Five days ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers had just squeaked past the Indiana Pacers in a grueling 7-game series. Heading into their second-round series against the Raptors, I thought there’s no way that LeBron singlehandedly pulls this one off for several reasons, some of which are laughable in hindsight.
Jakob (Prospect Jake) Levin points out that the Cavs have received better contributions from LeBron’s surrounding cast thus far in this series. While that’s certainly unquestionable, the focus of this blog is about how absurdly amazing LeBron is. Undoubtedly, Scott Crosby will not be pleased about this, but witnessing LeBron James own the city of Toronto last night reminded me of his greatness.
LeBron James is an orchestrator. An orchestrator, as defined by our friends at Google, is one who “arrange(s) or direct(s) the elements of a situation to produce a desired effect, especially surreptitiously.” If you’re not aware, LeBron has “directed” seven straight teams to the NBA Finals, one of the grandest “desired effects” possible. In past seasons, LeBron’s teams were the overwhelming favorite to win the conference. Unlike those past teams, LeBron has had to work with a suspect cast of characters throughout this season. Thus, many people, including myself, doubted his ability to take this team to The Finals pre-playoffs. As was evident in the Cavaliers’ thumping of the Raptors last night to take a 2-0 series lead to Cleveland, LeBron appears destined to play well into June once more. Simply put, LeBron James and reaching the NBA Finals is like the Kansas Jayhawks and winning the Big 12.
Back in the Pacers series, there were multiple stretches of time where the chemistry of the Cavs was failing: Kevin Love was getting his lunch eaten by Thad Young, J.R. Smith was taking a few too many of his off-balance contested 3s, and Clarkson and Hood continued to miss out-of-rhythm shots. But like a simple flip of the switch, LeBron went into orchestrating mode, and the chemistry of the Cavs is now reminiscent of their improbable 2016 NBA Championship run. And although I don’t think that the chemistry that they’ve displayed in the first 2 games in Toronto will remain that high, LeBron is in that zone where it won’t even matter how well or not his teammates play; they can count on him to close out a game if need be.
LeBron is also the master of preparing for his on-court orchestrating. He has invested roughly $1.5 million per year into rehabilitating his body. Heading to The Finals each year obviously takes a toll on him, so he uses things like hyperbaric chambers and liquid nitrogen to soothe his muscles, even undergoing cupping therapy following the Pacers series to physically prepare to dominate the Raptors. For a guy who cramped up in the late 3rd quarter of Game 7 on Sunday as a result of playing every minute up to that point (and starting all 82 regular season games) , he has rejuvenated his body enough to go into the Air Canada Centre and leave with the entire sports world reminding the Raptors of their recent history of choking in the playoffs.
Even as a diehard Boston Celtics fan, someone who remembers when LeBron came into The Garden for Game 6 of the ECF in 2012 and dropped 45 points en route to a Miami Heat victory, I can’t help but have tons of admiration and appreciation for what LeBron has accomplished and how he can orchestrate a playoff run. Each time he hit one of his seven incredible, high-difficulty fadeaways over Anunoby, Siakam, and Lowry in the 3rd and 4th quarters of Game 2 (tied for the most fadeaways in a playoff game in the last 15 years), I couldn’t help but let out a “wow, WOW!” I would like to see the Raptors get back in this series. I would love to see the boys on Boston to beat the Cavs if each team wins their respective series. But if LeBron gets by both, his level of greatness and the amount of respect I have for him will both skyrocket. I still don’t think that he’s better than Jordan, but he is far and away the best, most transcendent player of my life so far.
(Stats via ESPN and ESPN Stats and Information)
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