The NBA might not be LeBron James’s league anymore. At least in the sense that James hasn’t dealt with the likes of a Steph Curry challenging the title of Best Player in the World for quite some time. The time and date when LeBron assumed the crown can be debated, but since whenever that was, it’s been LeBron’s league, and because LeBron James still exists, the Cleveland Cavaliers are title contenders, but the Cleveland Cavs’ issues aren’t what you think. The inside-locker-room stuff is getting all the media attention, those aren’t meaningful problems. The problem for the Cavaliers is that what LeBron James has done are hindering what he can do.
For the Cavaliers, the firing of David Blatt was pretty much the only legit story worthy of the coverage it got. Otherwise, the team has been inundated with one media-created storyline after another. The most recent being the “report” that Kyrie Irving isn’t happy in Cleveland. Again: non-issue here in the short-term. These things often get over-analyzed because, well … because there’s not much else to talk about. It’s been reported that Kyrie Irving has been unhappy in Cleveland before. Then he got paid, then came James and Kevin Love. At this point, for as good as Kyrie Irving is, his feelings don’t matter to the Cavs. If management (and/or James) believe a change at point guard needs to be made, Irving will be traded this off-season. Otherwise, he’s LeBron’s sidekick for the foreseeable future. Irving’s not doing anything on his terms while still under contract for the Cavs. There is some merit to Irving being traded for basketball reasons later, however. One of the primary reasons it’s been harder for Cleveland than many thought it would be is that Kyrie Irving’s game just doesn’t lend itself well to getting others involved. There’s lots of dribbling around the perimeter, and lots of finishing drives with an acrobatic layup or pull-up jumper. Irving never made the change to his game to make himself a distributor, and that’s a large part of why Love’s experience in a Cavs uniform has been awkward, to say the least. Kyrie Irving still plays like he’s best player in college basketball.
As of recently, there seems to be more and more people complaining about LeBron’s effort (or lack of) every day. In the short-term, this is a non-issue. Quite frankly, LeBron has earned the right to mail in a few regular season games. When this regular season ends, James will be on the doorstep of playing in 1,000 career regular season games; by the time this postseason ends, he’ll have played somewhere around 200 career playoff game. He’s played well over 45,000 NBA minutes, plus spend a few off-seasons playing for the U.S. National team. Seeing LeBron play lazily at times offers fodder for his critics, but giving 100% during a regular season game against the Magic does nothing to get LeBron and the Cavs closer to a championship. Only time can get them closer, but time is now working against LeBron James.
There was also the report that James went to Miami recently to workout with Dwyane Wade and see a trainer (who’s not affiliated with the Heat) employed by both himself (during his Miami tenure) and Wade. The current Cavs roster and James are business partners, Dwyane Wade is a friend. Given how much James values friendships and how he’s put his childhood friends in charge of certain aspects of his life, his off-court life is probably a lot like Entourage‘s Vinnie Chase (minus the seventh season cocaine addiction). If James went to get something checked out by his old personal trainer and spend time with his friend, that’s just something LeBron James does.
What should be far more worrisome for Cleveland is James’s diminishing ability to score from outside the lane. Sure, this could go hand-in-hand with the effort issue, but a jumper isn’t the on/off switch effort can be. Most people would have thought James’s game would age better to this point. He’s shooting 28% from three (which would be a career low), just plain bad by most players’ standards, let alone a top-10 player ever. When he can get a head of steam and plow to the rim, he’s still the downhill, runaway train he’s always been, but if the Cavaliers are winning a championship this season, there’s going to be playoff games that LeBron James is going to have to win by being able to consistently hit a jump shot.
James also has had only one season shooting less than 70% from the free throw line. That was 2006-07, when he shot 69.8%. Last season he shot 71%, the second worst mark of his career. He currently sits at 71.4%. Lousy free throw shooting has always been a frustrating part of James’s game. He’s a career 74.3% from the stripe, and if that number continues to drop, we could be nearing “Hack-a-Bron” territory, in which case James’s influence over a game could drop exponentially.
