#360view: More than a title for LeBron James

Jay Asser 07:37 21/06/2016
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  • Legacy cemented: LeBron James.

    Not one, not two, not three, not four… How many championships does it take for LeBron James to reach immortality? Turns out, just one.

    James never needed to make good on the ridiculously lofty expectations he brought upon himself when he rattled off numbers at the infamous Miami Heat welcome party in 2010. The only promise truly worth fulfilling was to his city when he returned four years later.

    After pouring everything he had into keeping it, James has now reached a level of inscrutability that had so frustratingly eluded him throughout his all-time great career.

    Though the stakes heading into Game 7 were at a level we’ve probably never seen before, it was important to keep perspective. Win or lose, LeBron James was one of the three best basketball players of all-time. Regardless of how he played, regardless of the result and regardless of what would happen in the coming years, nothing would change that.

    Forty eight minutes later and the sentiment still holds true. What’s changed now is even the staunchest LeBron naysayers have no straws to grasp at. You want to say he’s not clutch? He led the first comeback from 3-1 down in the Finals, produced two 41-point epics in Game 5 and 6, dropped a triple-double on the grandest of stages in Game 7, and led the series in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

    You want to say he’s never beaten the best? LeBron just destroyed the NBA’s equivalent of a perfect season by beating the 73-win, defending champion Golden State Warriors. This wasn’t a single elimination, one-off fluke. This was a seven-game series in which the most deserving team came out on top.

    Finally, and most satisfyingly, no one can ever say again that LeBron can’t win for Cleveland. Imagine carrying the hopes of an entire city on your shoulders, as broad as they are. All these people have known for the past 52 years is heartbreak and they look at you as their saviour.

    But what do you really owe them? Love is supposed to be unrelenting, but when James made the decision to leave for Miami in 2010, he was called a traitor, his jersey was burned, and everything he had previously done for the city wiped clean in the memory of those who had adored him so much.

    There is no one, and I mean no one, who deserves LeBron less than Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Putting aside the predatory lending practices of his Quicken Loans, Gilbert was as bitter and vindictive as it gets when he penned his letter cursing LeBron when he left.

    Six years later and Gilbert has his hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy with no one to thank more than James. But LeBron never came back for Gilbert, he came back for all the suffering fans who were in need of something to believe in.

    To make your sole mission giving those millions of people the feeling they’ve so long yearned for and then deliver on that, is one of the most unselfish feats an athlete has ever accomplished. To see James’ face covered in tears after the final buzzer sounded was one of the most moving images I’ve ever experienced following sport.

    It was a moment 13 years in the making and one that becomes more and more cathartic with each passing season of LeBron’s career. I won’t claim to know how it feels to be a Clevelander or a Cavaliers fan right now, but growing up in Boston and witnessing the Red Sox break their own storied curse gives me an idea.

    Basketball is a team sport and LeBron didn’t do it alone. There wouldn’t be a championship parade tomorrow if it wasn’t for Kyrie Irving, whose contribution was stellar throughout. But the weight was all on James. He wasn’t just battling the Warriors, he was dealing with history, narrative and expectations.

    LeBron defeated them all. There is nothing left to answer for.

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