The Heat is Still On

Last night, LeBron James finally obtained the one career distinction that had continually eluded him since his entrance into the NBA. A ring. He's gotten everything else. MVPs, All Star appearances, NBA-First Team selections and even a gold medal in the Olympic games. Yet, as most sports professionals aspire to, he was lacking the one piece of hardware that would finally separate him from his detractors and catapult him into NBA supremacy. And last night he finally got it. The widespread sentiment in the NBA community after the victory last night over the Thunder for the Heat's second NBA title and first since 2006 was that James had finally reached the precipice of NBA lore. He had finally included himself along the greats like Jordan, Bryant, Russell, Magic and Bird. All this with just one ring and no guarantee that he'll ever win another. So HOLD THE PHONE.
Let's backtrack and remember who we're comparing this guy to. Jordan has 6 titles and is likely the greatest player we'll ever see don an NBA uniform. Bryant is only the greatest player to grace an NBA court over the past decade and happens to wear 5 rings. Russell? How about 11 for size? And Magic and Bird? They only went back and forth for the entire decade of the 1980s swapping shots at the ring year by year in what was surely the greatest rivalry we will ever see in NBA history and maybe even in sports. And then we come to LeBron. One title deep and only 27 years old. Sure that's an incredible achievement but you simply cannot compare him to these other greats.
There is no doubting LeBron's achievements as a player. He has clearly been the best player in the league for quite awhile and there is almost no one who can dispute that. Already with 3 MVPs under his belt, it is not unwarranted to think that he might continue winning them year in and year out for the next decade with his level of athleticism and skill. But as even LeBron has frequently said, greatness is defined by championships. We'll always regard guys like Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Karl Malone and Elgin Baylor as some of the all time greats but they will always be regarded as missing that elusive ring. Even Barkley acknowledged this in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech for the 1992 Dream Team. Greatness is defined by the number of rings you can accumulate. Statistics are merely just a crowd pleaser. And while LeBron has become a notoriously unpopular player over the last 2 seasons because of his exodus from Cleveland and promise of not 1, not 2, not 3.....rings speech when he arrived in Miami, he is clearly the most scrutinized and watched player in the league which of course, drives ratings up, making David Stern a very happy man. But while it's good and great that LeBron has become the face of the NBA, he's done so without much success in the NBA playoffs until this point. There's no doubt that he'll have more opportunities being at such a young age and presumably in the prime of his career but again it's no guarantee. The media firestorm that ensued when LeBron guaranteed championships upon his arrival in Miami was clearly an ill fated move. It is something we never saw Jordan do and he is the player who we most compare him to. I'm not saying that he won't ever reach the level of Michael Jordan but as we saw from this past post-season, it takes heart and soul and an incredible amount of dedication. We know Jordan had it, we know Bryant had it and may still have some left in the tank but we do not know if LeBron has it. All we've gotten so far is a taste of the hunger that LeBron claims to have. But we haven't yet seen if he has what it takes to reach their level of greatness. Until then, the heat will always be on LeBron until he comes close to the number of championships of the all time greats. LeBron is the best player in the NBA right now. Ask me in 10 years if he's the greatest player in NBA history.