I'm too young to remember Michael Jordan in his prime.
What I remember of MJ is Space Jam and his time as a Washington Wizard.
Obviously, I still get to watch Michael Jordan highlights on Youtube over and over again. I get to hear everyone older than me glow about how incredible he was, and I get to look at the numbers he put up that have become apart of sports lore.
But as a fan of sports, the best athlete and biggest superstar I've seen is the player whose compared to Jordan the most: LeBron James.
Athletes like Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Derek Jeter and Sidney Crosby maybe just as talented and accomplished in their field as LeBron is, but LeBron is still the biggest name out of all of them.
As I was becoming a sports fan James was coming out of high school to enter the NBA as one of the most hyped prospects of all-time.
15 years later, LeBron's potential impact and star power might have surpassed even the highest of expectations at the time. His Odyssey towards becoming one of the greatest players of all-time has been as dramatic an Odyssey as the Homer's Epic Poem with the same name.
With LeBron playing the road of Odysseus, he journeys through trials and tribulations that range from the depths of hell to the gates of heaven. His struggles against challenges of temptation and manipulation have proven costly at times, but never the less he endures. With his arrival in the glamorous city of Los Angeles playing for the most historically glamorous team in America, LeBron is entering the latest and perhaps final destination before the end of the journey, where at last he can lie and rest in Ithica.
In honor of his tremendous journey and career as an athlete, here are the top 10 LeBron James games. They are ranked in terms of the importance and positive influence they've had on the large legacy he has that everyone has been trying to define and sum up every day.
10. The Debut 2003 vs. Sacramento Kings.
2003 was a simpler time in America (not really but it was because I was 9 that year) and it was a simpler time for two reasons: There was no social media and LeBron James was a player who wasn't compared to Michael Jordan.
LeBron was just a teenager from Akron coming out of high school just beginning his NBA career. LeBron scored 25 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds in a 106-92 loss to a Sacremento Kings team that should have won the NBA title the previous year (but that's another story).
9. 2012 NBA finals game 2 vs. Thunder.
In 2012, no player in the history of sports was under as much pressure to win a championship as LeBron James was. After an embarrassing Finals performance the previous year against the Mavericks, LeBron had to come through in the clutch in a Finals game.
That happened in Game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Having lost the first game and close to going down 0-2 in the series, James hit two clutch free throws to even the series. The Heat would win the next three games and win the series.
8. 2008 Eastern Conference semi-finals game 7 vs. Celtics.
Even though he lost, LeBron gave an epic performance in Game 7 on the road against one of the best teams of the 2000s in the Big 3 Celtics. His duel with Paul Pierce brought memories of the Dominque/Bird Duel in 1988. While he outscored Pierce 45 to 41, the Celtics proved to be too much for Cleveland as they prevailed 97-92.
7. 2018 Eastern Conference finals game 7 vs. Celtics.
10 Years after losing a Game 7 in Boston, LeBron willed the Cavs to a Game 7 win in Boston.
Even though they would be swept by Golden State in the Finals, LeBron at least made his greatest career achievement in the Eastern Conference Finals by advancing to the NBA Finals for the 8th consecutive year. An accomplishment only matched by a few of the 60s Celtics from the Bill Russell Era.
6. 2013 NBA finals game 6 vs. Spurs.
This might be the greatest game LeBron was ever apart of.
Although the moment that's remembered the most is Ray Allen's miracle 3-pointer that saved the Heat and LeBron's legacy, Miami would not be in the position to win had it not been for James's dominant stretch in the 4th quarter.
5. 2012 NBA finals game 5 vs. Thunder.
Looking back, LeBron's first championship win looks even more impressive today: He defeated a Thunder team that heralded three future MVPs: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.
With a triple-double to seal the series in 5, LeBron at long last was an NBA champion and Skip Bayless gave him an standing applause the next morning on First Take before going on a typical Skip monologue on how it took so long for LeBron to finally get his ring. Oh, Skip.
4. 2012 Eastern Conference finals game 6 vs. Celtics.
Down 3 games to 2. In the notorious Boston Garden. Against the team that denied him twice before. Still ringless. The Haters on the verge of validation. The Miami Big 3 Experiment on the verge of a humiliating failure.
LeBron James drew deep down inside him and found the monster that was molded from his impeccable talent and unfathomable adversity.
LeBron didn't just beat the Boston Celtics. He destroyed the Boston Celtics. He ended the Big 3 Era of the Celtics.
With 45 points in Game 6 and a victory in Game 7, LeBron had officially become The King of The East.
3. 2013 NBA finals game 7 vs. Spurs.
Even though they had won the title the year before, the ambitious Miami Heatles experiment that formed in 2010 had to win multiple championships to be considered a success.
After winning a miracle Game 6, Miami kept pace with the Spurs in Game 7 before pulling the game away with a clutch shot from LeBron with 27.9 seconds left.
The Miami Big 3 might not have lived up to their epic expectations, but the back-to-back titles showed that the experiment was still a success.
2. 2007 Eastern Conference finals game 5 vs. Pistons.
In the long run, LeBron overachieving in his 5th season by taking his mediocre Cavaliers all the way to the NBA Finals was bad for his legacy in the long run because it led to an inevitable loss to the superior San Antonio Spurs in the Finals that year.
It meant that by having a blemish on his NBA Finals record, LeBron could mathematically never surpass Jordan as The GOAT.
Even so, at least we got to see the boy from Akron become a man right before us, scoring his teams last 25 points on the road against the premier team of the East at that point in the Detroit Pistons.
1. 2016 NBA finals game 7 vs. Warriors.
What else could've been Number 1?
This might not have been the game where LeBron became the greatest player of all-time, but it was the game that gave him a permanent spot on the Basketball Mount Rushmore.
His triple-double performance on the road against the 73-win Warriors was the kind of epic game every athlete dreams of. Even though he won championships in Miami, LeBron had to win a title for his hometown dream that drafted him. He was the one who had to break the Cleveland Sports Curse.
With this improbable comeback after being down 3-1 in the series, the Cavaliers delivered Cleveland's first sports title since the 1964 Browns.
Even though LeBron is no longer a Cavalier, there should still be a statue of his block on Andre Iguodala outside of Quicken Loans Arena.
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