LeBron James is one of the most-talented players of all time - there is no debate on that. However, contrary to what some pundits are saying, including the guy from Salt Lake City on the podcast earlier this week, his Finals performance is not even in the discussion of the best ever.
James averaged 35.8 points a game. He did this by shooting the ball an ungodly amount of times. One finals record he set which will never be broken is missing 118 shots. James shot less than 40% from the field. Now you may say that his poor shooting was due to his lack of support from his teammates, which allowed GS to concentrate on James. However, you would only say this if you did not watch the Finals. James was double teamed less than 10% of the time. (Curry was double teamed much more often than James was.) Yet, James still missed more shots than anyone in NBA Finals history. James' nemesis was Iguodala, who held James to something closer to 30% shooting, when guarding him. James is 6'8" and weighs in the 240-250 range, while Iguodala is 6'6" and weighs in the 205-215 range. James had 2 inches and 35 pounds on Iguodala and still was beaten consistently by Iguodala, when the two were matched up.
Compare this to Jordan's '93 Finals' series against Phoenix. Jordan averaged 41 points over the 6 game series, while averaging almost 51% shooting from the field. Jordan also 1) won the series, 2) did not consistently and blatantly show up his coach, ( http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/3896/lebrons-handling-of-blatt-unbecoming ) and 3) did not quit playing defense at crucial stages of a game.
After Game 3 of this year's series, everyone was lauding James for making his teammates play better and leading the younger players. When the Cleveland supporting cast stopped playing well, the story changed to poor LeBron not having any help. Whatever happened with the supporting cast, LeBron was the PR winner.
Statistically, James had a great Finals. Given his poor shooting, it cannot be in the discussion for best ever. When you factor in non-statistical factors, including James quitting in Game 6 when his team still had a chance to win, it is ridiculous to even talk about the Finals' performance as one of the best ever.
James averaged 35.8 points a game. He did this by shooting the ball an ungodly amount of times. One finals record he set which will never be broken is missing 118 shots. James shot less than 40% from the field. Now you may say that his poor shooting was due to his lack of support from his teammates, which allowed GS to concentrate on James. However, you would only say this if you did not watch the Finals. James was double teamed less than 10% of the time. (Curry was double teamed much more often than James was.) Yet, James still missed more shots than anyone in NBA Finals history. James' nemesis was Iguodala, who held James to something closer to 30% shooting, when guarding him. James is 6'8" and weighs in the 240-250 range, while Iguodala is 6'6" and weighs in the 205-215 range. James had 2 inches and 35 pounds on Iguodala and still was beaten consistently by Iguodala, when the two were matched up.
Compare this to Jordan's '93 Finals' series against Phoenix. Jordan averaged 41 points over the 6 game series, while averaging almost 51% shooting from the field. Jordan also 1) won the series, 2) did not consistently and blatantly show up his coach, ( http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/3896/lebrons-handling-of-blatt-unbecoming ) and 3) did not quit playing defense at crucial stages of a game.
After Game 3 of this year's series, everyone was lauding James for making his teammates play better and leading the younger players. When the Cleveland supporting cast stopped playing well, the story changed to poor LeBron not having any help. Whatever happened with the supporting cast, LeBron was the PR winner.
Statistically, James had a great Finals. Given his poor shooting, it cannot be in the discussion for best ever. When you factor in non-statistical factors, including James quitting in Game 6 when his team still had a chance to win, it is ridiculous to even talk about the Finals' performance as one of the best ever.
