It is so very, very appropriate that the first NBA Finals rematch since Michael Jordan’s Bulls beat the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 98 will feature LeBron James’ Miami Heat.
Michael Jordan – the impossible standard LeBron has been held to since about the time ESPN began hyping him up in 2002, when he was still 17.
Michael Jordan, who sealed his second three-peat with the Bulls in 1998. LeBron James, who can achieve his first with Miami in 2014. Jordan, whose Bulls overcame an aging Western powerhouse led by Stockton, Malone and a coaching great in Jerry Sloan. LeBron, whose Heat must overcome an aging Western powerhouse led by Parker, Duncan and a coaching great in Gregg Popovich.
The parallels, if not particularly instructive, are at least illustrative: This series is about whether LeBron will measure up.
With all due respect to the Spurs, who are due quite a lot of it, there are Greatest-Of-All-Time implications at hand here. From the moment of “The Decision” and that Miami Big Three introductory celebration back in 2010, when Lebron vowed, “not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven...” titles, this was the kind of success he was looking ahead to.
It’s like when Justin Timberlake’s character in “The Social Network” says, “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”
Two titles isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Three titles.
Since Bill Russell’s impossible 1960s Celtics, only Jordan and Kobe Bryant have been franchise players to achieve a three-peat. It’s not really fair and it’s definitely not any logical, but these are the benchmarks the best of the best get measured by in basketball.
And those are the two who top the list of the best players from the last 25 years.
Because he didn’t play at a time when Twitter and GIFs and blogs were a thing, though, Jordan the basketball player has enjoyed staying fixated idealistically in the past – the relentless competitor, the master showman, the unparalleled talent. “Air Jordan” wasn’t a marketing scheme. His baseball years were part of a heroic personal journey. The Wizards comeback never happened.
Michael Jordan, basketball’s platonic ideal. The final moment of his career might as well be that winning shot against Utah in 1998, probably the most sublime step-back, pull-up jumper the world has ever witnessed.
LeBron has had it a bit rougher. When he lost his first Finals series in 2007 with Cleveland, it was seen as a failure to be great enough to singularly carry his team to victory – not living up to the Jordan standard. The people who pointed out that LeBron was only 22 and that Michael never even made a Finals until he was 28 were mostly in the minority.
When “The Decision” happened, he was a narcissistic doofus who was giving up on Cleveland to chase titles with a super team. Michael Jordan would have never left the Bulls, went the argument – Jordan, of course, had Hall of Fame-quality teammates he didn’t need to separate from, and is one of the most legendarily petty narcissists in sports history.
When LeBron lost his second Finals, it was seen as a rebuke to his hubris, that no matter how hard he tried and which way he angled and how much inherent talent he possessed, he would never have the strength of character to Be Like Mike. Those heights would forever be out of his reach.
As LeBron developed there appeared to develop with him a general indignation in seeing someone come along, so soon after Jordan had left the game with his GOAT status seemingly forever cemented, who actually had the talent to challenge that.
There was a reluctance to embrace LeBron. A desire to see the chosen one – whose narrative of high school superstardom contrasted so sharply with Michael, the boy who was cut from the team at Laney High – fall flat. It wasn’t fair and it definitely wasn’t any logical.
And now here we are. LeBron has two straight titles and nothing to prove to anyone anymore. But a third? A third gives him a three-peat. A third puts him in the club with Michael and Kobe. A third gets him to where Jordan was at 30 by 29.
A third will let him reach back into the past and shove it in all of the snickering faces who said he wouldn’t answer the question.
The fascinating question that will colour these 2014 NBA Finals. The question that has coloured LeBron James’ entire career and will continue to colour it until “not five, not six, not seven...” is reality.
Will LeBron measure up?
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