LeBron James goes to bat for the ‘great’ teams that never won a title
This is, without a doubt, some late-summer navel-gazing. Trying to deduce some semblance of meaning from a throwaway line from a very famous basketball player, filmed into a smartphone, sent out to fans on a whim. Still, it is Sept. 2, and this is what we do.
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On Monday, via Uninterrupted on Bleacher Report (and also via Pro Basketball Talk), LeBron James offered this warming take after watching the toe-curling classic that was Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals:
If you don’t know the history of the game, man, you’ll forget how many great teams didn’t win championships. And that doesn’t mean they wasn’t great, though.
The quick reaction to this is, of course, to assume that James is trying to cover his own tracks for four career NBA Finals losses. If we hated ourselves enough to watch daytime cable sports television, this would probably be the discussion du jour – oh, wait, we forgot: football is back.
Even if the blowhards aren’t doing their usual mid-morning thing with the comment, it wouldn’t be the incorrect assumption to make right off the bat. Two of LeBron James’ favored Miami Heat teams lost in the 2011 and 2014 Finals, two of his lacking (due to talent and then injury) Cleveland Cavaliers teams lost in the 2007 and 2015 Finals. His 66- and 61-win Cavaliers teams, perhaps more damningly, failed to get out of the Eastern playoff brackets in 2009 and 2010 despite acting as heavy favorites to make the Finals.
Adding to this (oh lord, we’re going here aren’t we) legacy is the idea that James doesn’t have a singular talent to blame in the same way that Elgin Baylor, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and John Stockton could when falling to Bill Russell or Michael Jordan. James is that singular talent, and yet he’s fallen to six very different teams in the seasons listed above. Even the vanquishing Los Angeles Lakers of Shaq and Kobe’s era, the team that won that 2000 Western final, were still swept out of the playoffs in the season prior and lost in the Western semis in 2003 and in the Finals in 2004.
That’s fine. Call it self-serving if you will. Also understand what sort of era LeBron James is playing through.
Those six very, very different teams all included one knockout star above all: Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Curry all played up to scale in the wins. These were all the front men, however, for six different deep and positively loaded basketball clubs that had every reason to down LeBron’s crew even if (as wasn’t the case in 2010 and 2011) James was playing as well as he should have been.
The idea that this generation’s singular talent – the same sort of guy keeping the Ewings and Stocktons at arm’s length two decades before – could lose so much only speaks to the complexities of team sport. LeBron averaged 38-8-8 in the 2009 Eastern Conference finals, but his team fell because Anderson Varejao, Ben Wallace and Joe Smith couldn’t chase around Rashard Lewis. He led the postseason in Win Shares that year despite playing nine fewer games than (deserving) Finals MVP Kobe Bryant. Maverick basketball in 2011 and Spurs basketball in 2014 was team basketball at its finest. This isn’t to slam LeBron as if he’s some selfish isolation guy, it’s just that nobody was getting in front of those Texas teams.
This also isn’t to excuse James as much as it is to trump the depth and abilities of those who overcame his squads. Because singular talent – as it took LeBron nine seasons to learn, Michael Jordan seven seasons to learn and Jerry West twelve seasons to find out – isn’t enough to pull a championship off.
Those 2000 Portland Trail Blazers were built for one year, maybe two. Isaiah Rider might act as a sad punchline a decade and a half later, but he was the team’s leading scorer and in his prime when the Blazers dealt him for 30-year old Steve Smith. The group took chances on 36-year old Scottie Pippen and 37-year old Detlef Schrempf. Arvydas Sabonis started at center at age 35 and Greg Anthony was the team’s reserve guard at age 32. They were the NBA’s best team until mid-February, and were easily the Lakers’ equal until one fateful fourth quarter ended their season at Staples Center.
That Game 7 featured three three-pointers from Brian Shaw, who was Los Angeles’ first or second guard off the bench during the team’s first title in a dozen years. Shaw had been a Blazer the year before and played just five minutes all season. Not because Portland made some terrible personnel mistake, but because the Trail Blazers were so ridiculously deep that year also that his in-game efforts just weren’t needed.
That’s just how weird this league is. Sometimes the top-heavy teams, like Los Angeles in 2000, win it all. It worked for the Bulls in 1998 and the Heat in 2013. Sometimes the deeper teams, like the 2010 Lakers, 2011 Mavericks or 2014 Spurs take the ring. There is no rhyme or reason, just a goal to win four games in seven tries over a fortnight.
So, LeBron might be covering his tracks – but let ‘im, because you know he’s right.
Hell, just look at who he topped during his two championships. There was a killer Oklahoma City club featuring Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and a healthy Serge Ibaka. There was also that 2013 Spurs team that was a Tim Duncan jump hook away from a title. It was a San Antonio team featuring three of the mainstays from the 2007 Spurs squad that topped James’ Cavaliers, but one that in no way resembled its predecessor from a different offensive era.
This is what the game does, and this is why its best players often don’t go to the podium in a champagne-drenched T-shirt. Doesn’t mean they weren’t great.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
