History in the Making

After last night's victory, I think it is safe to say, "We are all witnesses". And I don't mean to Queen James. I am referring to Kobe Bryant's 39 point performance put on last night at the expense of the Oklahoma City Thunder. How many times have we seen Kobe will his team to victory? He consistently demonstrates total mental domination of his opponents. While the next days headlines read things like, "The Old Man Does it Again" I have to shake my head. Kobe Bryant just beat a young team in the first round of the playoffs. A nice feat to be sure, but not something to hang your hat on when you are a 4 time champion. That is why it's all the more glaring when the media proclaims Lebron James 40 point performance the other night against the Bulls to be historic. To quote Mark Jackson, "Are you kidding me?". The media wants to proclaim him the best ever and we are talking about first round playoff victories as historic? I think not.

Let's talk some real history. Michael Jordan is on the top scorers list for the NBA Finals 5 times. He scored 55 on the biggest stage in basketball en route to winning a championship. That's history. Stop putting Lebron James in the discussion until he has some real historical context behind him, like winning a championship.

Though baseball is much more about individual statistics and is a much harder sport to dominate as an individual, some comparisions can be drawn. I hate Alex Rodriguez with as much passion as I hate Lebron. I rountinely bashed him for having not won a championship. He had great numbers. Some of the best ever. We will, for the time being, put aside his admitted steroid use and concentrate on the matter at hand. Last season he won a Championship with the New York Yankees and had the statistics to go along with it. Unlike other seasons where he put up quality numbers his team won the whole thing. He now has a spot in history. He can be mentioned with the other great number guys who won. Until then it wasn't fair to compare them, even in a sport like baseball where numbers are truly an apples to apples comparision.

The same is true for Lebron James. He hasn't won a single title. To make matters worse, Dwayne Wade, a contemporary of James, already has a title and he won it while James was playing in the league at the same time. I don't want to hear about the team Wade had and that Shaq was on it. If you watched that post season you know that Wade was the best player on the team that won it and was the catalyst for their winning over the Dallas Mavericks. Lebron does have a Final appearance on his resume. An appearance that was quickly forgotten as the Spurs rolled to victory and swept the Cavaliers.

I am also tired of hearing how good the Cavaliers are and how much better Lebron makes the players around him. Most of these guys are mediocre at best. In the regular season they look great beating up on the awful eastern teams (everyone on the Nets and Knicks stand up and say hi) and they get praised heaped upon them. Until the playoffs. This is when they get beaten handily and everyone starts making the excuse that his team isn't any good and he did all he could. You can't have it both ways. Either they stink or they don't. In the post season there aren't any cup cake teams anymore. The teams that are there are there for a reason. Maybe this will be the year of Lebron like last year was the year of Arod. But not if Kobe has anything to say about it.