It is an absolutely indisputable fact that “King James” is an illegitimate monarch.
Of course, this inconvenient truth (for Cavs fans, ESPN, and Colin Cowherd) does not mean that LeBron isn’t a great player--he is undoubtedly one of the best we’ve ever seen--but the title of “King” is unwarranted considering his record.
A player who deserves such a prolific honor is someone who dominates the sport in which he/she plays, wins an unprecedented amount of titles, and displays a god-like level of greatness. This does not describe LeBron James.
Kings of American sports such as Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi, Michael Jordan, and Babe Ruth are all a step above LeBron James.
Brady and Belichick have won 5 Super Bowls thus far, and the trophies now housed in Gillette are named after Coach Lombardi. Jordan won 6 titles, and if he hadn’t left the game of basketball to explore baseball, he probably would have taken 8 in a row. Finally, Ruth (or the Sultan of Swat) won 7 rings.
Meanwhile, LeBron James has just 3 titles, one of which is clearly illegitimate. The first, in 2012, was handed to the fraud king, as the refs quite clearly fixed that year’s Eastern Conference Finals. You can find a sample of what I’m talking about here, where the egregious no-call turned what would have been a Celtics victory in 5 games into a 7-game W by the Heat. We’ll never know what would have happened if that series had not been fixed and LeBron went home crying in 5, but I would guess that his career would have descended even further if he had been embarrassed by the Celtics just a year after his horrible performance against the Mavs in The Finals. The other 2 titles were gifted to LeBron by Ray Allen’s heroic three-pointer (which came right after LeBron missed a three) and by the Draymond Green fiasco in 2016.
LeBron James is much more like Peyton Manning than any of the kings I mentioned above. Of course, Manning was also an all-time great player like LeBron, but his postseason failings and repeated duds against the Patriots put him below Tom Brady on the all-time list and certainly means he does not deserve the title of “King.” Meanwhile, LeBron’s similar issues put him definitively below Michael Jordan and too close to the likes of Kevin Durant to be referred to as basketball’s king. Let’s not forget that LeBron is only 0.1 PPG better than KD all-time, and he’s only been the NBA’s leading scorer once in his career--way back in 2007. Durant has been the NBA’s scoring champion 4 times, and Michael Jordan did it 10 seasons (he missed 2 due to playing baseball, so this stat is with reference to the seasons he played) in a row. These facts, plus his meltdown in the 2011 NBA Finals and his lackluster efforts last year (where he put up just 6 points combined in the first three 4th quarters of that series), make it impossible to put him on the level of Brady, Jordan, or Ruth. In other words, LeBron James is great, but he isn’t great enough to merit the title of “King.”
Enter the Boston Celtics, the eternal enemy of the illegitimate king. The Cs have been fantastic in these playoffs and have taken a 3-0 lead against the 76ers, which puts them in an excellent position to reach the conference finals and face LeBron and Co. In this coming series, Boston will have nothing to lose since they’re playing against an alleged monarch, and everyone will be picking against them. But as any decent NBA fan knows, this Cavs team is extremely beatable. We’re talking about a team that would have lost to the Pacers had the NBA not gifted the Cavs a pass in Game 5. Imagine the embarrassment that would ensue for the House of James should the Celtics pull off the upset. Since the Cs will have home court, I think they’ll come through.
But even if this isn’t the year that Boston dethrones The King, we all know that the end of his reign is coming very soon. The impending return of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward means that LeBron will soon lose his hegemony in the Eastern Conference. In fact, it likely makes the Celtics unbeatable in the East, and LeBron’s path to another ring nearly impossible. This puts LeBron in a bind. If he stays in Cleveland and gets absolutely demolished by the Celtics for years to come, he will be exposed as a fraud king, leaving him only one other option: leave. And if James does that, his legacy will be permanently tarnished.
Either way, “King James” is in serious jeopardy of losing his throne. The Celtics are coming and there’s really nothing he can do about it.
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