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ne of these LeBron Finals teams: G Mike Bibby, G Eddie House, F Rashard Lewis, F Juwan Howard, and C Greg Oden.</li><li>Other LeBron teammates to log Finals minutes include Michael Beasley, Kendrick Perkins, Ronny Turiaf, Toney Douglas, and Joe Harris.</li><li>A possible starting five of players that have logged minutes playing against LeBron’s teams during this stretch: G Derek Fisher, G Jason Kidd, F Peja Stojakovic, F Tracy McGrady, and C Brian Cardinal.</li><li>Other LeBron opponents to log actual Finals minutes include Royal Ivey, DeShawn Stevenson, Daequan Cook, Nando de Colo, Lazar Hayward, Brendan Haywood, and Justin Holiday.</li><li>During this continuing Finals stretch, LeBron played against two guards (Fisher and Kidd) that have both since retired and been hired as NBA head coaches — and one of them has already had time to be fired too.</li></ul><h1 id="07f2">5. During this now 6-year Finals run, LeBron has have won an incredible 85 playoff games</h1><ul><li>The <a href="https://readmedium.com/tanks-for-nothing-23b778ad7b2e#.8s1uxmu0q">Philadelphia 76ers</a> have less than twice that many wins, 157, during the entire last six regular seasons.</li><li>LeBron has won almost as many games in the last three <i>playoffs</i> (43) as the 76ers have won in the last three entire years (47).</li><li>Dwyane Wade has played in 100 playoff games during this same 6-year period — the only player in the league to even <i>play</i> in as many playoff games as LeBron has <i>won</i> during this stretch.</li><li>LeBron has more playoff wins just during this run alone than Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Isiah Thomas, Jason Kidd, and Gary Payton had in their entire careers.</li><li>LeBron has played over 5000 minutes of playoff ball since he last missed the Finals, totaling 3282 points, 1081 rebounds, and 766 assists just in playoff numbers. Only 63 other NBA players have hit those totals in the last six regular seasons and playoffs combined.</li></ul><h1 id="bb0d">6. The last NBA Finals without LeBron James was the Lakers and the Celtics rematch</h1><ul><li>The last Finals without LeBron was so long ago that only 2 of the 11 regulars from that series are still playing real NBA minutes: Pau Gasol and Rajon Rondo.</li><li>Of the other 9 regulars to last play in a LeBron-less Finals, 7 are already retired (Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Metta World Peace, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Rasheed Wallace) and the other 2 should be (Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett).</li><li>To reach the Finals, those Celtics outlasted LeBron’s Cavs and then an Orlando Magic team that featured Dwight Howard and Vince Carter.</li><li>The Lakers knocked off 8-seed Oklahoma City featuring Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in their first playoff action, then held on to beat the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns, who had swept the Spurs in their previous series to finally end that dynasty. Oops.</li><li>The leader in rebounds per game in these playoffs was Carlos Boozer. The assists leader was Deron Williams. Both of them played for the Utah Jazz.</li></ul><h1 id="0e0d">7. Here’s what was happening around the rest of the basketball world the last time the NBA held a LeBron-less Finals…</h1><ul><li>LeBron’s last non-Finals teammates included the oldest player in the league (Shaq), a guy that slept with his LBJ’s mom during the season (Delonte West), Candace Parker’s big bro Anthony, Sebastian Telfair, and “stars” Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison.</li><li>Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson were both high school seniors — they would be top 3 picks a year later.</li><li>Kevin Love was finishing a disappointing sophomore season, scori

