LeBron James is in legacy mode.
He’s got two championship rings, four MVP awards, two Finals MVP awards, he is a seven All NBA First Team awards, five times on the NBA All Defensive Team, plus went to nine All-Star Games — and he will turn 29 this season. He’s still in his prime.
The question is when he decides to hang up his Nikes where will we rank him in the pantheon of all-time greats?
At media day in Miami, LeBron was asked his goal.
“I want to be the greatest of all time. It’s that simple… I’m far away from it, but I see the light,” reports ESPN’s Israel Gutierrez.
He has said this before, at the All-Star Game last year for one. And frankly, what do you expect him to say? Shouldn’t LeBron be saying he wants to go down as the greatest? If Jordan said that, we’d talk about his passion and drive, not his hubris.
LeBron will go down undoubtedly as one of the most gifted physical specimens ever to play in the NBA — he is the size of Karl Malone but has the speed and handles of an elite point guard. He reminds me of Wilt Chamberlain in the sense there was nobody physically like him in the game when he played.
The question is what has LeBron done with all those gifts?
So far he has put together an impressive resume, but not one that yet moves him into that upper echelon. Again, he’s just turning 29 and if the Heat can three-peat this season that is a big line to add to the resume. Whether this year or down the line, LeBron knows he needs more rings to fill out the resume. He also has time to get them.
Greatest of all-time? That’s a mythical title and one a lot of fans in today’s age would never give him as the Jordan mythology is so built up and established. But it’s a good goal for LeBron, who has checked off a lot of other goals in the past few years.