In James’s second season in Miami, the Heat played the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. That series was probably as important as the Finals was that season: the Heat – having lost the prior season’s Finals to Dallas – were playing Boston for the team’s blueprint, they were playing to prove the three of them could succeed together in South Beach. Had the Heat lost, Chris Bosh probably would’ve been traded, and who knows where the NBA would’ve gone after that. This season, the Cavs will be playing for their blueprint. Lose, and Kevin Love and/or Kyrie Irving might have new homes come next season. Win, and all the reports of unhappiness, all the reprimands for playing regular season games with the intensity of a morning shoot around, all the team-in-crisis stories that were copy/pasted from James’s first two seasons in Miami go away. Win, and the LeBron Legend grows. Win, and it’s still LeBron James’s NBA.
Whether you’re a fan of baseball teams putting pitch counts on their pitchers or not, the logic behind it is sound: Over time, the more innings a pitcher pitches, the greater the chance said pitcher might get injured. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the worry isn’t about LeBron’s defensive effort, it’s about LeBron James – for the first time in his career – putting his body on a pitch count. His knees can’t last forever. Every dunk now is a dunk off the back end of his career, in a sense. LeBron’s body is telling him to reign it in a bit when he doesn’t have to go full-out. At this point, James is a victim of being held to his own standard, his own greatness. But it’s a testament to his greatness that he can essentially coast through a regular season and still be unequivocally one of the best players on the planet.
James’s athleticism isn’t quite as jaw-dropping anymore, and we’re past the absolute peak of his career: That magical place where physical talent and game experience meet at their apex. That equation for James now skews a little towards the game experience that’s getting him by, the straight-up know-how. Thing is: While players get smarter as they get older, the skills lost to time will always undo the additional IQ points. We’re seeing Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan go through this. The aging superstar is pretty much always the last person to know that said superstar is past their prime. The trick for players is to hold that off for as long as possible. It’s a testament to LeBron James’s greatness (and general presence on earth), that because he’s been so good, so durable, and so consistently amazing that talking about him in terms of having nagging injuries and a diminished skill set seems blasphemous; talking about LeBron James in terms of falling victim to time feels uncomfortable, but it’s where we’re at. The slide in James’s game signals a generational shift in the league as a whole, and playing as much basketball as he has has aged his game in dog years. He’s an “old 31,” so to speak. LeBron James has been a professional basketball player for nearly half as long as he’s been alive.
If the Cavaliers meet the Golden St. Warriors (again) in the Finals, it will be as much about LeBron James plugging the hole in the NBA dam for his generation, holding off the younger generation from forming their NBA in their image.
If LeBron James finishes his career with only two titles, he’ll kind of be the NBA’s Peyton Manning: One of the greatest players ever, but will always be remembered for the rings they didn’t win, rightfully or wrongfully. For Manning, that means often getting labeled “Best Regular Season Quarterback Ever,” but it’d be hard to ever call James that, given the amount of criticism his regular season effort issues have brought him.
It’s easy to castigate LeBron’s effort of late, but it’s obvious that LeBron Jame is choosing to save his best reps for the most crucial moments, because he knows winning is going to take all of his best reps, and there’s nothing wrong with him doing so. The angry mob going after James for viewing his career like this probably also belong to the “I paid money for my ticket and I deserve to see LeBron go all out” manner of thought, but nobody is entitled to LeBron James’s game, it’s a privilege to be a “witness.” It’s in the best interest for everybody that LeBron James be at his best during the NBA Finals, no matter how much regular season effort it costs, because LeBron James is out to prove that it’s still LeBron James’s league.
With great expectation comes great consequence. Cleveland is down to only two consequences: Either they win the title and are heroes forever, or they lose and will have to seriously consider building a new foundation around LeBron James. It might be (and probably is) unfair to simplify it to this degree, but if the Cavaliers are champions this year, it’s LeBron James who’s back on top of the NBA hierarchy (no matter how good Steph Curry is). But if Cleveland doesn’t pull it off, we just might be inching towards uncomfortably viewing LeBron James’s career more as a what-was-and-could-have-been than a I-don’t-believe-what-that-guy did. This season’s Finals could represent a generational shift in the league, it could represent LeBron James’s greatness. It doesn’t necessarily have to be one or the other, but it can’t be both. LeBron James doesn’t care about regular season effort (or your criticism of it), he just wants it to be his league again … clock’s ticking.
