LeBron’s Always Been On A Crusade To Be More Than ‘Just A Scorer’


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The legacy of LeBron James almost was way different. In 2007, he elected to pass to Donyell Marshall in lieu of attempting a contested shot at the rim while a defender with the wingspan of a pterodactyl clung to his hip, with two more closing in on either side of him. Many forget the pass just 10 seconds before that, when he was double teamed in the post and kicked out to Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Both teammates missed with a chance to win the game, LeBron didn’t take a shot in the final 90 seconds, and he didn’t score in the final six minutes. In a world before Twitter, Skip Bayless, or the iPhone, the chatter was still immediate and deafening. LeBron’s heart and killer instinct were questioned, and even back then he remained steadfast in his beliefs.

“I go for the winning play,” James said at the time. “If two guys come at you and your teammate is open, then give it up. Simple as that.”


A few nights later, of course, the narrative changed with 25 straight points in a performance that was declared Jordanesque by Marv Albert and now, a decade later, James has done something even Jordan didn’t after claiming the record for most career postseason points. He did it in true LeBron fashion, on fewer shots that Michael even if it took more games.

The record will likely never be broken, not in the new NBA world of 5-year max contracts and ever-changing rosters, and he still remains steadfast in his beliefs, even if they spite the accomplishment.

“I’m not a scorer,” LeBron said before Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals and prior to breaking Jordan’s record. “I don’t want to be labeled as a scorer. I can put the ball in the hoop. But I’m a playmaker. I’m a player. Put me on the court and I’ll find ways to be successful.”

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The notion is clear, relegating LeBron to just a scorer, and raving over his points alone is somehow degrading the complete package that he is, and he’s having none of it. Since he first burst onto the scene he has been an enigma, forced into a mold he never wanted to fit. Blessed with a 6’8 frame, born at the perfect time to watch prime Jordan isolate and fade away his way to six championships and five MVPs, he couldn’t have been more different.

Fans had grown accustomed to a player dominating a game with dynamic scoring like Jordan had. LeBron wanted to win and dominate by going “for the winning play” even if that play was a pass.

Maybe it was his upbringing that melded him into a different type of player. Jordan was born with two older brothers that he was forced to compete with constantly, and James was an only child who craved siblings and found them on the basketball court. Jordan lived to compete and dominate, while James looked to involve all of his brothers in his success not only on the court but off it as well.

LeBron has long been an oddity. Following up a iso-ball king like Kobe Bryant and an scoring titan like Jordan with a pass-first supernova like LeBron was always going to take some getting used to. He knew he was different, and at times seemed to relish in it. The problem with genius is most don’t recognize it at first, and have to gradually come to comprehend just what they’re looking at. LeBron always knew he was playing at a higher level than his contemporaries even if it didn’t always work, like a maestro conducting a new classic nightly, only he almost seemed perturbed that the average fan didn’t appreciate it, or even worse, wanted him to do something different to fit the mold they had in their minds.

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Whenever he did force himself into the Jordan mold, it always seemed begrudgingly so and mostly left fans wondering why he didn’t do that more.

“I’ll just put it this way, man. There are different ways to hunt,” James told ESPN before the 2013-14 season. “I watch the Discovery Channel all the time, and you look at all these animals in the wild. And they all hunt a different way to feed their families. They all kill a different way. Lions do it strategically — two females will lead, and then everybody else will come in. Hyenas will just go for it. There are different ways to kill, and I don’t think people understand that. Everybody wants everybody to kill the same way. Everybody wants everybody to kill like MJ or kill like Kobe. Magic didn’t kill the way they killed. Does that mean he didn’t have a killer instinct? Kareem didn’t either. But does that mean Kareem didn’t have a killer instinct? The same with Bird. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a killer instinct. Tim Duncan don’t kill like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but I’ve played against Tim Duncan twice in the Finals and I know for sure he’s got a killer instinct.”

When James became LeBron James, his style of play took higher meaning to him, as he looked to influence a whole generation of hoopers just as Jordan had done to him.

