Tich’s Take
Since LeBron James appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 17, he has been compared to Michael Jordan. When he did things nobody had ever seen before, he was the next MJ. When he failed in big moments, he would never be the next MJ.
It might finally be safe to say he has made a name for himself.
James was probably the greatest basketball prodigy of all time. During the NBA Draft in 2003 when he went No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers, announcers touted James as a futre Hall-of-Famer before he had even played a game. He was really that good.
Somehow, he has lived up to the ridiculous hype surrounding him. Eleven years into his NBA career, he has won two NBA championships and four Most Valuable Player awards.
Through 11 years, James is averaging 27.5 points per game, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists. The only other player to average at least 27-7-6 through 11 seasons? Oscar Robertson.
Those numbers are little better than being the “next” anybody.
Not only has James been productive, he has been remarkably efficient. His Player Effeciency Rating (PER) — a formula factoring multiple facets of the game into one statistic — is the second highest of all time behind Jordan. James led the league in PER six straight seasons, and holds four of the top 11 PER seasons in the history of the league.
And no wing player scores as efficiently as James. The past two seasons, James has shot a dumbfounding 56.6 percent from the field. As he has gotten older, James has gotten smarter, using his unique blend of size (6-foot-8, 260 pounds) and athleticism to get to the rim as often as possible. When younger James may have settled for a mid-range jumper, older James will find a way to get a better shot or give up the ball.
In his first nine seasons, James took 33 percent of his shots near the rim, while taking mid-range jumpers (16-23 feet) 25 percent of the time. During his past two years, James has been taking 39 percent of his attempts near the rim and shooting only 19 percent of his shots from mid-range. When a scorer of James’s pedigree also takes smart shots, it makes him that much better.
Not only is James setting a precedent with his production and efficiency, his career arc is doing the same thing. Drafted by his hometown Cavaliers (James is from nearby Akron), James famously took his talents to South Beach to play with All-Star buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Heavily criticized for the move, it worked out fairly well for James, as the Heat made four straight NBA Finals, winning two of them. His first seven years in Cleveland, James went to the Finals once, losing in a sweep. By the way, James played with two All-Stars during his tenure in Cleveland — Zydrunas Ilgauskas in ’04-’05 and Mo Williams in ’08-’09. Wade and Bosh were All-Stars all four years in Miami. It was the right move.
James turned the power structure of the NBA on its head with his free agency move to Miami back in 2010. Suddenly, players were just as big of power brokers through free agency as general managers were. And he turned the league on its head again this summer by going back to Cleveland. There may not have ever been a more
powerful athlete.
If he can bring a championship to Cleveland — the city’s last professional sports title occurred in 1964 — there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is one of the best to ever play the game.
And nobody will care if he is MJ or not.
TICHENOR is the sports editor.