The Many Perceptions of LeBron James

 

LeBron James has been called many names throughout his NBA career. The perception and narrative of his play on the court has changed more times since he busted into the mainstream with his Sports Illustrated cover than any other athlete. He’s one of the most polarizing, scrutinized, and talked about athletes of all time. And he’s the biggest sports star of the social media era.

 

All of these things make King James an extremely interesting person to write and talk about. But why is he so interesting? Why has the narrative flipped on him so much? I think it has a lot to do with the Jordan comparisons. Kobe was, and still is, compared to Jordan, but most people knew after a while that this guy wasn’t Jordan, and he was never going to be able to live up to that standard. He didn’t have Jordan’s efficiency, he was never as popular as Mike, and His Airness was literally better at every facet of the game (except for three point shooting). But LeBron was different. At 18 years old, he was a physical specimen, unlike anything we’d ever seen before. And as he continued to grow, and his game continued to expand (he added a solid jump shot, and became a really good defender), the backlash against him began to grow. This guy couldn’t be as good as Jordan, because he just couldn’t be. So we invented or manufactured reasons to keep him down. Never mind the fact that he was saddled with a bunch of overpaid flops (Larry Hughes, Antawn Jamison, Shaq), guys masquerading as second bananas that weren’t actually that good (Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas), or guys that had no business starting for championship contenders (Sasha Pavlovic). Despite all this, LeBron carried those teams to a shocking Finals cameo in 2007, back to back 60-plus win seasons in 2009 and 2010, and two straight number 1 seeds. And he was rewarded with two straight MVPs, which he definitely deserved.

 

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think LeBron is as good as MJ. I would even go as far as saying that don’t think James can pass Jordan, even if he ends his career with 7 rings. Jordan is the greatest performer on the game’s biggest stage (the Finals), he played in a more difficult and physical era, and at his apex, he was the best player ever. No one, not even LeBron, could affect the game both mentally and with his play the way Jordan did. Plus, Jordan would’ve never had a performance like LeBron did in the 2011 Finals. But that doesn’t mean that LeBron wasn’t the best player in the NBA during his Cleveland tenure. And looking back on it, I think most people didn’t give him enough credit for the things he did there. I remember watching PTI the day after the Cavs were eliminated by the Celtics in the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Boston clearly had the better roster, but Cleveland was somehow (mostly on the back of LeBron) able to push the series to a 7^th game. In that Game 7, LeBron had 45 points, but the Cavs ended up losing. While talking about the game, Tony Kornheiser (who I normally like) basically said, “Yeah, LeBron had 45, but if you’re going to win, sometimes you have to find a way to 49”. What? That’s one of the dumbest things any sportswriter has ever said. He had 45 points! Where was his help? Oh wait, that’s right, he was depending on Turdo Sandowich to produce. And as Cleveland flamed out to lower seeded teams in the ’09 and ’10 playoffs, the haters were out more than ever. Skip Baseless probably burst all of the blood vessels in his head screaming about “Prince James” and “The Chosen One turned into The Frozen One”.

 

Now, I’m of the opinion, and will always be, that LeBron quit during Game 5 of that 2010 Celtics series. He got killed for it nationally, and he should have. I’d be madder at him, except he was playing with a bunch of clowns like Sasha Pavlovic and Boobie Gibson every year for the first 7 years of his career. And yeah, he didn’t always perform the greatest in clutch moments in his career. Neither did Magic Johnson. He was terrible in the clutch in Game 2, 4, and 7 of the ’84 Finals. And sometimes he passed up game winning shots because his teammates had better looks than him. So what? They wouldn’t have even been close to those situations if he wasn’t a beast all season. And it’s not like his numbers were horrible! In the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, he averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 8 assists! Those are crazy numbers! But after the series, he got most of the blame, at least from a lot of the sports media. He didn’t have a great 2007 NBA Finals, but I’ll give him a pass on that one because it was amazing that they even got there in the first place. That ’07 Cavs team might be the worst team to ever make the Finals. Boobie Gibson, a pudgy Donyell Marshall, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the 400 screws he had in his feet all played major minutes for that team.