“That’s all part of the plan. It’s been part of the plan since I really started taking this game serious,” he said in his postgame press conference after defeating the Celtics, flanked by his teammates Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith. “How can I get the youth to feel like passing the ball is OK? Making the extra pass is OK, drawing two defenders and no matter if you win or lose, if you make the right play, it’s OK. Because like you said, scoring the ball is so heralded in our sport. I want the fundamentals of the game to be as great as they can be. And if some kid or a group of kids from the West Coast or the East Coast or the Midwest or the South and everything in between all around the world can look at me and say, well, I made the extra pass because LeBron made the extra pass, or I got a chase-down block and I didn’t give up on the play because LeBron didn’t give up, that would mean the world to me.”

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At his most earnest, LeBron simply wanted to hunt and kill like LeBron, a stealthy lion, and not like Jordan or Kobe, overwhelming and aggressive hyenas. Maybe that language is meant as a slight to the ghost that he’s chasing, or the style of play that he so clearly reviles, but his intention is He wanted to play “the right way” even if it meant passing up the mythical game winning shot — the “5… 4… 3… 2… brrrnnn” heave that everybody practices in their driveway — because a journeyman was open in the corner while three defenders were closing in on him at the rim.

LeBron long ago decided that was his mission, and he would stick to it no matter the results. If Donyell Marshall missed the shot, or Matthew Dellavedova, or Deron Williams, that was okay. He was at peace with playing the right way.

Therein lies the biggest tragedy of the Ringz era, wherein all that matters is rings and championships are supposedly won by individuals: Basketball is supposed to be played this way, the right way. At its best, basketball is a harmonious ballet between five players functioning as one and spawning the “five fingers makes a fist and the fist is stronger than any of the fingers” metaphor that teachers everywhere use to motivate students to work together and create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.

Championships aren’t won by individuals, they’re won by teams, and to reach that elite level of play those teams have to play the right way (just look at why people respond to what the Warriors do – collectively – as a team), the way LeBron so desperately wants to play no matter what his detractors say or think he should do.

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As his career has gone on, LeBron has learned just how impactful his words are, so he choses them carefully. “I’m a guy who always got happy and excited at seeing my team successful,” he said before Game 5, continuing to spread his “play the right way” gospel. “Seeing my individual teammates be successful.”

But he clearly knows everybody doesn’t appreciate this. He mocked the notion that he’s somehow a lesser player because he’s not a “scorer” on Snapchat with Richard Jefferson after claiming his eighth conference title and punching his way to his seventh straight NBA Finals.

“I’m a passer anyway,” he said, half tongue-in-cheek, half condescending tone towards those who view him as an inferior player to those with the “killer instinct” that he supposedly lacks.

Now, as a “playmaker” or a “player” who is “not a scorer” he’s scored more in the playoffs than, well, anybody, including the greatest scorer. It’s not lost on LeBron that the man he passed for the seemingly unbeatable record is the man he idolized and the man he’s now constantly compared to.

“I think at the end of the day, for my name to come up in the discussion with the greatest basketball player of all time, it’s like, wow,” he said in his postgame press conference.

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Still, even in that same breath, he clarified, it’s not breaking Jordan’s record that made the moment special for him, it’s how he did it, as a player and a playmaker that always chose to play the “right” way.

“I think the biggest thing for me sitting here today after breaking the all-time scoring record in playoff history is that I did it just being me,” James said. “I don’t have to score the ball to make an impact in the basketball game. That was my mindset when I started playing the game. I was like, if I’m not scoring the ball, how can I still make an impact on the game? It’s carried me all the way to this point now, and it’s going to carry me for the rest of my career because scoring is not No. 1 on my agenda.”

Now, as he’s clarified that he’s a “player” he might be inching closer towards convincing the masses that he’s the greatest player as well. And if he ever does convince them that he is the G.O.A.T., it’ll be the same way he broke Jordan’s hailed record, his way.

The right way.

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