Each time LeBron James plays in downtown Denver, he offers the chance to experience basketball history in the present tense. He ranks among the NBA’s top half-dozen players of all time, and, unlike Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, he’s dribbling among us right here, right now.
While we’re talking basketball history, consider this: LeBron boasts a chance, a strong one, to travel to the top of the all-time list. Yes, LeBron could pass Michael Jordan as the greatest player ever. LeBron arrives for his annual Colorado visit tonight.
A couple of years ago, it still ranked as basketball heresy to suggest LeBron could someday reign as basketball’s ultimate player. No more.
Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA Finals, and six titles. LeBron has led the Cavs and Heat to six NBA Finals, too, but only two titles.
LeBron turns 31 Wednesday. He has a half-dozen seasons, at least, to add title rings.
Air Force coach Dave Pilipovich reluctantly agrees LeBron has a chance to become The Greatest. Pilipovich is a fan of Magic Johnson and, especially, of Larry Bird.
“Everything is measured in championships,” Pilipovich says. “LeBron is going to win a couple more. Let’s say he gets four NBA championships. That might change him to being the greatest ever to play.”
When LeBron lumbers on the Pepsi Center court, he will deliver melancholy to Nuggets fans. Oh, what might have been.
In 2002-2003, the Nuggets aggressively chased failure in an attempt to land LeBron in the draft. They lost 65 games in a quest to accumulate pingpong balls in the NBA draft lottery.
Luck was not with the Nuggets, which is no surprise if you know the franchise’s sad history. The most valuable draft prospect in two decades, or since Jordan’s arrival in 1984, went to the Cavaliers. I was watching a TV a few feet away from Jeff Bzdelik, then the Nuggets coach, when the Cavs’ extreme good fortune was announced.
Let’s just say Bzedelik wasn’t too happy.
He knew what he had lost. LeBron boasts a mind-boggling combination of skills. The bulk and might of Karl Malone. The ballhandling and generosity of Magic. The otherworldly skywalking of Julius Erving.
UCCS coach Jeff Culver is a devoted fan of Magic and Jordan. He’s also a realist.
“LeBron can play so many positions,” Culver says, “and he can make other people better, like Magic did at his best. LeBron’s sheer size, strength and athleticism are so impressive, and that body is something that we hadn’t seen before.”
But …
Culver is from a generation of basketball fans who believed in all things Jordan. He’s not comfortable envisioning the day when LeBron might bolt into the lead.
“It’s tough for me to put him above Jordan, or Magic,” Culver says.
I understand Culver’s view. I never thought the day would arrive when we seriously discussed anyone other than Jordan as No. 1.
But it’s time.
Just look at LeBron’s statistics, which reveal his astounding versatility and consistency. He’s averaged at least 23 points along with six assists and six rebounds and shot over 51 percent from 2-point range for 12 straight seasons.
He’s a better passer and rebounder than Jordan. He’s not the scorer, but that’s because constant shooting clashes with his share-the-ball personality. A large dose of Magic dwells in LeBron’s basketball mind.
Of course, he trails Jordan as a winner. Jordan won all his trips to the NBA Finals. (So did John Havlicek, who was 8-for-8 in the Finals.) LeBron has stumbled four times while chasing the NBA’s ultimate crown.
LeBron is basketball’s version of John Elway. Like Elway, LeBron carried limited teams to the brink of everything. For some inexplicable reason, clueless critics hold these journeys against Elway and LeBron.
LeBron’s failure to conquer the Warriors in the 2015 Finals ranks as his finest hour. The Cavs were outmatched, and outmatched badly, at four positions. The Cavs were drained by injury. A Warriors sweep, and a boring Finals, seemed imminent.
Didn’t happen. LeBron placed a serious scare into the balanced, mighty Warriors. At times, games came down to one man vs. five.
One of basketball history’s greatest players won two of those games.
