LeBron and the Cavaliers

LeBron James has been the best basketball player in the world over the past decade, and even before that, he is one of the most physically gifted athletes in the history of sports. Over his thirteen year career in the NBA he has played in near 1,000 games, and has played nearly 40,000 minutes, and he has averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists over his career. He has scored almost 27,000 points over his career, for some perspective the record for scoring was set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387 points, and the player who is widely considered the best player of all time, Michael Jordan, scored 32,292 points over his career. Although LeBron is aging, and is beginning the downswing of his career, it is almost guaranteed that he will end up in the top five in scoring, and he will probably also end up in the top ten all time for assists. Without a doubt LeBron is an top ten player of all time, and yet at 31 years old, he has only won two NBA Championships and has a 2-4 record all time in the Finals. Most recently to the Golden State Warriors, and also twice to the San Antonio Spurs, and once to the Dallas Mavericks. Usually the problem with LeBron in the playoffs is that he doesn't have enough help, with the Cavaliers he is 0-2 in the Finals, and from 2008-2010 he got eliminated before even reaching the Finals. This year will be very important for LeBron's future with the Cavs, in 2007, LeBron didn't have almost any help and lost 4-0 to the Spurs. Last year was supposed to be the Cavs year, they traded for Kevin Love, and LeBron signed with the Cavs in free agency, and Kyrie Irving had gotten some experience and was developing into a young star. But Kevin Love had his shoulder separated in a first round game against the Celtics. Then Kyrie Irving went down in game seven of a second round game versus the Bulls. So by the time the Cavs reached the Finals they were without two of their top three players, which meant LeBron again had to do everything. He couldn't do it, the Cavs started out 2-1 over the Warriors, but LeBron was the only one who could do anything on offense, and it caught up to them, as the Warriors won the next three games to beat the Cavs and win the NBA Championship.

I think that this years Finals are do or die time for the Cavaliers, if they aren't able to win the Finals yet again, I don't think that LeBron will wait around. He has spent to much time in a city where he can't seem to win. I believe the only ways that LeBron will stay in Cleveland is if the Cavs either win the Finals, or make the team better through free agency this summer.