I watched Game 4, Cleveland at Atlanta last week, and as I was watching, a huge smile broke out across my face. I promptly send Jarvo a text stating the obvious. I do this all the time, but as with most of those times, I felt it had to be stated in black and white so I, and he, could reflect on the statement. I said:
"LeBron James is unguardable... and it's beautiful."
By the way, I’m adding “unguardable” to my dictionary, and advising that it can only be used when speaking about one of the two individuals that will grace this blog. Seriously, I know Derrick Rose is good, but “as soon as he develops a jump shot, he’ll be unguardable”? Come on. It’s like a scale. In fact, screw it; I’m going to make an “Unguardable Scale”. The rules would be simple:
- Players must be current. Who the hell am I to say if Bill Russell could guard Tim Duncan? Well, today he’d probably have a chance, as Timmy’s knees are more banged up than my dad’s – and my dad only has one of his original knees left.
- We count backwards from 100 (or however many I get done) to 1, with 99 being capable of guarding 100, and so on. This excludes purely offensive players. If a player is “unguardable”, then he’s not able to be stopped. I believe that should count for either end of the floor. Thus, Michael Redd would not make the list.
- Someone remind me to put this list together. In terms of anticipation, it’s somewhere between “World’s 100 Most Powerful People” and “Cronulla Players That Went to NZ in 2002”. Too soon? You all want this list. I’ll make it shortly.
Anyway, back to LeBron being unguardable. Teams are forced to double him constantly. Opposing coaches shiver when he has the ball in his hands. You can almost guarantee something good will happen when he has “The Rock”.
He’s quick enough to play Point Forward consistently, big and strong enough to play the four, savvy enough to guard the other team's best player, and intelligent enough to get to the hole when he needs to. We haven't ever - EVER - seen a player like this... and it's beautiful. It's a joy to watch this guy mature, hone different parts of his game, and slowly, but surely, become unguardable. He's starts off as a kid with more natural ability than just about anyone ever, and with the athleticism to back it up. He uses his athleticism to bully himself, to will himself, to get points. Shaky jumper? He works on it in the off-season, and now it's steady instead. No killer instinct? He wins a gold medal and shares that honour with men he admires and respects. He learns that to really win, you need that fire in your eyes, not just in the fourth quarter of a playoff game against Detroit, but every single night. You need to almost be a bully. You don’t need to become a bully like Kobe Bryant, a man who feels like he has to prove something to the world, and takes that fact out on his opponents to the point that you don’t like him at all – but you need to almost be a bully. You need to light up the Wolves on the road. To beat up on the Thunder in front of your home crowd. To score 108 points in the first 108 minutes you play in the Hawks series. LeBron has that fire every SINGLE night. It's scary. For the next five, six seasons, 29 other teams will be playing catch up to Cleveland, or whatever team he goes to in 2010 (which I think is still Cleveland).
Onto the flip side. LeBron has a very, very good team around him. Danny Ferry and Mike Brown have built up a team that’s perfect for LeBron James. A veteran centre who can pull down boards and shoot a nice little fifteen footer, making him a viable threat away from the basket, and giving LeBron an avenue, a crack in the defence, to drive through. A point guard who routinely made buzzer beaters at his last team, and has been begging for an opportunity he could never quite get, as he was playing behind TJ Ford first, and Ramon Sessions second (both of which, and this applies to TJ especially, are nowhere near Mo Williams’ level). Two combo guards who are reliable three point shooters, one of those who LeBron calls a better perimeter defender than he is. As for the four, they have one energy guy who’s playing like a poor man’s Chris Andersen (which is a compliment, even though the previous statement could never be called as such before May 2009); one veteran who can keep his composure and make shots when needed – just not too many; and the X Factor of the team, a former multiple time defensive player of the year who was overpaid by a thought-to-be contending team and is now six months away from actually decomposing at the end of a championship team’s bench. If Sasha Pavolvic and Wally’s World magically turned into Courtney Lee and Raja Bell, then this team would win every game by 25 points, not just every second game.
