Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
“Not ’til I win, Not 11. Not 12. Not 13. Not 14,” LeBron James said, playfully, from the Miami Heat media day stage. “Until I win that, then I’ll be able to accomplish my feat.”
James was joking — this time — as reporters pointed out that he would have to be competing at the age of 50 to pull that off. But there was no laughing going on when he made his true intentions known.
“I want to be the greatest of all-time,” James said at Monday’s team media day. “It’s that simple… I’m far away from it, but I see the light.”
That statement was more than motivation, it was perfect timing. Especially when the greatest of all-time (Michael Jordan) came out the next day and said that Kobe Bryant would be the only player to beat him in his prime “because he steals all of my moves.”
And it’s no coincidence that the video that dropped was in promotion of a game featuring James on its cover. 2k sports took the opportunity to capitalize off of his quest and ran with it.
However, James may be working his way a lot closer to the crown than even MJ would admit. Now don’t get me wrong, no one will probably ever knock Jordan off the throne, but that doesn’t mean that others could never pull up a seat — a seat that James is well on his way to filling.
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
His four regular-season MVP awards made him the fifth player in NBA history to bring home four or more of those awards. His two Finals MVPs tied him with Kobe, and his two championship rings put him four behind Jordan.
Ultimately the thing that stands out is that unlike Bryant (5-2) and James (2-2), Jordan never made it to the NBA Finals and lost. But who knows what would’ve happened if MJ didn’t take that year and a half off. That we can’t say.
What we can say is that LeBron is getting better.
Every year he adds a dimension to his game that makes him almost unguardable. So who’s to say that four more titles and a few more Most Valuable Player awards wouldn’t put him on top of the mountain, in someone’s eyes?
Until then, we can all smile like James and say: “It’s a good promotion.”
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Richard Nurse is a Miami Heat columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @blackirishpr or add him to your network on Google.
