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On Thursday, June 1 at 9:00 PM EST on ABC, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will square off in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors come into this series a perfect 12-0 in the playoffs while the Cavaliers come in at 12-1, dropping Game 3 to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. With the Warriors defeating the Cavaliers in 2015 and the Cavaliers defeating the Warriors in 2016, this series is seen as the "rubber match" series.
When looking at this series, there are two major storylines. The first is whether or not LeBron James can finally sit at the dinner table with Michael Jordan if the Cavaliers win and the second is what will this series do to the legacy of Kevin Durant. I will address both of these storylines below.
In regards to LeBron James, ever since he entered the NBA, he's been compared to Michael Jordan. In some ways this is unfair and in other ways it just goes with the territory of being LeBron James. The way in which this is unfair is that to a large extent, LeBron James and Michael Jordan are different players. They have different styles, they played in different eras, and they had different journeys to reach the NBA.
For Michael Jordan, nobody knew he was going to be as great as he was when he came into the NBA. He was a top three draft pick, but nobody saw him as the next Magic Johnson or Oscar Robertson. He was cut from the varsity basketball team at one point in high school and he spent three years in college at North Carolina, polishing his game.
It wasn't until later in his NBA career that people started expecting Jordan to win championships. Once he won his first championship, it all clicked and the rest is history. He went on to win six championships in eight seasons with two of those seasons including a retirement from the NBA to play baseball. His 6-0 record in the NBA Finals is legendary and primarily responsible for why he is considered the greatest player in NBA history.
As for LeBron James, from the moment he graduated from high school he was looked at as the next dominant player in the NBA. From the opening tip of his first game in the NBA all the way until today, he has been compared to the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Oscar Robertson. Michael Jordan wasn't under that same microscope when he began his career.
While he hasn't had a perfect NBA Finals record, LeBron James has been to the NBA Finals seven straight seasons and eight times overall in his career. Michael Jordan in comparison reached the NBA Finals three times in a row twice for a grand total of six appearances. LeBron James' consecutive trips to the NBA Finals speaks to his durability and consistency and certainly needs to be taken into account when comparing him to "His Royal Airness."
What also needs to be taken into account is who he has faced in the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan never faced a team as dangerous as these Golden State Warriors and he never took out a 73-9 team on the road in a Game 7. LeBron James has Michael Jordan beat in the "most impressive championship" category and that has to stand for something.
If LeBron James is able to take out the Warriors for a second straight season after they added Kevin Durant, it would be foolish to not start viewing him in the same league as Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan's 6-0 NBA Finals record will likely never be duplicated in terms of its perfection, but LeBron James can carve out his own legacy by taking out the all-mighty Warriors two years in a row. Whether fans of Jordan want to admit it or not, if James does lead the Cavaliers to a second straight championship over the Warriors, the gap between the two players will become razor thin.
As for Kevin Durant, he's playing for something entirely different. He's playing to win a ring and no longer be mentioned as one of the greatest players to never win one. The stakes are even higher than that if you consider that lots of the greatest players to never win a championship never had the kind of supporting cast that Kevin Durant has in Golden State.
If the Warriors don't win this series, Kevin Durant will look like a total failure and a complete flop. He bailed on Oklahoma City to chase a ring in Golden State and if he comes up short, there will be many people calling him a choke, a bust, etc. While such talk may come off as cruel or harsh, it will actually be fair if Durant fails to deliver a championship to the Bay Area. When you try to take a shortcut to success and you fail, you deserve every ounce of criticism that comes your way. It's just the way it goes.
In many ways, Kevin Durant can't really come out of the NBA Finals looking all that good. If the Warriors win, everyone will say KD got his ring the cheap and easy way. If the Warriors don't, he'll be considered the biggest failure in modern NBA Finals history. Neither is an outcome Durant would prefer. In essence, he's just playing to not look like a total fool and that isn't exactly the kind of stakes he was hoping to play for when he came to Golden State.
Sadly for Durant, the reality is players aren't just measured by how many rings they win. They're measured by how they how they won the rings that they got. If you get your rings by joining forces with guys better than you, people don't look at that in the same way as if you stuck it out in the same spot and found a way to get it done. A good example of this is Dirk Nowitzki finally winning a championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.
Both LeBron James and Kevin Durant are playing for something big, but ultimately, it's LeBron James who has more on the line. If he wins his fourth championship, many will start to put him in the same conversation as Michael Jordan, which is monumental. Kevin Durant won't even sniff such a discussion unless he amasses multiple rings of his own and wins at least a couple without Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Right now, he's just playing to not look like a complete choke.
Prediction: I have the Warriors in 7. The Warriors are the better team on paper and by adding Kevin Durant, they really should win this series. If they don't win this series, their whole team, not just Kevin Durant, will be viewed as a big failure. If you want to hear more about the series as a whole, check out the latest edition of the NBALord.com Podcast here.
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