 |
| English: Lebron James: Washington Wizards v/s Miami Heat December 18, 2010 Italiano: Lebron James Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV License on Flickr: CC-BY-SA-2.0 Flickr tags: LeBron James (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
For the last decade, we’ve wondered what LeBron James would look like when he reached his prime. Once his potential and upside were distant memories and James peaked, how good would he be? At 28 years old, we’re finally finding out. Not only is James the best player of his generation, he may go down as one of the greatest players to ever step onto a basketball court. This isn’t hyperbole. This is fact.
After leading the Miami HEAT to an NBA championship, winning a gold medal and taking home regular season and Finals MVP honors last year, James still found a way to take his game to another level this season. He has an incredible arsenal of weapons that allows him to pick and choose how he’s going to dominate each opponent he faces. He scores, passes, rebounds, defends, leads and, ultimately, wins. James may not be very good at announcing free agency decisions, but good luck finding many other weaknesses.
This season, James is averaging 27.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists. He is shooting 56.8 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from three-point range. He shot 64.1 percent in February, becoming the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in March of 1983 to shoot at least 64 percent from the field for an entire month with a minimum of 200 field goal attempts. He also became the first player in NBA history to record six consecutive games with 30 or more points and 60 percent shooting from the field.
James is currently having the most productive season of any player in NBA history, according to Player Efficiency Rating, a stat that measures a player’s per-minute performance by weighing their positive and negative contributions. Michael Jordan holds the highest single-season PER after recording a rating of 31.89 in 1987-88. Wilt Chamberlain’s highest PER was approximately 31.84 in 1962-63, but it’s difficult to calculate since the league didn’t keep track of turnovers, blocks, steals or offensive rebounds. Legends like Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird never had a single-season PER higher than 30.
This season, James’ PER is 31.94. If he can continue to play at this level in Miami’s 27 remaining games, this will go down as a historically great year for James. This has become an annual dance for James. In 2008-09, he was on pace to break Jordan’s single-season record for much of the year, but finished at 31.69. Last year, James had a PER of nearly 35.0 at one point in the season, but eventually came down to earth and topped out at 30.80.
However, James has been seemingly unstoppable this season. After winning back many of the fans that turned on him as well as his first NBA title last season, James has had the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders. For the first time since being labeled a phenom out of high school, James isn’t feeling the crippling pressure that comes with being the next big thing or a ring-less superstar. As a result, he has delivered an unforgettable season.
“LeBron, he’s so big and strong and powerful,” said Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins after a recent loss to the HEAT. “I mean, he decides whether he wants to be a passer or a scorer. The plays he makes are incredible. He’s an amazing player. … That team, when they go to LeBron at the four, is impossible to guard. You can’t guard him.”
His stat lines seem unreal, but these are not typos. Take last night’s double overtime win against the Sacramento Kings, for example. James recorded 40 points, 16 assists and 8 rebounds. Few players can impact one aspect of a game the way that James can impact all of them. He truly is a triple-double threat each and every night.
“He has simply made all of his weakness into strengths,” said one NBA scout. “He’s Magic and Jordan in body and mind right now. What impresses me most about James, and this is going back to last year, is that he’s no longer afraid of greatness. He’s comfortable with himself and his decisions. I credit Pat Riley for that exponentially. On the court, his game continues to expand, but it’s his jump shooting ability from all angles that has improved dramatically, especially in fourth quarters.”
James has received heaps of praise this season, to the point that his accomplishments blur together and his greatness is somewhat taken for granted. However, down the road, we’ll likely look back on these years as the LeBron James era and relive many of the spectacular moments throughout his career. James is to this generation what Jordan and Chamberlain were to theirs, and the numbers back that up.
Even if James isn’t considered the best NBA player of all-time when all is said and done, he’ll still belong in the conversation of once-in-a-generation legends that changed the game, dominated on a nightly basis and helped redefine greatness.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-pm-lebron-james-historic-season/
No comments:
Post a Comment