These NBA finals recall … well, the past three NBA finals, but not just those. This reminds us of that saga of the ’60s, when Wilt Chamberlain’s team – he played for the Warriors, the 76ers and the Lakers over that span – faced the Celtics eight times in 10 postseasons. Boston and Bill Russell prevailed every time save one.
Wilt was the greatest player of the era. Russell was the hub of the greatest team ever. (That’s if we go by championships, and if we’re measuring teams, what else is there?) The Celtics lived to frustrate not just Chamberlain but the Lakers of Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, whom Boston trumped six times in the finals.
The NBA has since generated other epic rivalries – Bird’s Celtics against Dr. J’s Sixers, Bird’s Celtics against the Lakers of Kareem and Magic – but those were collisions of equals. Golden State against Cleveland is not, except that this isn’t really Golden State against Cleveland. It’s Warriors versus LeBron. It’s best team versus best player. Were Wilt the Stilt still among us, he could tell us how that usually ends.
But here’s the difference between then and now: That Chamberlain’s teams fell to Boston/Russell so many times – “Havlicek stole the ball!” – was always held against him. (Wrongly, we stipulate.) That Cleveland has again reached the finals offers something approaching proof of LeBron James’ case as the greatest player not just of this but any century.
Confession: I never thought I’d type those words. I’ve always subscribed to the inscription on the statue outside the United Center: “The best there ever was, the best there will ever be.” I’ve long regarded Michael Jordan as the greatest performer in the history of American team sports. I saw him at his peak. I covered him in the playoffs. I have no less regard for him today that when he was scoring the last basket made in the Omni. Peak Michael was Mount Everest – six titles in eight years, six finals MVP trophies. That said …
I’m not sure it’s a match for what LeBron has done.
I know the argument: Six championships are twice as many as LeBron’s three; ergo, Jordan is better than James and still the greatest ever. Were that the case, though, wouldn’t Russell’s 11 titles – almost twice as many as six – render him unassailable? I’ve heard this back-and-forth’ing so often that I’m tired of it, too, but I do offer one evidentiary nugget.
In 1993-94, the Bulls went 55-27 and finished third in the East. (The Atlanta Hawks, who traded Dominique Wilkins for Danny Manning halfway through, finished first.) Michael Jordan was hitting .202 as a Birmingham Baron. (I covered his first game.) Without the then-GOAT, Chicago qualified for postseason and won a series.
Take LeBron off these Cavaliers and you’d have a lottery team. I know James needed his South Beach Super Friends to help win Titles 1 and 2, and I know Kyrie Irving hit the 3-pointer that felled the 73-win Warriors two years ago, but LeBron since returning to Cleveland has been even more astonishing than the LeBron of before, which is the wonder of all wonders.
Jordan retired for a second time – he’d make another return as a Wizard – at 35. Counting playoffs, he had worked 1,109 NBA games. James is 33. He has logged 1,378 games. He has made the finals nine times, the past eight in a row. Bill Livingston of Cleveland Plain Dealer used to say that the team carried to the 2007 Eastern Conference title was the worst finals qualifier ever. These Cavs won the same number of regular-season games as those. This was a No. 4 seed; that was a No. 2.
The second-best Cavalier against Boston in Game 7 was Jeff Green, a 31-year-old on his sixth organization who missed a season due to heart surgery. Had he been a Celtic – actually, he once was – he mightn’t have played five minutes. Even without Irving and Gordon Hayward, Boston was the more talented team. But it was eliminated on its parquet court by the man who’s the most outrageous talent this sport has ever known.
If you saw LeBron play for St. Vincent-St. Mary High (I did), you know that the belief then was that he’d be more a Magic Johnson, meaning a distributor, than a Michael Jordan, meaning mostly a scorer. In his third NBA season, James averaged 31.4 points. He has led the league in scoring only once – Jordan did it 10 times – but we all know he could get 35 every single night if that’s what was required. Heck, he got 35 in a Game 7 in Boston for a team with Jeff Green as its No. 2 option.
Here are LeBron’s rebounding averages over his four post-Miami playoff runs: 11.3, 9.5, 9.1, 9.7. Here are his assist averages: 8.5, 7.6, 7.8, 8.8. Oh, and he also scores the most points – he’s averaging 34 this spring, his second-best postseason yield – and takes every big shot and, when needed, plays every single second. And we say again: He’s 33, in his 15th NBA season. Russell and Wilt were gone after 13.
On paper, there should be no reason to watch these finals. The Warriors have four of the NBA’s top 25 players. If they lose more than one game, it will be a massive upset. But the Cavs have the best player in NBA history, and with him there’s always a chance. We thought we’d never see another Michael. As incredible as it sounds, we’re seeing a better Michael.
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