LeBron James

Accolades

17x All Star, 2007-08 Scoring Champ, 2019-20 AST Champ, 4x NBA Champ, 17x All-NBA, 2003-04 All-Rookie, 2003-04 ROY, 3x AS MVP, 6x All-Defensive, 4x MVP, 4x Finals MVP, NBA 75th Anniv. Team

Biography

LeBron James became world famous before he'd even graduated high school, and was one of the last prep-to-pro players before the league instituted its ridiculous one-and-done rule. He was drafted first overall by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers in one of the strongest drafts ever and was recognized as ROY as a teenager.

LeBron was the best player on earth by his third year in the league and carried a string of talent-poor Cavs squads to disproportionate success including a Finals appearance at age 23. Although Cleveland was swept by a vastly superior Spurs side, legendary big man Tim Duncan told LBJ after the series that the league would shortly belong to him. The Big Fundamental was absolutely right.

James captured two consecutive MVP awards in the last couple seasons of his first stint in Notheast Ohio, but management failed miserably in their attempts to provide an adequate supporting cast and LeBron made The Decision to take his talents to South Beach and team up with his buddies Wade and Bosh.

After losing the 2011 Finals to the vastly historically underrated Mavericks and God disguised as Dirk Nowitzki, LBJ embraced his new role as a villain and led the Heatles to back-to-back titles, being rightly recognised as MVP and Finals MVP both years.

After once again falling in the Finals to Pop's Spurs, James returned to Cleveland and immediately resurrected what had been one of the worst teams in the league. He single-handedly kept the injury-depleted Cavs in a Finals series that had no business going six games, and made the most compelling case since Jerry West for awarding Finals MVP to a player from the losing side.

The following season cemented his place among the inner-circle greats in sports history, as he carried Cleveland to a shocking comeback from a 3-1 Finals deficit against a 73-win Warriors squad, running away with MVP honors as he became the first player ever to lead both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He also got revenge against the previous year's Finals MVP, pinning an Andre Iguodala layup in Game 7 to the backboard in one of the most iconic clutch moments I've ever witnessed.

Kevin Durant's snakiness and JR Smith's boneheadedness combined to prevent LeBron from winning rings in the next two years, and he joined the Lakers following his eighth straight Finals appearance. His first year in SoCal was plagued by injury, and many openly began questioning if he still held the mantle as the best player in the world. Decisively quieting these critics, LeBron led the league in assists in the 17th season of his career and then activated Playoff Mode and led the Lakers to a championship during a season made immeasurably more challenging by a global pandemic. For his efforts he was rightly awarded his fourth Finals MVP, making him the only player to win at least one with three or more teams.

LeBron has now spent more years in the NBA than he lived leading up to his first game, and he shows few signs of slowing down. He may end his career as the league's alltime leading scorer and in the top five in assists, but I personally think his most impressive acheivement will always be appearing in nine Finals in a ten year stretch. As a Torontonian, I'll also always be in awe of the way he dominated my beloved Raptors.

Like the other LBJ, James has also done a tremendous amount to help fight racial injustice, and his largesse is legendary. No player in league history has ever possessed his combination of size, athleticism, and intelligence. If you were designing a basketball player in a lab, it would be LeBron. If aliens arrive and the fate of humanity rests in our ability to defeat them in a sport from their homeworld of which we have no prior knowledge, LeBron is the only logical choice to be our champion. Jordan may have been better than James at hoops, but it's hard to deny that LeBron is the greatest athlete ever. He's basically the Master Chief from Halo.