Point being, LeBron has the help that he originally desired. Sure, the help could be better, and the supporting cast more star-studded, but to quote The Rock, every player listed, with the exception of the last two (who suck – especially Sasha) knows their role, and shuts their mouth. If Fan Footy tracked the progress of Cavs games in the East Finals, every player bar James, West and Pavolvic would get a “cog” symbol (for those wondering, James would have a “crown” symbol, Williams would get the “hot sun” one, West would have a tag, and Pavolvic would be, of course, a spud). Actually, there’s another idea – fan footy graphics for players of other sports. I’ll make that happen later also.
Now, I look the initial statement, and with everything that I said above, it'd be easy to agree with it. Actually, it'd be too easy to agree with it. This is why I’m going to make the easiest point in the most long winded way possible. Michael Jordan started something that LeBron James is now continuing. Michael Jordan had kids from all corners of the earth… GROWN MEN from all corners of the earth... every sports fan from all corners of the earth... idolising him… and dreaming of being that good. If you were a 5-10 year old kid who just discovered basketball in the early-to-mid nineties, you were by default a Bulls fan. Jordan was worshipped by all. He did things athletically, statistically, physically, that no one had done before. He was so good that people will still be trying to find, and buying, his jersey in 100 years. You'll have men telling their kids about Michael Jordan stories their grandfathers told them.
Jordan reached a level that no athlete before him had gone close to - his name became synonymous with the name of the sport itself. If you ask a Regular Joe what they know about basketball, they're 80-90% sure to mention Michael Jordan in their answer. Only Tiger and Gretzky got to that level with their prospective sports, and of current athletes, only Usain Bolt has the opportunity to reach that place. Phelps couldn’t do it – sure, eight gold medals is the best by anyone ever, but people will still remember Ian Thorpe, Aleksander Popov, Grant Hackett, Inge de Bruin, and a few others. If Gary Ablett Jr. averaged 40 possessions per game for an ENTIRE SEASON he STILL wouldn’t be close to that level. There is, and will probably never be a consensus “Greatest Australian Rules Football Player Ever”, so how can someone reach That Level? Who’s name do you think of when I type boxing? I’d probably get a different answer from most of the people reading this, and most of the people in the street. Most would say Ali, sure, but some would say Tyson, Foreman, Holyfield, Lewis, Mayweather, De La Hoya, and other names would pop up. Mixed Martial Arts? Liddell had the chance, he really did. Beating Randy twice, beating Tito once when he was near the top of his game and once when he was washed up, beating Babalu in devastating fashion. He was on the rise, and then he ran out of people to fight for a while. Wanderlei wasn’t bought in until after he lost the belt. If Liddell had knocked out Silva, and then Jackson, he’s approach that level. Even the great Sir Donald Bradman couldn’t reach that level – three players came along and meant that all over the world people knew four greats of cricket: Bradman, Lara, Tendulkar, and Warne. The closest guy to Tiger, Gretzky and Jordan was Michael Schumacher. He might be at that level, it’s too hard to tell. What do you think?
So Jordan is on another level to anyone else that plays basketball. But we already knew that. The question that basketball fans will be asking themselves for perhaps the next 20 years is: will LeBron surpass him? I say no. LeBron might win six titles like Jordan. Might win six MVPs like Jordan. Might win a Defensive Player of the Year like Jordan. But it'll take something extra - it'll take LeBron BEATING Jordan at something - for LeBron to get to that level. Even then though, he'll only be an equal, because without Michael Jordan, there is no LeBron James. You can't just jump over a bar, someone had to set it there in the first place.
Thing is, the mere fact that there’s a player out there that could do that – could actually MATCH Jordan, is enough reason to throw the debate out and just watch. Incredibly excited, and proud, and thankful that I was young enough to hold Jordan in almost god-like esteem, and old enough to understand that what LeBron James is currently doing is a once in a lifetime achievement. Think about it, when my kids are young and Tiger is hanging up his putter, or Bolt has broken 9.6, or 9.5, and another guy comes along who can MATCH one of those guys, my kids will sit in awe, and enjoy. Me? I’ll probably be writing another column saying exactly the same thing, with exactly the same smile on my face.T
Friday, May 15, 2009
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