Basketballer LeBron James’s reign as NBA’s best player of this decade could finally begin this year.
Nineteen years ago, in 1991, a prodigiously talented basketball player in the US, made his tryst with destiny. Undeterred by the obstacles from previous years, Michael Jeffrey Jordan led his Chicago Bulls to their first ever NBA title that year. Enroute to the title, Jordan had put to rest accusations of being a selfish player, swat aside the ‘Bad Boys from Detroit’ (a moniker for the players who represented the Detroit Pistons) and lead the Bulls past the legendary Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson and his Los Angeles Lakers. It was the start of a reign at Chicago, which saw ‘His Airness’ dominate the NBA landscape like never before. It was the coming of the age of excellence.
Now, history threatens to repeat itself. The protagonist, though, on this occasion hails from Cleveland. LeBron James came to the NBA in 2003, with a reputation bigger than Jordan’s. James was only 18 then and had leapfrogged his way directly, from high-school basketball to the NBA. Jordan, in contrast, was a relatively mature 21-year-old when he played his first game for Chicago in 1984. James was just a teenager, whose mother apparently grounded him when she learnt that a bank took her son’s future earning power into consideration, resulting in the approval of a loan to buy an $80,000 Hummer H2 for her son’s 18th birthday. And yet, a few months after turning 18, James signed a seven-year Nike endorsement contract worth more than $90 million. This, before he had shot a hoop in the NBA. Clearly, LeBron (6’8”) wore bigger shoes than Michael (6’6”), and this was not just a literal comparison.
Since then James — like Michael did — has pushed his team to greater heights. His very first season with the Cavaliers saw them improve by 18 wins and conclude the regular season with a 35-47 record. The second season, 2004-05, resulted in a positive win-loss ratio for the Cavs as they finished with a 42-40 record. Yet a playoff berth eluded them in both seasons. This anomaly changed the very next year, and Cleveland has been a permanent fixture on the playoff circuit ever since. On the way, James became the youngest player ever to reach 15000 points, made it to six NBA All- Star teams and won the NBA Most Valuable Player award in 2008-09, for leading the Cavaliers to a regular season franchise record of 66 wins. When James plays, the record books suffer casualties.
So what makes one particularly ‘Bull-ish’ about Cleveland’s chances for this year's post-season? They are, at 61-21, the team with the best regular season record. Only Cleveland and second placed Orlando have a 70 per cent-plus win ratio from the regular season, while all the other teams in the Eastern Conference are below the 65 per cent win mark.
But perhaps the biggest difference from last year is the form of the defending champions, the LA Lakers. A 57-25 regular season record this time is way below their 65-17 regular season record from last year. And even if their current regular season record is the best in the Western Conference, it is not good enough to give them the home court advantage if they meet Cleveland in the NBA finals. Also with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal to their roster at the start of the season, Cleveland now has the required physical presence to deal with the Lakers in the NBA finals.
So when James’ s Cavaliers and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers square off, a la Michael Jordan versus Magic Johnson from 1991, in the finals this year, it should mark the beginning of a long and legendary reign under ‘King James’ for the NBA.
(Akshay Manwani is a Mumbai-based writer)
