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?

King James vs His Airness

(ed. Note As we embark on this new journey the four writers of this blog have decided that when a topic comes along that is as big as my belly we will all address it with our own unique viewpoints, maybe we will call it a foursome or something, but that will be determined later)


FINALLY THE FAT MAN HAS COME BACK………….TO CYBERSPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have now had some time to digest what clearly has to be one of the all time great performances in sports history. Whether or not LeBron James goes on to win zero, 6, or 10 NBA Titles, what he did in the past two weeks was remarkable. By now we all know the numbers, especially from that game 5 performance where he was playing on a different level than everyone else on the court, or planet for that matter. After witnessing this virtuoso performance the comparisons to the leagues greatest players were bound to arise.

Obviously LeBron’s full body of work is still another 15 years in the making, but what he has done in four short years is worth discussing. Rather than trying to compare LeBron to Jordan in overall careers I want to compare their respective career developments through four seasons. Also, I want to try and see who has elevated the play of his teammates more by comparing the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls to LeBron’s current squad.

The growth and development of LeBron and Jordan is staggeringly similar when you begin to really break it down. Yes Jordan’s point totals far outreach those of LeBron’s but it truly was a different game 20 years ago, where the lowest scoring team in the league averaged 98 ppg and this season where less than half the teams scored over 98 ppg. The best way to look at it is how these two have helped there teams significantly increase win totals. Not including Jordan’s injury plagued second season, his first 4 full years the Bulls win totals went 38, 40, 50, to 47 and in LeBron’s he went 35, 42, 50, and 50. In their third seasons they both notched their first playoff series victory. They were consistent All-Stars and widely regarded as the best young talent in the league. But here in year 4 LeBron is beginning to elevate his team to a championship level which still took Jordan several more seasons.

One could argue that the league is decidedly weaker at this point, but I would rather compare the teams Jordan and LeBron first lead to the finals. We have a tendency maybe to overrate some of the Bulls players, guys like John Paxson and Bj Armstrong because we remember them watching Jordan parade around with the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Luckily we do not overrate any of LeBron’s superstar teammates like Larry “Turnover” Hughes and Sasha “3 Charges per game” Pavlovic.

The first startling revelation is that the Cav’s are actually a more veteran group, when you realize that Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow have played a combined 25 years in the league. However, when you look closer at the starting lineups you see that they are more comparable, the Bulls starters had 25 total years and the Cavs have a total of 27 seasons. So they both basically have taken a solid mix of younger starters like Horace Grant & Scottie Pippen and Drew Gooden & Sasha Pavlovic and veteran PG/C John Paxson & Bill Cartwright and Larry Hughes & Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

I would take Pippen over Pavlovic in a heartbeat obviously, Hughes over Paxson, but the big man match-ups are more intriguing. Offensively Ilgauskas has a slight advantage in points and rebounds but not significant, but Cartwright was a solid defensive presence whereas Ilgauskas’s lack of mobility limits him especially on help defense. And as for Horace Grant v. Drew Gooden you would think Grant obviously, but as the sunshine scooter would say “Not so fast my friend.” Gooden and Grants numbers are very similar (12 ppg. & 8 rpg.) and both were relied upon in the same way by their teams; hit open 15-18 foot jumpers, help control the defensive glass, and use their athleticism to put pressure on the offensive boards.

The last part of the evolution is the ability to take over games and will your team to victory. For both men this genesis again happened at similar times in their careers. Jordan had his coming out party in his third season when he scored 63 against the Celtics, much like LeBron’s playoff performance in his third season last year against the Wizards, where he notched a triple double in his first playoff game and hit a game winner in a critical game 3. But their live forever moment for both seems like it came in season 4. Jordan’s came against the Cavaliers when he hit that pull up jumper on Craig Ehlo and LeBron’s was a driving up and under lay-up on the entire Piston’s team which couldn’t stop him from getting to the basket. Again the similarities are staggering, in the Game 5 versus the Cav’s Jordan had 44 pts. 9 reb. & 6 ast. And LeBron against the Piston’s had 48 pts. 9 reb. & 7 ast.

Now all LeBron has to do is start collecting championship trophies like Jordan. I for one think that may begin to happen sooner rather than later.