Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James recently made history, defeating the Boston Celtics in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals to go to the NBA Finals for the NBA record seventh straight season.
In the process of getting to the Finals, James passed Michael Jordan to become the NBA’s all-time leading postseason scorer at 5,995 points.
James is only 32-years-old, but his legacy as one of the NBA’s all-time greats is already beginning to shape into form.
Former Los Angeles Lakers great Shaquille O’Neal recently talked about James, comparing him to some of the best basketball players ever, himself, Jordan, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, via Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
“He’s a mixture of Michael, Shaq and Magic,” O’Neal told cleveland.com. “Shaq, because he’s bigger and stronger than everybody. Michael because he can score whenever he feels like it. And Magic because he does a great job getting everybody else involved. He’s been like that his whole career. Even in high school. I knew he was a special guy in high school.
“I’ve only met two people like him,” O’Neal continued. “Him and Kobe. Guys that were super determined ever since high school and accomplished all their dreams, and just wanted to be realized and recognized as one of the greatest and both had extraordinary careers.”
Perhaps the only thing missing for James is the number of championships won, as he currently sits at three compared to O’Neal’s four, Johnson and Bryant’s five and Jordan’s six.
If he wants to win that fourth championship this season, he will have to go through a Golden State Warriors team that in undefeated this postseason and feature’s the NBA’s last two MVPs in Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.
James defeated the 73-9 Warriors in seven games in the Finals last season, and if he can do it again, then he will cement his legacy atop the NBA’s greats.
