Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2022: L is for Lebron James

 My A to Z Challenge of athletes and teams has fallen into a streak of basketball. L is for Lebron James who some think is a serious challenge for Michael Jordan's supposed GOAT status. 

                                             Lebron's Top 35 plays

King James has been named the NBA MVP four times and has been an All-Star 18 times. He has earned four Championship Rings. Is Lebron James better than Michael Jordan? If Jordan or James are not the best players of all time who is?

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers

 In a year where sports have taken a back seat to the world the Los Angeles Lakers have won the 2020 NBA Championship 4 games to 2 over the Miami Heat.

Here are the final moments of game six...

The MVP was Lebron James...

It adds to the debate where Lebron ranks all time. Is he the best? Is he better than Jordan? The Lakers add their 17th Championship. Is this their best team? They certainly give us some topics to discuss. Congratulations to the Lakers I hope they enjoy!

My Top Five Athletes of the Past 10 years

An assignment I had for an article was to name the top five athletes of the past five years. You can read my article here. My explanations are in my article. Any list like this leaves off other athletes who could deserve to be on a list like mine. However, these are my choices but I enjoy the debates, the comments, suggestions after all an article like this should stir some up.

One thing I couldn't add to my article was highlights and videos. Hopefully, I can pick out some entertaining ones. So sit back and enjoy!

Lindsey Vonn

Usain Bolt

Lionel Messi

Peyton Manning

LeBron James

Check out my article. It appears I am writing some sports articles again. However, they are coming from a different angle so I hope you enjoy. Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for a special post soon!

MVP Kevin Durant

Congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant. He is the first person from an Oklahoma City NBA team to win the MVP award. The first person to win the award not named LeBron James to win the honor in three years and only the second person besides LeBron James to win the award in six years.

The Other Hardware:

Durant has already won an NBA Rookie of the Year Award, an Olympic Gold Medal, four NBA scoring titles, and has been named an All-Star five times.

The numbers..

Leading the league in scoring by averaging 32 points a game is a great argument for the MVP Award. Averaging 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists also helped. Leading his team to the playoffs with one of the best records in the NBA is icing on the cake!

I like Kevin winning since Oklahoma City is a smaller market team. Now we have to wait to see who ends up being the NBA Champs!

Happy Birthday Michael Jordan

In 2010 I wrote an article about the reasons Michael Jordan could be considered the best NBA player of all time. You can read that article here. There are some in NBA history who can challenge Michael Jordan for that top spot. Kobe Bryant is putting up a career that would challenge MJ's and Lebron James could best him when his career is over.It would be a true statement to say Michael Jordan is the best player in my memorable lifetime so far. If he was the best or not could be argued but one thing that is certain is Michael Jordan is an all time great of the NBA.

Here is a collection of some of highlights:

If you like dunks this is for you:

To this NBA Hall of Fame, NBA great, and current owner I say happy 51st!

Stay tuned to this blog for a new post soon.

Lebron James 2

Congrats to Lebron James and the Miami Heat for winning the NBA Championship. Many felt Lebron needed a ring to be considered one of the greatest ever. In today's sports do you need titles to be considered among the greats? I consider Dan Marino one of the greatest quarterbacks ever but he never one a championship.

Lebron thinks so. Modern greats do have rings like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. I blogged about Lebron  nearly 2 years ago on July 10, 2010.  I'm still not a fan of the way he left Cleveland. I'm sure there are people in Cleveland who aren't either. But I don't hate him. I am just one of those folks who think he is a great player but I am not on his bandwagon.

However, I am glad his road to a championship wasn't easy. I am glad Lebron was the MVP of the playoffs and a dominate player during the championship series. Winning a championship wasn't all Lebron needed to do, but winning one and playing great helps his case.

He is young enough to add on to his NBA resume. It will be interesting to see ow he ranks up in time. However, he deserves credit for making great strides.

The trophy..

Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks!

The Dallas Mavericks are the 2011 NBA Champions. The Miami Heat fell short of their goal of an NBA title. Many thought the Heat earned the title last off-season when they signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to go along with Dwayne Wade.

It was a good series with the under hyped Dallas Mavericks prevailing over the over hyped Miami Heat. Now the NBA goes to their off season which may have labor issues like the NFL. Who knows when the 2011-12 season will start.

LeBron is a great player. He lost some of his followers by just leaving Cleveland. He lost more with the way he left. He may have lost more with the way he was introduced in Miami. Hopefully, he will learn from his experiences. Yes rings help define a players career. However, just because one falls short of a championship doesn't take away from their talents. It is just a missing piece.

Z to A:Miami Heat

I know the Miami Heat are only down one game. However, what happens if they fail to make it to the NBA Finals. The team which was built for a championship could come up short. Lebron James is a great basketball player with tremendous physical assets. Would he fall a bit farther from greatness? Would people in Cleveland celebrate his failure?  Yes it is only one loss so far but Miami has to be feeling the Heat.

Okay, the Heat must have read my blog since they won tonight.

Lebron James

Sorry for your loss Cleveland. I'm sure it stings. Don't be a hater, he gave you seven years. Sure he turned down the most money in Cleveland, but I am sure he plans to recoup his losses in increased endorsement. His hyped moved is setting the NBA World on fire, like his jersey in the streets of Cleveland.

Miami wasn't a front runner when I wrote my article on where Lebron James might wind up. Like the Cavaliers I guessed wrong.But everything changed when the Heat re-signed Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch agreed to play for them. Lebron joined a real contender and an organization which is run by Pat Riley, a man who knows a thing or two about contenders.

I'm not a big fan of the way Lebron had his ESPN special to announce where he was going. Wasn't needed. A simple statement would have done the job. However, the sports world is all about hype and the special did add the drama and fed the hype machine. According to the hype machine the Heat and King James are already in the 2011 NBA Finals. But there is a difference between reality and the hype machine. In reality you have to play the game. In reality there will be challengers like the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic. There are 82 games first and then the playoffs. There is a lot of reality to be played. There is a lot of hype too. Can the hype become reality? We will see starting this Fall.

Lakers-Magic NBA Finals

The Los Angeles Lakers are back in the NBA Finals this year they will meet the Orlando Magic. The TV ratings probably won't be as high as last years ratings with the Celtics and Lakers. However, with Boston and Los Angeles storied history it is quite understandable. The ratings probably won't be as high as if Cleveland had made the finals. The superstar pull of Lebron James, who is well on his way to becoming an NBA great.

However, the Los Angeles Lakers are coached by Phil Jackson, who coached the Bulls to glory with Michael Jackson, and some more titles with the Kobe-Shaq Lakers. These Lakers don't have Shaq, but they still have a very talented Kobe Bryant still. Pau Gasol may not be Shaq but 18.9 ppg and 9.6 rpg are not a bad compliment from the 7' center.

The Orlando Magic have a star in Dwight Howard who averages 20.6 ppg. The Magic also have balance scoring from Lewis, Turkoglu and Nelson. Viewers should turn into this series since the Magic did eliminate the Celtics and the Cavaliers. The Lakers have a storied history and the Magic are working on building there own history. It should be a fun series to watch. The NBA appears to be filling up with stars.(Stats from Fox Sports)