan?

Kris lays out the case below. To my eyes, they play a different style, so I don’t see it. Howard Beck agrees.

And there was this about Jordan: when he had the ball in his hands at the end of a game, there was an air of inevitability about the proceedings. You just knew he was going to win that game. Any Knicks fan who saw any of those playoff series in the early nineties knows this (he says fighting back tears and bile.)

Except for Game 5 in this past series, LeBron hasn’t consistently proven himself at the end of games. And the magic of that Game 5 was that there wasn’t that same feeling of “here we go, he’s doing it again” you got with Jordan, but instead the constant and wonderful surprise of, “Look, he’s finally doing it! Finally! Right before our eyes!”

So, no, I don’t think LeBron is like Jordan.


Is he like Magic?

I can see this one a little more than Jordan, at least in their styles. But it’s still a stretch. Magic played as a true point guard most of the time, and LeBron is not that, despite his obvious gifts as a passer.

The biggest difference between LeBron and Magic, though, is this: Magic played the game with a joy, an ebullience, which I never see from LeBron. Magic had a way of playing that made you smile when you watch. As much as I love watching LeBron, he doesn’t play with Magic’s joie de vivre. With LeBron, it’s watching a very talented guy out there taking care of business, in a powerfully business-like fashion.

Not to mention that I couldn’t see LeBron running the Showtime Lakers the way Magic did. I don’t know if LeBron’s style is compatible with that. Maybe he could, but I can’t picture it.

So ultimately, no, I don’t think LeBron is like Magic.


Is he like anyone else?

I saw a graphic on ESPN that said the only players with comparable career numbers in the playoffs were Larry Bird and Walt Clyde Frazier.

Is LeBron like Bird? No. And not just because of skin color. Bird could shoot way, way better than LeBron. LeBron is better on the dribble. Not the same player at all.

Is LeBron like Clyde? No one is like Clyde. End of story.


The way he plays the game, he’s not like Kobe. He’s not like Shaq. He’d not like McGrady. He’s not like Wade or Melo, either.

So maybe we are left with this: what if LeBron is sui generis?

Can we handle that in this media age, where we rush to compare everything to something else?

Can we appreciate LeBron without context, and just appreciate what we are seeing in and of itself?

Does a lack of context rob him of his greatness, or could it instead enhance it?

All I know for sure is this: LeBron makes me want to stop what I’m doing to watch. He does things, like that dunk on Tim Duncan early in the season, that made me have to call my brother just to make sure he saw it too. He plays with a combination of speed, power, and NBA smarts that is a marvel, something that leaves you in a daze as you watch.

I don’t need to know what I’m watching is like. I just know I like watching it. And want to keep watching it. And keep track of when it's on again, so then I can watch even more of it.

Shouldn't that be enough?