 

So as the 2010 season came to a close, the perception was that LeBron was that, while he was a likable guy, he wasn’t a clutch player, or a competitor like Jordan was. But we still liked the guy.

 

That all changed on that fateful July day, the day that will forever be known as “The Decision”, the day that LeBron went on national TV and crapped on his hometown, as he uttered the unforgettable and iconic, “I’m taking my talents to South Beach”. People were already down on him because of the way he quit during the Celtics’ series, and everything exploded and morphed into an all time level of hatred and irrationality right then and there. James appeared arrogant and full of himself, and it didn’t help the next day during the Heat’s pep rally when he pronounced that the Heat would win, “Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, etc.” titles. In the span of 48 hours, he became a likable guy who had some questionable moments in crunch time to an un-clutch villain, a guy who was hated by most of America.

 

His Miami tenure, predictably, got off to a rocky start, at least with the media and the fans. Everybody was rooting for him to fail, and the public took great joy every time he failed during the season. I remembered actively rooting against him. I was mad at the way he had handled his departure from Cleveland, mad about how he quit, mad about his attitude, and angry at him because I felt like he had cost himself on an all time scale. No great superstar had ever left his team to join forces on someone else’s team with two other superstars before. It just didn’t feel right.

 

You can imagine my frustration during the 2011 playoffs, as the Heat easily dispatched the entire Eastern Conference. I thought the Celtics would beat them, but they instead lost in 5 games. I thought for sure (or hoped) that the Bulls would beat them, but after blowing out Miami in Game 1, LeBron started checking Derrick Rose in crunch time, holding him to like 13% shooting, which effectively demolished Chicago’s mediocre offense and ended the series. LeBron never gets enough credit for being great during that playoff run. He assassinated the Celtics and the Bulls several times during those series (mostly in the clutch!), and he destroyed Derrick Rose, only the league MVP at the time, with his defense.

 

But then the 2011 Finals happened, and everything that every LeBron hater had said about LeBron during his career came true. He was miserable during that Finals, only scoring 18 points total in the 4^th quarters of that series. At times he appeared disinterested, or looked like he was playing hot potato with the basketball. He would stand on the perimeter and be content with just chucking shots from there, or he would just pass off to another teammate. He never really tried to put his head down and attack the basket, and he got owned by Jason Terry. Looking back on it, that Finals was probably one of the most puzzling sports occurrences of my life. His play in the playoffs leading up to that point made me think he had turned a corner; he was confidently shooting the basketball, and he wanted to have the ball in his hands at the end of games, because he wanted to be the one deciding how it ended. But then it all flipped when he got to the Finals. He turned into Chris Webber, Karl Malone, Elvin Hayes and every other memorably un-clutch superstar that ever played in the Association. And his critics were vindicated. He got killed nationally that summer, declared un-Jordan like, and people everywhere were asking questions like, “Is he ever going to win a title?”.

 

The only positive that came from the summer was the number of humorous LeBron jokes that sprouted up. You know, things like, “Did you hear about the new LeBron iPhone? It can only be on vibrate because it has no ring” or “If you ask LeBron for change for a dollar, he’ll only give you back three quarters”. I know, I know, knee slappers right? The funny thing was, I can only think of two times where LeBron’s poor play in a clutch situation really cost his team (The 2010 Eastern Semifinals and the 2011 Finals). The media would make you think that LeBron blew every single big game his teams ever played in, and that he sucked in the clutch every time. But if you look up his crunch time stats compared to the supposedly clutch Kobe Bryant, actually does quite well in comparison (Kobe, in the playoffs, on shots with less than 10 seconds to go that would tie or take the lead, is 5 for 22. LeBron is 6 for 14 on such shots).

 

But, like many times, the stats and numbers didn’t matter. Kobe had 5 rings, and LeBron was still hated. Plus, he had failed miserably on the game’s biggest stage. It was easy to pile on. And so everyone did.

