Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James continues to prove his critics wrong

 LeBron James is silencing his critics by playing like an NBA MVP and leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the fourth best record in the Western Conference

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently tied for fourth place in the NBA’s Western Conference, to the surprise of many critics in and around the media. Earlier this year, when LeBron James announced his plans to play for the Lakers; many in media said the Lakers would be a 7th or 8th seed in the West.

Through nearly a third of the 2018-19 NBA season, the Lakers are just 2.5 games out of the top seed in the conference. With a big showdown with the Golden State Warriors on Christmas night, which could be an exclamation point to their start.

James has been the biggest reason for the Lakers’ success. He is averaging 27.8 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game while playing the fewest minutes of his career. Obviously, he will not shut up people like Skip Bayless who is making millions a year criticizing James on his sports television show Undisputed, but he is proving the naysayers were wrong for saying he were putting up big numbers against less talented teams in the Eastern Conference.

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As if James could not dominate in the West. I guess his naysayers never tuned in to him playing a game against a Western Conference team or simply ignored his yearly Finals dominance against the best team in the Western Conference.

James and the 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers were up 2-1 in the Finals against the loaded Warriors without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. They eventually lost the series, but they played very well against the Warriors despite starting several bench players. For many basketball fans, that series defined LeBron James‘ greatness and proved that he could win with less talent better than any player in NBA history.

Even NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas has said he would build a team with James over Michael Jordan because the league has never seen a player win at such a young age with less talent around him.

James’ critics will argue that he had to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to win a championship. Well I will counter with the argument that Jordan played with two Hall of Famers Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman as well as two 3-point shooting champions. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird played with too many Hall of Famers to name. Could you name me one All-Star player James played with in Cleveland off the top of your head?

Like I said earlier, James will never shut up Bayless or many of his critics despite dominating in the Western Conference. If the Los Angeles Lakers continue to win, James could add a 5th MVP trophy to his trophy case, which would tie Jordan and be a nightmare scenario for his critics.