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ng 14 ppg off the bench for the Timberwolves in just 22 starts.</li><li>21-year-old Kevin Durant finished 2nd in the Most Improved voting.</li><li>Kawhi Leonard was a completely unknown freshman at San Diego State.</li><li>Derek Rose wasn’t even very good yet, let alone terrible.</li><li>Since LeBron last missed a Finals, the following players have all logged NBA minutes: Yao Ming, Marcus Camby, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Theo Ratliff, Rip Hamilton, Jason Williams, and Antonio McDyess.</li></ul><h1 id="1afd">8. What about these present-day Golden State Warriors — what were they up to at the time of the last LeBron-less Finals?</h1><ul><li>Stephen Curry was a rookie. He went mostly unnoticed and lost the Rookie of the Year to budding star Tyreke Evans.</li><li>Draymond Green was a junior for 10-seed Michigan State, Coach Tom Izzo’s worst tournament team ever.</li><li>Harrison Barnes was a Preseason All-American coming off a disappointing freshman season at UNC.</li><li>Klay Thompson was a little-known junior for Washington State. His team was destroyed by Wichita State in the NIT, a 31 point drubbing.</li><li>Milwaukee Bucks’ Andrew Bogut was recovering from a broken hand, dislocated elbow, and sprained wrist, and most pundits wondered if he’d ever play meaningful minutes again.</li><li>Shaun Livingston was still recovering from his own devastating knee injury that seemed certain to end his career. He was traded from the Wizards to the Bobcats that year and went to the Bucks, Rockets, Wizards, Cavs, and Nets before coming to these Warriors.</li><li>Steve Kerr was the President and GM for the Phoenix Suns. His big move that year was trading Shaq to LeBron’s Cavs.</li></ul><h1 id="be1b">9. The 2010 NBA Draft happened just days after the last LeBron-less Finals</h1><ul><li>Evan Turner and Wesley Johnson were top-4 picks. The Warriors drafted Ekpe Udoh at #6.</li><li>300 players have been drafted since LeBron last missed the Finals. 151 of them — over half — have already left the league.</li><li>Included among those 151 players drafted and already out of the league is former #1 pick Anthony Bennett.</li><li>Drafted that summer, Hassan Whiteside has played for the Sacramento Kings, Reno Big Horns, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Amchit Club, Sichuan Blue Whales, Al Mouttahed Tripoli, Jiangsu Tongxi, Memphis Grizzlies, Iowa Energy, and Miami Heat while developing into a 2nd team All Defense player. LeBron? Yawn. More Finals.</li></ul><h1 id="29ea">10. What was happening around the world at the time of the last LeBron-less Finals?</h1><ul><li>Cam Newton won the Heisman and led Auburn to a title.</li><li>Landon Donovan scored a miracle as USA beat Algeria in the World Cup.</li><li>Prince William and Kate Middleton were not yet engaged.</li><li>The U.S. still had troops in Iraq.</li><li>Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still a thing.</li><li><i>Game of Thrones</i> was still just a book series.</li><li>Gale Boetticher was still an up-and-coming Albuquerque chemist.</li><li>The world was still working to clean up the BP oil spill.</li><li>Osama bin Laden was still the world’s most wanted man.</li><li>Donald Trump had last been seen on <i>Celebrity Apprentice</i> with Meat Loaf and Gary Busey.</li></ul><p id="e952"><i>If you like this article, please comment below and share it with your friends. Be sure to follow Brandon on Medium or <a href="https://twitter.com/wheatonbrando">@wheatonbrando</a> for more sports, humor, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s <a href="https://readmedium.com/brandon-anderson-writing-archives-6b3ee1a29301#.6cteu050v">writing archives here</a>.</i></p></article></body>

10 New Ways to Appreciate the One-Man NBA Dynasty that is LeBron James

Admitting the Greatness of 6 Straight NBA Finals Appearances

LeBron James is not human. We’ve known for awhile — perhaps a little too long now. We take LeBron’s greatness for granted.

Game after game, he puts up outlandish numbers. Year after year, he takes his team to the brink of the title. He’s one of the Monstars from Space Jam. Yet we’ve stopped marveling — anything less would be surprising at this point.

LeBron is the first player in 50 years to play in 6 straight NBA Finals. The only other players to ever accomplish the same feat only had to win 4 playoff games to get there. And they were the 1960s Celtics, featuring Bill Russell and five other Hall of Famers plus GOAT coach Red Auerbach.

LeBron? Many times he’s practically done it by himself.

So in a year where we’ve all — myself included — slobbered all over the shiny new 73–9 Golden State Warriors, let’s take a few minutes to stop and consider the greatness of six straight NBA Finals by LeBron James.

1. LeBron’s Finals performances have been better than everyone else competing — combined

During these last five NBA Finals (not counting 2016 yet), there have been 23 times where a player scored 30+ points. LeBron had 12 of them, over half. That includes 5 of the 7 times a player scored 37+ in a Finals game.
Only 13 Finals games in this span saw a player hit double digit assists. LeBron, a forward, did it 7 times — including the top two totals.
Even at 6'8, LeBron is the only player to hit 18 rebounds during this Finals stretch. He did it twice.
LeBron has 6 of the 7 triple doubles recorded (Draymond Green has the other). That’s more than one triple double per Finals trip.
Basketball-Reference.com (source of all stats in this piece) scores every individual game based on overall statistical performance. LeBron has 16 of the top 25 individual game scores in the last five Finals.

2. During this Finals stretch, LeBron averaged 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists, a game!

During the entire 2015-16 NBA season, only 18 other players put up 27/10/7 in a single game effort. They did it a total of 32 times out of 1230 regular season games, and LeBron has averaged it over 29 Finals games.
Kevin Durant had the most 27/10/7 games this season, with 6 in 82 games. LeBron did it 4 times just in last year’s Finals against the Warriors.
In the entire rest of the century, only Shaquille O’Neal (twice) and Rashard Lewis ever had 27/10/7 in the Finals even once.