 

Fast forward with me to Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, the most important game LeBron had ever played in. His career sat on the point of a knife; and it was going to go one way or the other, depending on what happened that night. In Game 5 in Miami, Paul Pierce had canned a three right in LeBron’s mug near the end of the game that essentially clinched it for the Celtics, sending the series back to Boston with the Celtics leading 3-2. I didn’t think there was any way the Heat would win. They were going into Boston, against a proud veteran team who appeared to be a bad match up for them. But what happened that night was extraordinary. LeBron decided he was going to take it to his opponent, and he absolutely overpowered the Celtics for 48 minutes. And by the end of the night, America was wowed. He finished the game 45 points and 15 rebounds on 19 for 26 shooting. LeBron had silenced his critics with one of the greatest big game performances of all time. He hadn’t failed, and he hadn’t shrunk; instead, he had turned in a Jordan-esque performance. 

 

After that, title number one came quickly. Miami returned home and beat Boston in Game 7, and then defeated the young Oklahoma City Thunder in 5 games in the Finals. The King finally had his ring.

 

But then something really interesting happened. The perception of LeBron flipped. He was finally getting the credit he deserved. People started to recognize, and appreciate all the things he did on the court on a night-to-night basis. If anything, the media went overboard in praising him, maybe because they felt the need to overcompensate for all the negative coverage they had given him. Another annoying trend that started to develop was the renewed interest in pushing LeBron-Jordan comparisons. I saw some ESPN guys say the most ridiculous things, or manipulate facts and numbers, to favorably compare him to Jordan. There was such a rush to prop this guy up, when there really wasn’t any need to do it. We already knew he was great. They didn’t need to force it! And it got even worse after Ray Allen bailed the Heat out and they won title number two in 2013.  How did we get from crucifying for every mistake to praising him incessantly for everything he did? Why have we never been able to properly evaluate LeBron, without using hyperbole and unnecessary praise or criticism?

 

If LeBron retired today, he’d be one of the 7 greatest players of all time. 4 League MVPs, 2 Finals MVPs, 10 All Star games, 8 First Team All NBA selections, 5 time First Team Defensive selections, etc. He’s got the accolades. He’s one of the most unselfish players of all time, a guy who’d rather get his teammates involved than dominate the game with his scoring. When motivated, he’s one of the greatest and most versatile defenders the league has ever seen. And when he does attack, there’s no one in the league that can keep him from getting to the rim. He’s a historically unique player, one of those guys that will never see again. I mean honestly, when are we ever going to see a 6’8, 260 pound guy who can run and jump like a wide receiver, defend almost every NBA player, and also have the court vision of Larry Bird? I can’t see it happening any time soon. As for negatives, he, at times, has appeared a little full of himself (The Decision), he had some memorable and well documented screw ups in the clutch situations (though not as many as the media would make you think), and he’s not the competitor that Jordan was. But in terms of what he gives you on a night-to-night basis, he’s one of the greatest of all time, the best player since MJ.

 

This off-season, after the Spurs dispatched the clearly inferior Heat in the Finals, LeBron donned a new cape, one that he’d never really worn before: prodigal son. LeBron, unlike almost every American, decided he was going to move from South Beach to Lake Erie. He returned home to finish something he started the night he was drafted, which was to bring a title to Cleveland. His choice inspired my Angry Old Man to utter, “He’s restored my faith in humanity”. Not bad for a guy who screams about the downfall of humanity daily while he stuffs his face full of Doritos.

 

Plus, that choice did something really interesting for LeBron: it made everyone like him again. We love the story, and we loved how he decided to return. He is once again one of America's favorite sons.

 

I’m not quite sure what will happen with LeBron and Cleveland this year. They’ve got a lot of new players, and they play in the abysmal Eastern Conference. But one thing is for certain: LeBron is, and always will be, polarizing. We’ll see how the season turns out.