LeBron James is About to Officially Become the GOAT

As recently as a week and a half ago, it felt like LeBron James’s incredible string of consecutive Finals appearances was in severe jeopardy. Although LeBron hit a buzzer-beater in Game 5 of Cleveland's first round series against the Indiana Pacers, the Pacers responded with a 121-87 domination on their own court, forcing Game 7. LeBron and the Cavs prevailed, but only by four points, meaning that all of their wins over the Pacers were by four points or fewer, while the Pacers blew out the Cavs twice. LeBron was ultimately able to act as the superstar trump card one more time, but surely, the Cavaliers were in for trouble against a No. 1 seed Raptors team that won a franchise-record 59 games.

Enter the GOAT.

For the second straight year, the Cavs swept the Raptors out of the playoffs in the second round, and any concern that LeBron would be tired from an actually challenging first-round series has been thoroughly squashed. This, along with the Boston Celtics taking a surprising 3-1 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers without Kyrie Irving makes it hard to think the Cavs won't be representing the the Eastern Conference in the Finals.

Forget the buzzer-beaters and dazzling individual performances, what makes this truly impressive is that LeBron is doing this even though all the concerns about this team going into the playoffs are still there. They had the second worst defensive rating in the regular season, they still haven’t found an adequate replacement for Kyrie Irving, and for the all the talk of their February trades turning them back into a contender, the roster still looks just as messy as it did four months ago. And yet, it would be shocking if LeBron didn't drag these Cavs along for what would be his eighth straight Finals appearance. Ever since he earned his third title by rallying the Cavs back from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors in 2016, we’ve been debating whether or not LeBron James has achieved GOAT status. At that point, I still had him trailing Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on my personal ranking. But if he takes this team to the Finals, he’s officially clinched it.

The Cavs are a vastly flawed team that will almost certainly reach the Finals for no other reason than they have LeBron James. Could any other previous all-time great have been able to drag a team this underwhelming to the Finals? We’ll never know for sure, but we can guess. LeBron James has never lost a first-round series. Michael Jordan lost three. The wins and losses are not really the point; the comparison is instructive, though, because every time Jordan went to (and won) the Finals, he had an unbelievable supporting cast. Scottie Pippen was there for all six. In the early years, MJ had Horace Grant, and in the later years, he had Dennis Rodman. LeBron has had elite supporting casts in the past, but this year, he’s lacked a true sidekick, and has been forced to be singularly dominant.

Nominally, LeBron’s right-hand man is Kevin Love who, despite a decent regular season, has often disappeared in the playoffs. He’s shooting .372 from the field in the postseason, and has produced a wretched plus-minus of -4.5. With Kyrie gone, and no sufficient replacement, this was Love’s chance to prove himself as the true No. 2. Instead, he’s undone a lot of the goodwill he earned from his strong performance in the 2016 Finals, and made it clear that Kyrie always meant more to the Cavs than he did.

It doesn’t get much better for the rest of the supporting cast. This is a team that plays a well-past-his prime J.R. Smith 32 minutes a night despite a playoff PER of 8.2. Jordan Clarkson was supposed to be a major addition at the deadline, but he’s struggled miserably in his first playoffs, shooting just .322 from the field, including .207 on threes. If we absolutely have to pick a second-best player for the Cavs during these playoffs, it would be 36-year-old Kyle Korver, who is shooting .433 from downtown, and is efficient enough of a scorer to mitigate his so-so defense. LeBron's Scottie Pippen right now is a 15-year role player who made one All-Star team because he was in the right place at the right time.

Michael Jordan never dragged a roster this weak to the Finals. Neither did Kareem. Neither did Bird, Magic, Duncan, Shaq, Russell, or Kobe. I would say it’s unprecedented, but there actually is one player who did something fairly similar.

LeBron James, 11 years earlier.

That was in 2007, when he made his first Finals appearance and was quickly swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Those Cavs relied on supporting players like Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, and Eric Snow, and their quick elimination was hardly a surprise. Still, what LeBron is doing with this team is more impressive; at least the 2007 Cavs could play defense—they were fourth in the league in defensive rating while this team is 29th.

If LeBron finishes the job and takes this team to the Finals, he will have done something that no other player has done, and the closest possible comparison is himself over a decade earlier. In that decade, LeBron has made the Finals seven teams, and won it three times. That is a GOAT resume.

It's probably going to be difficult for LeBron to catch up to MJ's six titles, so some purists will always prefer him. Still, when Game 1 of the Finals tips off, and you see a team that gives major minutes to Jeff Green and Jordan Clarkson somehow standing there, there should be no doubt who the greatest player is of all-time.