Reassessing LeBron's Legacy

As the basketball season came to a close a few days ago, the Miami Heat walked off the court in San Antonio with black and white confetti raining down. For the first time in 706 days, the Miami Heat could not be called NBA Champions. That title now belongs to the San Antonio Spurs.

With the loss, it pushed LeBron James’ NBA Finals record to a dismal 2-3. There is no way that being in the Finals doesn’t result in altering a superstar’s legacy. And losing this one does affect LeBron’s legacy.

Now, people always want to hate on LeBron and act like he’s the villain. He knows it, even recently claiming himself to be the “easiest target in sports” and he might just be right. And that seems kind of unfair for a guy who has never been arrested, is always about the team and works extremely hard behind the scenes. LeBron is a great role model, yet still gets crucified all over social media.

Many point to LeBron’s decision to have “The Decision” as the primary reason for their hate toward the superstar. In reality, that was a mistake even James acknowledged. As far as teaming up with two All-Stars in Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, it’s hard to blame him after seeing how badly Dan Gilbert was positioning LeBron in Cleveland.

However, after all of that, James went to the Finals in every year he wore a Miami Heat uniform. He won two of them, and played like an MVP for the better part of three of them (all except vs. Dallas). However, vs. San Antonio, his supporting cast failed him. Badly. Some people have a hard time finding sympathy for James since he was the one that decided he wanted this supporting cast, and that may be a valid point. But LeBron played well in the loss to the Spurs and would have been the series MVP had the Heat won.

However, 2-3 in the Finals can’t be overlooked. In my estimation, losing this year in the Finals pretty much seals the deal on how high LeBron can go on the all time list. The highest he can go, in my opinion, is number 2. I don’t think he can ever surpass Michael Jordan, who appeared in 6 NBA Finals, won all of them and took home the series MVP trophy in all of them. The main reason I believe that is because at 29, I don’t think LeBron has it in him to be the driving force to winning four more championships. It took him five tries just to bring home two.  Also, I think it is clear that LeBron does lack that “killer instinct” that Jordan had, and even Kobe Bryant. He may have some assassin in him, but not to the level of those two.

In comparing LeBron to another sport, I see him as the equivalent of Peyton Manning, who also got blown out in a championship game earlier this year. I don’t think Peyton can ever rank above the likes of Joe Montana and Tom Brady, but he can go as high as the third best ever in NFL history. Like LeBron, Peyton lacks the killer will that is seen in Brady today and Montana possessed.

Saying LeBron can’t be the greatest ever is not really all that bad. Michael Jordan is as high as a standard as any in sports. But 2-3 is not all time greatness. And although LeBron lacked a supporting cast in the 2007 one vs. the Spurs and this past one, the Dallas one was on him. And some may say Ray Allen helped Lebron’s legacy in a monumental way last year in Game 6 after LeBron had two horrific late game turnovers. Michael Jordan never lost a Finals because of himself. He never lost a NBA Finals ever.

So unless LeBron is able to win four more rings, and do so without trying to team up with every superstar in the league, it’s hard for me to say that he can ever be mentioned in the same breath as His Airness.