The vocal minority who refuse to acknowledge LeBron James’ greatness inevitably resort to a final point after their overall argument is debunked.
“He wouldn’t be very good if he wasn’t so big, strong, and athletic,” they cry. “He’s not half as skilled as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant!”
That’s a straw man, obviously. Not only is the four-time MVP among the most creative passers and finishers basketball has ever seen, but he shouldn’t have to apologize for an ungodly combination of size and athleticism, either. Every consensus all-time great has enjoyed natural physical advantages their opponents can’t quite match.
Magic Johnson couldn’t have leveraged his remarkable floor vision to its maximum without the height necessary to see over defenses. Bill Russell wasn’t the most skilled player, but his amalgam of length, speed, and leaping ability was unmatched. Even Larry Bird was a more coordinated athlete than most 6’9 players, while Jordan and Bryant, of course, were two of the most eye-popping physical marvels in all of sports during their respective primes.
Like that of each of his exalted peers, James’ success has as much to do with nurture as nature and vice versa. Still, it’s not like the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar would be nearly as effective if physical and mental limitations made the game come to him in a far more difficult manner.
Just don’t tell that to James, though. Why? He wants to be like Cleveland teammate and wildly inconsistent gunner J.R. Smith.
LeBron, at today's shootaround, "I want to be like J.R. Smith. He only shoots contested shots."
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) October 30, 2015
James is joking, of course, but there’s a glint of truth to his jest nonetheless.
The offensive onus that falls on the two-time champion is unprecedented. He’s not only tasked with being his team’s primary scorer and creator, but to do so while toggling between positions, too. And because of James’ overpowering size, he spends ample time in the post when the stakes rise come spring – and pays a price of nagging pain for it.
Smith, meanwhile, has never been much more than a walking heat check. He shows surprising pick-and-roll playmaking ability every now and then, and isn’t below finding the open man when he deems a shot too difficult. But those occasions are infrequent. Smith is a scorer first, second, and third, and that often means taking wildly inefficient field goal attempts that are easy for a player of his talent to produce.
James indulged in those shots much more frequently last season than the previous few years. Though conventional wisdom said that reality was due to him spending more time on the wing and Cleveland’s new stable of players acclimating to one another, it’s also clear James enjoys taking them, too. It’s a brand of basketball he’s unaccustomed to playing these days, and one especially fun to employ when the shots are falling.
The problem for LeBron and everyone else, though, is that they don’t do so enough for him to justify a full-time adjustment in style. Luckily, he’s blessed with additional traits to make up for it. Smith, on the other hand? Not quite, which is exactly what most separates James and other greats from players with similar but much less refined god-given gifts.