It’s time for NBA legends to start showing reverence to LeBron James

It’s time for Michael Jordan and former NBA greats to pay their respect to LeBron James.

LeBron James didn’t hear a word from Michael Jordan after tying his long-standing record of reaching double-digit scoring totals in 866 consecutive games. A record he tied against the team Jordan owns and in Jordan’s home state and can break at home in Cleveland on Friday, in his kingdom.

As mentioned by Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, James never really gets any praise, let alone recognizable respect, from Jordan for surpassing him in statistical categories and breaking his records. Yet, you know if he never did break those records, they would still be used as evidence that Jordan is better than James.

That speaks to something that borders on disdain for James as a player rather than speaking to the fraternal bond NBA players, past and present, typically exude.

A disdain borne out of subjectivity rather than objectivity considering the number of statistical categories James bests Jordan in.

For whatever reason, though, it’s not just Jordan. Many of the games iconic figures have resisted giving praise to James.

Perhaps they actually feel threatened by his play and like true competitors, refuse to concede victory to the King.

It’s possible that in private, they analyze his game and recognize the majesty of his dominance and the otherworldly level of his playmaking and say things to themselves they wouldn’t dare say in public.

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Then again, maybe they just don’t think he’s that great, whether because they’re biased towards the stars they grew up watching or because they think other eras were tougher to play in.

Perhaps they don’t think James has had enough success team success. Just individual success.

On the one hand, you have former superstars like Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving, who are willing to concede that James is one of the greatest players in NBA history.

Thomas and Erving both feel like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest player ever while Thomas says James is better than Jordan and Erving considers the Jordan vs. LeBron debate to be a subjective comparison.

On the other hand, you have people like Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar, two of the three players typically in consideration for the title of “Greatest of All-Time” but who don’t seem to consider James to be on their level.

Bill Russell also has shunned James, placing players like Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird and himself ahead of James on his Mount Rushmore of NBA legends while simultaneously saying basketball is a team sport and not about individual honors. These comments were made in 2014 but the cognitive dissonance was at it’s finest considering Robertson has one ring to what were two rings for James and Abdul-Jabbar (6), Shaquille O’Neal (4) and Wilt Chamberlain (2) each have more rings than Robertson.

Russell has yet to amend his Mount Rushmore.

Abdul-Jabbar believes that Chamberlain is the best player in history, casually forgetting that there were never 29 other teams for their squads to compete with, the level of perimeter skill and athleticism commonly found in any player, and especially the big men, of the last three decades didn’t exist when they played like it does now. He also forgets that they both were, at times, carried to victory in the NBA Finals.

James is playing in the most talented version of the league there is, with better athletes, more emphasis on skill and a 30 teams.

In the 1987 NBA Finals, Abdul-Jabbar was carried by Johnson (the 1987 Finals MVP) and James Worthy. In the Los Angeles Lakers’ four victories, Abdul-Jabbar was only the leading scorer once.

In the 1988 NBA Finals, Abdul-Jabbar was never the leading scorer in the Lakers’ victories. In fact, he only converted six or less field goals in each of their victories as Worthy was named Finals MVP. Ironically, Thomas’ Pistons saw this version of Abdul-Jabbar and Thomas would still rank him above James.

Nostalgia.

In Abdul-Jabbar’s first championship season there were 17 teams in the league and he was being guarded by 6-foot-7 Wes Unseld in the 1971 NBA Finals while towering over him at 7-foot-2.

James has never had it that easy in the Finals. He’s consistently been guarded by either top-notch defenders or players similar to his size.

In the 1980 NBA Finals, a league with 22 teams, Abdul-Jabbar was certainly dominant but yet Magic Johnson earned Finals MVP honors.

James has never had a teammate win Finals MVP honors while in his prime.

In the 1982 NBA Finals, you can say Abdul-Jabbar was outplayed by both Andrew Toney and Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers and even Jamaal Wilkes, his own teammate. He was stuffing the stat sheet but the only category Abdul-Jabbar led outright on his own team was blocks.

James consistently leads his team in nearly every category.

The 1985 NBA Finals are the only championship series where Abdul-Jabbar was the most dominant player, won Finals MVP and played against absurdly stiff competition in the frontcourt.

James has done that thrice: against Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs in 2013 and against the Golden State Warriors all-time great 73-9 team in 2016.

As for Chamberlain, who came into a league with 8 teams in his rookie season and left the league while there 17 teams, if his 2-4 Finals record is good enough for Abdul-Jabbar then James is just fine at 3-5.

Chamberlain was the most dominant player in the 1964 NBA Finals and the 1972 NBA Finals, which he won one of (1972). However, Chamberlain was outplayed by New York Knicks center Willis Reed in both the 1970 NBA Finals and 1973 NBA Finals as Reed went on to win Finals MVP both years.

You can make a case that both teammate Hal Greer and San Francisco Warriors guard Rick Barry outplayed Chamberlain in the 1967 NBA Finals, especially as Barry averaged twice as many points per game as Chamberlain. In the 1969 NBA Finals, both teammate Jerry West and Celtics legend John Havlicek performed better than Chamberlain, with the Celtics winning the ring and West winning Finals MVP.

In James’ eight Finals appearances, he’s been the most dominant player on the floor five times.

In 2007, at 22-years-old, he was taken out of his game by Gregg Popovich and subsequentially outplayed by Tony Parker.

In 2011, he was outplayed by Dirk Nowitzki and teammate Dwyane Wade, leading Wade to realize that James had to be Batman and not him for the team to win.

In 2017, he was arguably outplayed by Kevin Durant although he averaged a 30-point triple-double that series.

The King is better than both the Big Fella and the Big Dipper.

Quite frankly, it’s disgraceful for players of Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar’s standing to refuse to accept James’ greatness.

The championship argument used against James will always be given without context.

As previously mentioned, people will rarely mention the rings Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain were carried to or their level of competition in the Finals.

Everybody sees Jordan’s six rings and insane stats but never see the Bulls as a team with multiple Hall of Famers and a future head coach playing against teams they were always the favorites against in championship games.

Meanwhile, against the San Antonio Spurs in 2007 and 2014 and against the Golden State Warriors in 2015, 2016 and 2017, James has been the underdog.

Is he 1-4 as an underdog, yes. But look at the tale of the tape and he’s the last player to blame for his team’s losses in those Finals.

He is to blame for not being more aggressive in the 2011 NBA Finals though the dynamics of that series were more complex than often mentioned. However, even though the Dallas Mavericks team they faced has been historically underrated, the Miami Heat were the favorites to win that series and he didn’t do his part.

This is often where the “GOAT” conversation ends for many but remember that Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain had quite a few substandard performances in the Finals.

Jordan never did that but he did struggle to get past just the first round of the playoffs without Scottie Pippen, his Hall of Fame teammate.

Apples and oranges. Nitpicking the 2011 Finals as evidence James isn’t GOAT material is to be selectively attentive with your NBA history and show an inconsistency in your analysis.

Does that series weigh more than first-round exits in the postseason like Jordan? Getting carried to multiple rings like Abdul-Jabbar? Consistently being outplayed by his positional matchups like Chamberlain?

All things considered, James’ predecessors need to show more reverence to a player whose career isn’t perfect but better than theirs was. That goes for Jordan, too, unless he wants to continue using the inconsistent rings argument as the end-all be-all for his analysis to continue propping himself up.

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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com