Any basketball fan or a follower of basketball will know that LeBron James has been one of the most iconic figures in the NBA since he first entered the league in 2003. He’s definitely one of the most talented players to have ever picked up a basketball. At 6’9, 250 pounds, his combination of strength, versatility, speed and court awareness make him one of the most dominant players in the NBA.
In the past couple of seasons, it seems as though many people have forgotten just how dominant LeBron is.
The reason is Wardell Stephen “Steph” Curry. For those who don’t know, Stephen Curry is the reigning two-time Most Valuable Player in the NBA (2015, 2016), and he led the Golden State Warriors to their first title (2015) in 40 years.
There’s no doubt about it: Steph Curry has solidified his place as one of the elite players in the NBA, putting up insane statistics that are video game-like. In his 2014-15 MVP campaign, he shot 48 percent from the field, made a total of 286 3-point shots shooting them at 44 percent and also managed to shoot above 90 percent from the charity stripe. In doing so, he led his team to the ultimate goal of winning a championship.
This season, we’re seeing history being made by Russell Westbrook, as he is averaging a triple-double for the season and will more than likely win this year’s Most Valuable Player Award in the NBA.
Even with that being said, to compare him or Steph to LeBron at the moment is ludicrous. Russell and Steph are good, but let’s be real, they’re not on the level of King James.
We’re talking about a player (Curry) who is just now coming alive in the NBA in the past three seasons and has been in the league for eight years. Now, one might argue that yes, Steph beat LeBron in the finals in 2015, and you can’t take that away from him, but how quickly people forget that LeBron was playing extremely undermanned in that series without his starting point guard in Kyrie Irving (who is probably a top five point guard in this league right now), without his starting power forward in Kevin Love who was averaging around 16 points a game and without his starting center at the time in Anderson Varejao.
People also forget that while they were undermanned, the Cavs took a 2-1 series lead and could’ve potentially been 3-1 as Iman Shumpert was inches away from stealing game one. It seems as though people don’t want to look at it from that aspect. Look what happened the following season in a finals rematch. LeBron had a healthy squad, and although the Cavs fell behind 3-1 in that series, they were able to overcome that deficit and win the series 4-3.
Here’s where the separation begins: Stephen Curry doesn’t have enough history. He’s just now hitting his prime. So to compare him to or for whatever reason say he’s better than a guy who’s 11th all-time scoring, a four-time MVP, a three-time NBA champion, a 13-time NBA all-star, a nine-time all-NBA first team player, a five-time all-NBA defensive first team player and a guy who has appeared in the NBA Finals for the past seven years and counting is just downright disrespectful!
I’ll even go as far as saying this. If the Cavs and Warriors meet again in a rematch of the 2015 and 2016 NBA Finals, I don’t care if the Warriors acquired Kevin Durant or not, LeBron’s Cavs are coming, and I don’t even think that it would be close.
LeBron is constantly having to remind everyone that he is still King and will be until the day he retires from the world of basketball!
– By Marcellus Hill, sports writer
