Getty Images
The Cleveland Cavaliers came up two wins short of the NBA championship. More so, history will remember that LeBron James came up two wins short of an NBA championship. History will remember LeBron’s epic choke against the Dallas Mavericks. History will remember that the Miami Heat were steam rolled by the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. History will remember that in his first six NBA Finals appearances, LeBron had a record of 2-4. LeBron is still relatively young and near the peak of his game, so odds are he has two, three, maybe even four more Finals appearances left in him, especially in the lackluster Eastern Conference, so history isn’t finished writing his legacy. But several of the first few paragraphs will be unkind.
History will not remember that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were out against the Golden State Warriors. History will not remember that LeBron shot nearly 60 percent from the floor against the Spurs in 2014, and history will not remember that LeBron was only 22 and completely outmanned against the Spurs in 2007.
Several will say that is unfair to LeBron — and maybe it is — but winning is what cements legacies. History remembers Michael Jordan‘s double three-peat but is already forgetting that he didn’t beat the Detroit Pistons until his fourth attempt. Winning is remembered, and if championships are won, history forgets the losses. If LeBron doesn’t start winning more Finals than he loses, he will be remembered as a phenomenal talent who couldn’t get his team’s over the top. Maybe it’s asking too much and maybe Jordan or Magic Johnson couldn’t have won titles with these teams, but history doesn’t need to answer these questions — it only looks at results.
LeBron chose to play for the Heat and he chose to return to Cleveland and play for this particular team, so any shortcoming these teams have falls harder on LeBron than the failures of other legends. In the end, superstars are paid by teams to produce championships, and even if the team has not surrounded that star with the appropriate parts, the blame will always fall on the player and not the team. Jordan made it very clear that he believes players win championships, not organizations, and when that sentiment exists with both players and media members, the pressure to win falls on the league’s stars.
LeBron has plenty of career left in him, and he can easily change the theme that history has begun to write. He has to do one thing and one thing only — win.
History remembers what it wants to remember and labels and negativity can be erased. When Jordan and LeBron are compared, the LeBron supporters are nauseated by the God-like persona that Jordan’s legacy carries. What either side fails to bring up is that in the 1980s, Jordan was considered a selfish player who didn’t elevate those around him. He was considered a score-first player who may never with a championship
History doesn’t remember that portion of Jordan’s career. History doesn’t remember that Jordan failed for three straight years to beat the Pistons, but it does remember the sweep in 1991 when the Pistons walked off the floor before the game was over. How did Jordan shed these negativities? Simple, he won. His six championships and unblemished Finals record is what puts him on another level. The history books have not finished writing LeBron’s story and he has time to change the rhetoric.
LeBron needs to win multiple titles in Cleveland, and he can erase all the negative light that blemishes his greatness. We remember John Elway for winning his two Super Bowls and his tremendous comeback against the Cleveland Browns in the 1986 AFC Championship game. We forget his horrendous Super Bowl performances and his 0-3 record the first three times he was there.
It’s time for LeBron to start rewriting his legacy. He has plenty of time to do it. Jordan did it. Elway did it. LeBron can do it. However, if he keeps getting his teams close but falling short of a championship, whether it’s fair to blame him or not, history will put that onus on his shoulders. We know LeBron wants to be considered the greatest of all time. We know he considers himself the greatest in the game today. We know he cares about his legacy. He’s accomplished plenty to cement himself as an all-time great, and now he only has one thing left to do — win, and win often.
Bill Zimmerman is a featured writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter or like him on Facebook.
