A new NBA Playoffs is upon us, and with it comes the opportunity to watch the ageless LeBron James compete not only for another championship with the Los Angeles Lakers but also a chance to add to his legacy which he hopes will be as the greatest basketball player of all time, bar none. And that includes the person whose name has long been synonymous with the acronym GOAT (greatest of all time), Michael Jordan.
Or maybe this is not the case after all?
When it comes to picking “best ever” and the legacy each player has left or will leave, does the number of championships or points or All-Star appearances matter the most? If you look at certain numbers, Jordan may have a slight edge. He’s won slightly more championships, more MVPs and more All-Defensive Team honors. On the other hand, James has scored more points than Jordan—or anybody else who ever played in the NBA. He has more assists and rebounds than Jordan and nearly as many steals.
Both are big-game players, breathtaking to watch.
Will one more Championship, especially one that involves getting past the defending champions, Denver, in the first round, furnish the push James needs to surpass Jordan?
We submit that the answer is no and that all of these numbers, and the attempt to define his legacy based on these numbers, fail to account for another measure of greatness that may be more fundamental to defining a legacy. That measure is commitment to improvement.
As this author wrote in Greatness: 16 Characteristics of True Champions, show us someone who has rejected complacency and chosen to constantly strive to be better, even when it means adjusting his or her game, and we’ll show you greatness personified.
For example, Jordan was always talented at and around the rim. He was one of the most athletically dominant players of his era, and he was always able to dunk on nearly any defender. But for him, that wasn’t good enough. As his career progressed, he chose to take his game from good to great.
Jordan came into the league able to fly through the air—and hang there. He became an instant celebrity and was named Rookie of the Year. But it wasn’t until seven years later that he won his first NBA championship. Jordan learned that high-flying dunks brought fame but not championships. He learned that he could score forty points a game, but in order to win a title he would need to get more out of himself and his teammates.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships,” Jordan would often say as he matured.
In 1991, after Chicago’s archrival, the Detroit Pistons, had knocked Jordan and the Bulls out of the playoffs three years running, Jordan changed his game by developing one of the deadliest jump shots in the league. He learned how to use his teammates, and he knew what he had to do to make them better. By that next year’s playoffs, Detroit’s defense was no match for Jordan’s new-and-improved arsenal. By changing his game Jordan took his game, and his team, to the next level. That year, he won his first championship ring.
Now we have James, already enjoying a career that has made him peerless except for Jordan, devoting himself last off-season to getting his three-point shooting to a higher standard. This season, James is shooting a career-best 41.7 percent from three-point range. It’s no accidental blip but a concerted effort to shore up one of the few parts of his game that hasn’t served him or his team well in several years.
“I’ve been able to get a lot more work in on the floor this season because my foot has been a lot better than last year,” James explained. “I really couldn’t on off days or in-between games or whatever, get much work done because I had to stay off my foot because of the injury last year that took me all the way through postseason. So, relative to last year, I’ve been able to actually [be] a lot more consistent in putting work in on my shooting.”
Sounds pretty straightforward, but remember it’s well-nigh impossible to win an NBA championship without a three-point threat on your team. At present, the Laker’s three-point game is lagging, so win or lose against Denver, James has turned himself into just such a threat by expanding his game when his team needs it most.
He’s doing it because the great ones can’t live with a weakness in their game. You can’t fix a number to this characteristic, but you know it when you see it. It’s called greatness, even if we can’t say for sure that it adds up to GOATness!
The better question may be: what’s your weakness and what are you doing to turn it into a strength?