How LeBron James can surpass Michael Jordan

LeBron James is trying to catch the ghost of Michael Jordan. For LeBron to accomplish that task, he has to make his own brand of basketball the blueprint.

May 23, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) goes up to dunk for a basket over Toronto Raptors center Bismack Biyombo (8) in the second quarter in game four of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /

For LeBron James to catch the ghost of Chicago’s past, he has to make himself the ghost that needs catching. Blessed with the most natural talent in the NBA, LeBron has to play to his own strengths. When guarding LeBron, players have to know that his greatest strength isn’t physical, it’s photographic.

Long have detractors and naysayers compared LeBron to Michael Jordan and decried LeBron’s lack of a killer instinct, his record in the NBA finals, and his mid-range game. After 13 years in the league, LeBron shouldn’t believe he’ll catch Jordan by bearing similarities to The Jumpman.

King James can replicate the skills of His Airness, but he will never be him. What dooms Kobe Bryant in the conversation of the greatest players ever was that he replicated Jordan’s game, and tried to master, but came up short major statistical categories and his trophy collection.

LeBron might aspire to the six NBA Finals and Finals MVP trophies Jordan collected in his career, or even a Defensive Player of the Year award. However, LeBron’s ability to surpass Jordan’s mythic status, and not merely match his statistical output, skill set, and accolades, will be what elevates his legacy over the ghost of Jordan’s. To this point, there are parts of LeBron’s game that are historically unmatched on a basketball court.

The way for James to surpass Jordan is to use on using his God-given gifts; his mind, his body, and his soul. Out of this list, the most important basketball talent James has is his mind.

"“I can usually remember plays in situations a couple of years back — quite a few years back sometimes,” James says, according to ESPN. “I’m able to calibrate them throughout a game to the situation I’m in, to know who has it going on our team, what position to put him in.“I’m lucky to have a photographic memory,” he will add, “and to have learned how to work with it.”"

In sum, basketball IQ can be defined as the ability to acknowledge and analyze the plays that are currently transpiring, memorize the plays and abilities of players as they happen or after the game, and maximize their own talents while minimizing any perceivable weaknesses of their game. There have been a number of talented players that have had what is considered to be great basketball IQ, such as Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Chris Paul and John Stockton, to name a few.

However, despite Paul’s ability to learn how to dissect the opposing team’s defense on-the-fly, Garnett and Duncan’s understanding of how to play defense and where to be offensively at all times, or Kidd’s ability to make talented players on his team better by putting them in the best position to maximize their basketball talents, there is no player that matches LeBron’s basketball IQ.

"“It’s allowed me to see things before they happen, put guys in position, kind of read my teammates, knowing who is out of rhythm, who is in rhythm, knowing the score, the time, who has it going on the other end, knowing their likes and dislikes and being able to calibrate all that into a game situation,” James says. “That’s very challenging, but it comes natural. It can help your team out.”"

The first order of business, for LeBron, is memorizing the play.

As a basketball savant and one of the NBA’s all-time star pupils of the game, James has had the unique chance to perceive the basketball court as a deity would: with omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

As the league’s toughest player to defend one-on-one and most elite all-around player, LeBron has been tasked with finding a way to impact the game while being guarded like few others have.

As far as situational basketball goes, between his own experiences and his obsessive study of the game he plays for a profession, there aren’t any players with a higher situational basketball IQ than LeBron.

Take, for instance, some anecdotal evidence from LeBron’s days in Miami with his former coach, Erik Spoelstra.

"Spoelstra will find himself reviewing the moment, searching his memories, and he’ll realize the Heat did indeed play that way against Dallas. “I was like, c’mon, that was from a game three years ago,” Spoelstra says, before raising his fingers and making a crisp snap. “And he recalled it just like that.”"

Perhaps, there was no greater showing of James’ basketball IQ than the 2016 NBA Finals. In this series, James was unstoppable offensively.

Yet, it’s not just because he found consistency with his shot or that his athleticism led to an assault on the rim. As the “LeBron Rules” go, defending players should go under LeBron’s screens and guard his shooters closely so that he’s forced to beat them as a scoring jump-shooting wing.

LeBron didn’t take what the defense gave him. For the entire seven game series, James took what he wanted. If he wanted to score inside he got the switch onto the right man. If he wanted a teammate to be in the best position to score, he set up the hockey assist from behind-the-line, or a drive-and-dish that was executed to perfection because LeBron moved his defender and multiple others away from his intended shooter.

Defensively, once the team’s scheme was simplified, James roamed the lane calling out assignments and protecting the rim in ways that would have made Duncan proud. He edged over slightly left and right to deter slashers from coming all the way into the paint. He blocked shots straight up, he chased the lay-up attempts down.

When the game got close, he had suggestions for how the play should go. This isn’t the first time LeBron has called for a teammate to hit the clutch shot instead of himself. Rather than being perceived as shrinking from these moments, LeBron’s actions should be looked at for what they really are, an understanding of the game of basketball and how to maximize his team’s chance at winning with the best quality shot.

Jordan was an intelligent player and knew how to attack defenses and offenses equally, using his offensive and defensive awareness of the game of basketball. However, no player has ever boasted a photographic memory. At least not one as naturally talented and so close to the firmly affixing himself to the top of the NBA’s hierarchy as LeBron.

For the King, this is the first part of what will let him reign supreme in the NBA’s all-time history.

How LeBron James’ omniscience helps him surpass Michael Jordan

By Quenton S. Albertie | Aug 5, 2016

LeBron James is trying to catch the ghost of Michael Jordan. For LeBron to accomplish that task, he has to make his own brand of basketball the blueprint.