LeBron James was luck en route to his fourth title, but that’s OK
Fresh off winning his fourth NBA title, it’s amazing to look back at how much fell in favor of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers over the last few months.
For starters, an NBA hiatus, due to a global pandemic, allowed his 35-year-old body, with 17 seasons worth of minutes and miles, to get an extended amount of rest prior to the playoffs even beginning. Then, during the four-month interruption of play, it’s reasonable to surmise that the man who reportedly spends seven figures annually on fitness and nutrition had a pretty decisive training advantage over most of his NBA colleagues.
Once the season resumed and the seeding games began, LeBron and the Lakers had the luxury of treating those eight games like the tune-ups they were meant to be, but his opening round opponent could not.
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During the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Lakers drew the sub-500 Portland Trail Blazers who made it into the playoffs by beating the Memphis Grizzlies in a play-in game a few nights before the start of the series. The Blazers were playing playoff basketball from day one in the bubble while LeBron and company received the equivalent of a first-round bye.
During the fourth game against Los Angeles, Damian Lillard suffered a non-contact knee injury and was done for the series, and throughout The Bubble, including while facing the Lakers, Portland’s second option CJ McCollum was hampered by a fractured back.
Lakers in 5.
During the second round of the playoffs, the Lakers (arguably the biggest team in the Western Conference) got to face-off against the small-ball Houston Rockets. PJ Tucker, standing at 6-foot-5, played the role of the center. Plus, Russell Westbrook was still battling through injury.
In two of the games, Russell Westbrook scored 10 points in each with an average field goal percentage of 28 percent. James Harden threw in an 18 percent, 21-point clunker of his own in one of the five contests.
Not to be forgotten there’s Danuel House Jr., an emerging player for the team, being kicked out of the bubble due to breaking NBA protocol. It seemed over before it actually began for the Rockets.
Lakers in 5.
During the Western Conference Finals, the buildup for “The Battle of LA” between the Lakers and The Clippers had been brewing since the summer of 2019 when Kawhi Leonard decided that signing with the Clippers and teaming up with Paul George was better than joining forces with LeBron and AD on the Lakers.
The Clippers roster was built to compete with LeBron. They spent the latter part of their season playing keep away from the Lakers, signing Marcus Morris Sr. and Reggie Jackson more so to hurt the Purple and Gold rather than to help themselves.
The Nuggets ended up besting the Clippers in seven after trailing 3-1, putting a halt to their clash with the Lakers. LeBron then showed Kawhi how it’s done by making easy work of Denver.
Lakers in 5.
Once the Lakers made the NBA Finals, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that LeBron James and the Lakers were well on their way to another championship. The NBA Finals matchup between the Lakers and Miami Heat seemed like a mismatch from the opening tip.
Making things even more lopsided, Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic were both injured in Game 1 (Bam returning in Game 4 and Dragic in the closeout Game 6, but neither looked like themselves at any point in the series).
Even though Jimmy Butler played exceptionally well, LeBron’s biggest adversary in the finals wasn’t even a player, it was Pat Riley– recall the hard feelings he expressed when LeBron left Miami and went back home to Cleveland.
Lakers in what should have been five games, but was six.
Even the staunchest LeBron supporter should concede that luck played a part in him capturing his fourth NBA Championship and saying so is not to take away from his accomplishment, but to point out an obvious fact.
Also obvious is that although luck was a supporting actor here, it wasn’t the supporting actor, that would be Anthony Davis, and still, at the end of the day, the Oscar goes to LeBron James for taking advantage of what happens when preparation meets opportunity which just happens to be…Luc-King Up.