LeBron's Legacy

You can contact Tucker Warner by email at firstteemulligan@yahoo.com or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/twarner50

What can you say after watching the debacle that was the Cavaliers-Celtics series? Well, let me change that. What can you say about LeBron James?

Sure, you can say that Coach Mike Brown hurts the Cavs more than he helps them. Sure, you can say that Cleveland GM Danny Ferry does not and will never know how to build a championship team. Sure, you can say that the team itself is so flawed that not even Michael Jordan in his prime could have won a championship with them. (It's true. There's no good second banana on Cleveland.)

And yes, all these arguments have merit. Coach Mike Brown never seems to play the right five to match up well against an opponent. For example, Anderson Varejao used his speed, jumping ability, and versatility to exploit a huge weakness in Boston's frontcourt. He averaged 21.5 minutes per game in the Celtics series, a good 7 minutes/game less than his regular season average. Um, maybe not a good decision. Oh, Coach Mike Brown also thought it would be a good idea to match up a washed-up Shaq on a still-capable Kevin Garnett, while Antawn Jamison was stuck wasting his athleticism on the always-immobile Kendrick Perkins. Yeah, that one didn't work either.

Can you blame Coach Mike Brown entirely? No, you can't blame him entirely, but that's only because Danny Ferry has also done such a horrendous job as GM that you have to blame him also.

There's something that Ferry should realize: dynasties are created by the second and third best players. Look at the championship teams over the past three decades. Bird had McHale. Magic had Kareem. Jordan had Pippen. Isiah had Dumars. Olajuwon had Drexler. Shaq had Kobe, then Kobe had Gasol. Duncan had Parker and Ginobili. On the 2008 Celtics, Garnett had Pierce, or Pierce had Garnett, or Garnett had Allen, or Rondo had all three, or something like that.

LeBron has nobody. Who's the second-best player on the Cavs? Mo Williams? Um, that's not exactly a good thing. Some people might say "But Mo Williams is good! He was even an all-star in 2007!" And these people would be called dumb. Maybe he's above average, but he's definitely not one of the best five point guards in the league. Look at all the second bananas in the last paragraph. All of them, in their prime, were in the top three in their position during their prime. Heck, Manu Ginobili even got an MVP vote this year! That's the type of guy you need as a second banana when you have the best player in the league. Not a one-time All Star who isn't even the best point guard on his team. (For the record, if LeBron was a full-time point, he'd start over Mo. This is indisputable.)

So no, you can't blame LeBron for losing the series and never getting close to a championship. But at some point, you have to say that maybe LeBron won't be one of the ten best players of all time. Put it this way: there's a reason that guys like Reggie Miller or Julius Erving never won a championship. They were missing that thing that guys like MJ, Bird, Magic, and Duncan had. Miller was missing the talent to win games without much help. Erving was missing the killer instinct.

LeBron is missing selfishness.

Yes, I said it. Selfishness is a good quality to have when you're the best player on a contending team. I don't mean Kobe-in-2005-level selfishness. I mean just enough selfishness to realize that, if you're LeBron, keeping the ball for yourselfin a key situation is a much better option than dishing off to Mo Williams. LeBron is just too loyal.

Quick tangent: that's probably why I think LeBron will stay in Cleveland. The best move would be Chicago, for many reasons (mostly because of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah), but LeBron probably doesn't care. This is the guy who keeps around his high school buddies as his entourage and plays in pretty much his hometown. Could he leave? Yes, and I could see him doing so. But I'd bet on him staying.

Back to my main point. Here's my list of the best ten NBA players ever: MJ, Russell, Magic, Bird, Kareem, Wilt, Duncan, Olajuwon, West, and Shaq. All of them have won more than two championships. Only one (Wilt) had something inherently wrong with him that prevented him from winning, but in his case, it was okay because during his era there weren't exactly that many 7-1 athletic centers who could stay with him through a whole game. LeBron is definitely the most athletic player in the game today, but he doesn't have the capability to dominate the way Wilt did.

And that's why, at the current rate, I don't see LeBron becoming one of the ten best players of all-time. Right now, his career is an enigma. Absolutely the best player of the past two years, he has never been close to winning a championship. Dwyane Wade didn't exactly have a ton of help when Miami won the title in 2006. Chauncey Billups didn't have too much help when Detroit won in 2004. And LeBron is much better than Billups, and probably better than Wade.

And while we're not ready to wrap up LeBron's career just yet, (he's only 25 and could completely change his legacy) his free agency will show LeBron's true intentions. If he signs with Chicago, that will prove that he is committed to winning, which would negate everything I have said in this article. If he re-signs with Cleveland, then it next-to-proves that LeBron wants to win a championship, but winning is not the most important thing to him, the way it was to Jordan or Russell.

And no matter what, that's where LeBron's legacy will be when he ends his career. Undoubtedly great, but no Jordan or Russell.

-Tucker Warner