Skip to main content

What 2nd Title Would Mean for LeBron's Legacy - Bleacher Report

League MVP. Finals MVP. NBA champion. Olympic gold medalist.

Over the past nine months, LeBron James has had one of the most remarkable stretches in the history of basketball. Yet unless he captures another NBA title next season, his time in Miamiâ€"and quite possibly his entire career to this pointâ€"may ultimately be seen as a disappointment.

Not everyone believes in legacies, but those of us who do recognize that they are that much harder to shape when the expectations are abnormally high.

There are manyâ€"even those who know James bestâ€"who have already started to make the inevitable comparisons to Michael Jordan. At this point, it's a bit premature to make such analogies, especially since we have the luxury of Jordan's entire body of work to use as a reference.

That said, with nine seasons already in the books, James is possibly closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning. The 2012-13 season could very well be James' best chance to win a second championship, and if he does, even his most ardent critics won't be able to deny his status among the game's all-time greats.

Nearly every legend in NBA history led his respective team to multiple titles, and those who didn'tâ€"Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry Westâ€"are two of the greatest singular talents the game has ever seen.

James will never put up the Paul Bunyan-esque stats of Chamberlain, nor is it likely that he'll ever assume the mantle of "Mr. Clutch." So instead, James' legacy will largely be defined by how many rings he has in his jewelry box when all is said and done.

The number of championships that someone wins isn't the sole criterion that defines greatness, but a player cannot truly be considered elite without an acceptable amount of hardware. For example, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Charles Barkley aren't known as merely great players, but rather great players who never won a title.

Hi-res-6335888_crop_exactSteve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Once the confetti fell from the upper levels of the American Airlines Arena this past June, James distanced himself from that trio forever. But after two seasons in Miami, he has only accomplished the bare minimum of what most had expected him to.

The moment James decided to take his talents to South Beach, anything less than at least one NBA championship would have been a complete and utter failure.

Barkley is well aware of what titlesâ€"and specifically, the lack of themâ€"can do for one's legacy. As such, he knows that a single championship ring won't suffice for the man referred to as "King James."

"He's got to win multiple championships to make that situation work, at least two," Barkley told AOL Fanhouse in the summer of 2010 shortly after "The Decision." "[If not], his legacy is going to take a serious hit."

One title simply isn't good enough for a man who was anointed as "The Chosen One" by Sports Illustrated at the age of 17. Even if James hadn't made his now-infamous "not one, not two, not three..." pledge, the onus still would have been on him to lead multiple parades down Miami's Biscayne Boulevard.

The banner for the 2012 NBA title hasn't even been raised to the rafters, yet many are already clamoring for a repeat performance. It should be noted that winning back-to-back championships is a difficult feat, even in the parity-starved NBA.

But if Miami does find a way to take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy next summer, James will cement his status as one of the 15 greatest players in the history of the game.

Individual accolades are no longer important. James can win all of the MVP awards and scoring titles that he desires, but only a second championship will vault him to NBA immortality.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NBA Rumors: LeBron James' Son Bronny Is on Draft Boards of 'Multiple Teams'

Chris Coduto/Getty Images Bronny James' USC team has struggled this season, but that reportedly hasn't stopped the NBA interest in the son of legend LeBron James. "When I talk to people around the league, he's on the draft boards of multiple teams," Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Thursday: Charania noted teams around the league believe he is "further along" on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side, which makes performances like Wednesday's all the more important. The USC freshman finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds while shooting 5-of-11 from the field in one of his best offensive showings of the season in a loss to Arizona. The only game that he scored more points in was a Dec. 30 loss to Oregon State when he finished with 15 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Perhaps most importantly, James played a season-high 30 minutes against the Wildcats on Wedn...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Happened to the Rivalry Between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? - Bleacher Report

They were two young stars with unique and special abilities on the basketball court. They had recently played in a high-attention scholastic contest against each other. They were both selected in the same draft. The LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony rivalry was supposed to be the best individual rivalry since Magic and Bird. But while the relationship between Bird and Johnson is dramatized in a new Broadway play , Anthony and James will meet for the 15th time in their careers and do so without much fanfare. James and Anthony first met in a USA developmental camp in 2001 . Much like how Johnson raved about Bird after they played together on a college All-Star team playing in an international tournament, James couldn’t stop talking about Anthony. The two squared off in a high school showcase game the following year that pitted the player regarded as the best senior in the country (Anthony) against the one that was the best junior in the country (James), a game Anthony’s team wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 3 recap: In ‘Auditions: Day Three,’ one hopeful was like ‘the LeBron James of dance’

"So You Think You Can Dance" season 18 ended the first stage of the competition on Monday night, March 18, with the last dance hopefuls looking for a spot in the choreography round. So far the bar has been set pretty high by standout performances from dancers representing a variety of dance styles, shapes, sizes and ability levels. So who stood out among the last crop of contestants? Did the show save the best for last? "We've put 25 people through," said judge Allison Holker at the start of the show. She singled out contemporary dancer Braylon Browner and gymnast Dakayla Wilson as standouts from the first two days of auditions. Comfort Fedoke agreed that Wilson is capable of anything a professional choreographer could throw at her. Maksim Chmerkovskiy was especially impressed by contemporary dancer Easton Magliarditi . But "there's so many other things outside of dance that we're also looking at." More from GoldDerby SEE ...
Post a Comment
Read more