One of the worst decisions in LeBron's career
"The King" sold all his values in the pursuit of a fifth championship ring. But even if he wins it, it will no longer change his place in history — and will only deepen the debate about the path he chose.
The announcement by LeBron James that he will move to play next year for the Philadelphia 76ers is perhaps one of the worst decisions he has made in his glorious career. Moments after the media echo and the surprise it caused, came the torrents of criticism, and it cannot be said that James did not cook this mess for himself. LeBron James is indeed identified by every basketball fan, and especially NBA fans, in the last two decades as the most dominant player to ever dribble a basketball. At the same time, he is also identified as a chaser of titles and statistics. Throughout his career, every time he felt he was in a club that could not compete for a championship, James chose to abandon and change teams, and there to assemble around him a roster of stars who would bring a ring here and now.
Interesting, for example, is the comparison between LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two most prominent players in the league. James has played 22 seasons in the league, while Curry has played 16 seasons, but both have the same number of championships — four. Throughout their careers so far, Curry has played with only eight All-Star players, and James? He has played with at least 21 of them, on four different teams, but has not won more titles than Curry, who remained loyal to Golden State throughout his career, and will retire there. Kobe Bryant, who himself took five championship rings with the same team, described this personal choice in an interview:
"For me, the Lakers are home. I know the history of the team from the day of its founding inside and out. And therefore it is not a question at all for me. You have to know how to bear the failures just like the successes — to take championships in front of your home crowd, and also to know how to fail in front of it and take responsibility even when you don't manage to reach the playoffs."
So perhaps the eternal comparison, which it seems the media in America is addicted to — "Who is the greatest basketball player in history?" — should focus on a real source of comparison, and not on shooting numbers, rebounds, or the amount of titles, but to relate first of all to loyalty. Therefore, it is worth comparing LeBron James to several larger-than-life players who are usually mentioned in the same breath as him — Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan. All of them remained loyal to the same club throughout their careers, and most of them also have more championship rings.
At the end of the day, this decision by LeBron James does not look good. It seems that he is again chasing another credit or another statistical line for his resume, when in truth he has nothing left to prove. In practice, this act only distances him from the status of the greatest basketball players we have seen. Professional basketball is a team game. It is enough to watch the last and exciting championship of the New York Knicks, who took a championship after a drought of 53 years. Their roster is not a roster of stars (except for Jalen Brunson), but it is perhaps the only roster in the history of the playoffs that won a series while consistently coming back from a double-digit deficit.
I think that those to blame for James's predetermined fate are the American sports media. Media whose main addiction is exaggeration, and whose main characteristic is detachment from reality. This is a media that decided too early to crown LeBron James as "the next thing", that stirred up the endless provocation between James and Jordan, and that perhaps put into the boy's head that he is "The King" even before he did half of what other players did in the best league in the world. Thus, the hovering shadow of Michael Jordan never left the man.
So, practically, will LeBron James's decision to create a new instant roster of stars in Philadelphia help him at the end of his career to achieve the coveted fifth ring? Probably not. In recent years, taking an NBA championship is much harder than before — a kind of roulette in a casino. Most of the recent teams that took a championship are teams that went through a long and tedious process of several years until they were ripe to take a ring. They suffered, despaired, were injured, and failed, and then rose from the floor to start everything over — more cohesive and stronger, especially mentally. And LeBron? He will remain after this season with another statistical line of another team in his career — and perhaps also with the applause.
