LeBron James and His Almost-Dynasty

Seven games. That’s all LeBron James needed to win five straight championships and establish a dynasty that no player in the modern era has ever accomplished. Not Shaquille O’Neal. Not Kobe Bryant. Not Larry Bird. Not Magic Johnson. And, yes, not even Michael Jordan. Not one of them had won more than three in a row.

But five straight titles wasn’t meant to be for James as his time with the Miami Heat ended with a 2-2 win-loss record in the championship round and an 0-1 record after his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers last year brought him on the cusp of another title.

Instead, just like his plethora of near-triple-doubles, LeBron has an almost-dynasty with five consecutive trips to the Finals.

Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) walks off the court after loose to the Golden State Warriors in game six of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The last players to accomplish the feat of winning four or more consecutive titles were Bill Russell and his teammates from the 1960’s Celtics when they won an unprecedented eight straight championships and 11 of 13.

[LeBron] is gunning for the title of the best player ever, a pursuit deemed blasphemous by many…

Getting to the Finals five straight times is a grueling experience and an accomplishment that many other NBA players would want to have on their résumé. And to win two out of five? It would be heaven for any other player.

But LeBron James isn’t any other player. The man is gunning for the title of the best player ever, a pursuit deemed blasphemous by many as it is a title that many experts and fans consider to currently reside in the hands of His Airness, Michael Jordan.

Losing three out of five Finals appearances doesn’t help James’ cause either even though this last Finals loss should come with an asterisk as the King played perhaps better than anyone in NBA history in the championship series. It was the lack of support due to the injuries suffered by All-Stars Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving that doomed the team’s chances versus the eventual winners, the Golden State Warriors. Even so, the Cavs were just two wins away from a first-ever championship in the franchise’s 45-year history.

…no less than Jordan teammate Scottie Pippen dubbed him the greatest player ever…

This just goes to show how difficult it is to win a title despite demolishing all the other teams in the conference on the way to reaching the Finals. A team needs to win four more times and those four wins are harder to come by than anyone can imagine.

Here’s a summary of the five straight Finals series that LeBron played in.

2011 – Miami Heat lose 4-2 to the Dallas Mavericks

2012 – Miami Heat win 4-1 versus the Oklahoma City Thunder

2013 – Miami Heat win 4-3 versus the San Antonio Spurs

2014 – Miami Heat lose 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs

2015 – Cleveland Cavaliers lose 4-2 to the Golden State Warriors

Of the three Finals losses, the most winnable was the 2011 series versus the Mavs. In that series, James inexplicably played his worst ever, something that still haunts him to this day. And this was after playing at an all-time high level during the first three rounds of that playoffs after which no less than Jordan teammate Scottie Pippen dubbed him the greatest player ever. The Heat were also just two wins away from the championship in spite of James’ embarrassing performance. That’s how strong that team was.

The series versus the Spurs in 2014 was close during the first two games with the teams splitting them in San Antonio. In fact, if not for the air conditioning malfunction in the arena which resulted in James suffering the cramps in the last six minutes of the ball game, a case can be made that Miami could have won Game 1 and Game 2. From then on, however, it was a basketball clinic conducted masterfully by the Spurs as the Heat were wiped out of the Finals with three straight lopsided wins. LeBron played well in the series but the rest of the Heat were nowhere to be found.

Jun 9, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) before game three of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

In the Cavs’ first year with James back at the helm, Cleveland came oh-so-close to winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy when they led the series 2-1 heading into an all-important Game 4. One adjustment later (Andre Iguodala started the games instead of coming off the bench) and the series was suddenly over despite LeBron’s historic performance with a six-game series that set numerous all-time records.

So here we are during the off-season, with LeBron still suffering nightmares about the previous losses in the Finals and his fingers missing three rings that represent seven wins that never materialized. While LeBron is hardly the person to blame for five of those not happening (yep those two against the Mavs were on him for sure), the standards set on him by the rest of the basketball world are higher than any player in NBA history.

How does he hope to live up to such lofty standards?

Start a real dynasty by winning at least three of the next five championships. Of course winning five straight would be better. And despite the improbability of it happening, there’s no other player and no other team prepared to win that many by 2020.

In 2020, those seven games will no longer be remembered as missed opportunities but as stepping stones in making James a better player and a more accomplished champion.

The Cavaliers are making great strides this off-season for just that kind of run with a very young core team that’s poised to grow together as the seasons pass. James is already 30 but is still getting better. And they reside in the Eastern Conference where the competition is relatively weaker than in the Western Conference.

Five years from now I expect that the media, basketball experts, and fans will continue to dissect and scrutinize James’ play as a 35 year old veteran. But I suspect that by then, he will have won a minimum of five championships in the last decade and the narrative on LeBron will have changed.

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The Almost-Dynasty will soon be forgotten and the painful memories of Finals losses past will be easier to live with five rings in his hand.

In 2020, those seven games will no longer be remembered as missed opportunities but as stepping stones in making James a better player and a more accomplished champion.

But LeBron has to start winning the title again no matter who’s on his team next year and take the first step in establishing his King James Dynasty.

Because if there is one thing we know about fans and critics alike, it’s that almost is never enough.

Next: Are the Cavs Better Than Last Year?