Observations -
1. Bill Simmons is my favorite sports writer by a long shot - there aren't really any comparisons, which speaks, in part, to how integration between the media and the athletes they cover has tempered the quality of storytelling dramatically; the members of the media with the greatest access (and Simmons touches on this in his book, which helped solidify for me some of this idea particularly) begin to think they are part of the act, develop relationships, start worrying about keeping their spot - think about, say, Senators or 'Nebulous Public Officials', who become engrossed in the mechanism of government, the money and ease that it brings, then have their aspirations for public good neutered by the phrase 'political suicide' - which is code for standing up for something you actually believe in and losing your meal ticket.
The same applies to sportswriters - this is why there is so much boy club butt-slapping and softball questioning - I think everyone wrote something direct about Kobe's rape trial while it was going on, but the same folk wilted into ZAMGIT'SKOBEANDIMINTERVIEWINGHIM mode in the years that follow - folks from LA dont even talk about it, it never gets mentioned, ever. Same with Ray Lewis, you know, stabbing two men to death in front of a church. Ostensibly in self-defence. Ostensibly with the power of god guiding his hand. No sportswriter today will even bring it up while a stadium full of fans in Baltimore, who should know better than anyone about random stabbings, goes completely bananas.
But I digress - I disagree with Bill Simmons on one point in particular - Lebron is not very good at basketball. A streak shooter with...questionable range, poor decision-making skills, an unparalleled ariel game and tremendous, game altering physical gifts. He really is a unique animal - I doubt a human being has ever been born more ideally suited to the pursuit of athletics, 6ft8, but dimensionally more similar to a well-built man at 6ft2 - there's no weakness in his carriage, sound joints, broad shoulders, long arms - but also a barrel chest, good hips - Lebron is built like a new-era superhero. He might legitimately be the fastest player in the league in a straight line, has an as-of-et undetermined max game height for leaping, has great timing from the ground to the point of conflict - be it the basket, a block or a ball.
Everyone who watches the game knows these things even if they dont know they know them - his gifts are so obvious. But he isnt a great shooter, and worse, he picks odd times to let people know; sometimes he appears to get bored, taking long jumpers when he could easily drive the basket - against the Celtics he almost never goes to the hoop against Pierce, who is not a good enough defender to rule that move out, though definetly good enough to make top-tier players question it...but that's it, he's supposed to be the best player, and yet when facing another star who can almost hang with him, who will take a charge, he defers or takes oddly placed jumpers - oddly because he doesnt yet (this is from an outsiders perspective, I dont watch him play everyday) have hot spots on the floor where he is going to hit from everytime - like having go-to post moves, shooters have spots where opponents grimace when they get the ball, if Pierce gets the ball at the top of the key, you could literally jump on him and hit him with a bottle, and he'd drain it, thump his chest and go to the line. It just is. Lebron doesnt have that, maybe it will come with age, but I wonder if it will have to.
What Lebron does have is the leagues most coveted 'Platnium Free Throw Pass' - where he can, at anytime past halftime, take the ball, run directly into the pack of defenders inside of ten feet from the basket and draw a foul. Part of this is that unreasonable athleticism, there's some argument, im sure, that he *could* score, so that must have been a foul - but James as a late game threat is mostly the constant threat of free-throws - points off the clock. Kobe has this, Pierce has it, Iverson did...thing is, they put the time in and earned it. Lebron was bequeethed his title long before he'd put the minutes in to earn it - it's one of the ugly things about the NBA and why I am so worried referees are going to carry a really unbalanced Cavaliers team to the Championship because it's time for Lebron to win one.
It's not a good team and he's not actually as dominant as MJ ever was or Kobe can be - he's just remarkably athletic and is so shocking to behold, no one talks about the weird 3-point shots and why he only drives on Ray Allen when they play the Celtics. It's not hard to score 41 pts when no one else on your team is capable of scoring and that's where they are at now. Yet this awful team with no chemistry WILL make the playoffs and I dont want to see them.
Simmons ranks Lebron up there with the greats already and I just dont understand why - I dont think he's earned it. I'll not question his impact on games or the things he's capable of - it's the way in which he is deferred to simply because Nike demanded his ascension to that questionable NBA throne.
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