3. Over 5 Finals, that’s a total of 783 points, 289 rebounds, 200 assists, and 52 steals.

During just those 29 Finals games, LeBron had…

More points than Blake Griffin scored the entire year.
More assists than Kawhi Leonard had this entire season.
More rebounds than Danilo Gallinari or Chandler Parsons had all season.
More triple doubles than any NBA player accrued all year other than Russell Westbrook, Draymond Green, or Rajon Rondo.

4. You’ll never believe some of the other actual players that shared the court with LeBron during these same five Finals…

A possible starting five of players that have logged minutes playing on one of these LeBron Finals teams: G Mike Bibby, G Eddie House, F Rashard Lewis, F Juwan Howard, and C Greg Oden.
Other LeBron teammates to log Finals minutes include Michael Beasley, Kendrick Perkins, Ronny Turiaf, Toney Douglas, and Joe Harris.
A possible starting five of players that have logged minutes playing against LeBron’s teams during this stretch: G Derek Fisher, G Jason Kidd, F Peja Stojakovic, F Tracy McGrady, and C Brian Cardinal.
Other LeBron opponents to log actual Finals minutes include Royal Ivey, DeShawn Stevenson, Daequan Cook, Nando de Colo, Lazar Hayward, Brendan Haywood, and Justin Holiday.
During this continuing Finals stretch, LeBron played against two guards (Fisher and Kidd) that have both since retired and been hired as NBA head coaches — and one of them has already had time to be fired too.

5. During this now 6-year Finals run, LeBron has have won an incredible 85 playoff games

The Philadelphia 76ers have less than twice that many wins, 157, during the entire last six regular seasons.
LeBron has won almost as many games in the last three playoffs (43) as the 76ers have won in the last three entire years (47).
Dwyane Wade has played in 100 playoff games during this same 6-year period — the only player in the league to even play in as many playoff games as LeBron has won during this stretch.
LeBron has more playoff wins just during this run alone than Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Isiah Thomas, Jason Kidd, and Gary Payton had in their entire careers.
LeBron has played over 5000 minutes of playoff ball since he last missed the Finals, totaling 3282 points, 1081 rebounds, and 766 assists just in playoff numbers. Only 63 other NBA players have hit those totals in the last six regular seasons and playoffs combined.

6. The last NBA Finals without LeBron James was the Lakers and the Celtics rematch

The last Finals without LeBron was so long ago that only 2 of the 11 regulars from that series are still playing real NBA minutes: Pau Gasol and Rajon Rondo.
Of the other 9 regulars to last play in a LeBron-less Finals, 7 are already retired (Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Metta World Peace, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Rasheed Wallace) and the other 2 should be (Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett).
To reach the Finals, those Celtics outlasted LeBron’s Cavs and then an Orlando Magic team that featured Dwight Howard and Vince Carter.
The Lakers knocked off 8-seed Oklahoma City featuring Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in their first playoff action, then held on to beat the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns, who had swept the Spurs in their previous series to finally end that dynasty. Oops.
The leader in rebounds per game in these playoffs was Carlos Boozer. The assists leader was Deron Williams. Both of them played for the Utah Jazz.

7. Here’s what was happening around the rest of the basketball world the last time the NBA held a LeBron-less Finals…

LeBron’s last non-Finals teammates included the oldest player in the league (Shaq), a guy that slept with his LBJ’s mom during the season (Delonte West), Candace Parker’s big bro Anthony, Sebastian Telfair, and “stars” Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison.
Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson were both high school seniors — they would be top 3 picks a year later.
Kevin Love was finishing a disappointing sophomore season, scoring 14 ppg off the bench for the Timberwolves in just 22 starts.
21-year-old Kevin Durant finished 2nd in the Most Improved voting.
Kawhi Leonard was a completely unknown freshman at San Diego State.
Derek Rose wasn’t even very good yet, let alone terrible.
Since LeBron last missed a Finals, the following players have all logged NBA minutes: Yao Ming, Marcus Camby, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Theo Ratliff, Rip Hamilton, Jason Williams, and Antonio McDyess.

8. What about these present-day Golden State Warriors — what were they up to at the time of the last LeBron-less Finals?

Stephen Curry was a rookie. He went mostly unnoticed and lost the Rookie of the Year to budding star Tyreke Evans.
Draymond Green was a junior for 10-seed Michigan State, Coach Tom Izzo’s worst tournament team ever.
Harrison Barnes was a Preseason All-American coming off a disappointing freshman season at UNC.
Klay Thompson was a little-known junior for Washington State. His team was destroyed by Wichita State in the NIT, a 31 point drubbing.
Milwaukee Bucks’ Andrew Bogut was recovering from a broken hand, dislocated elbow, and sprained wrist, and most pundits wondered if he’d ever play meaningful minutes again.
Shaun Livingston was still recovering from his own devastating knee injury that seemed certain to end his career. He was traded from the Wizards to the Bobcats that year and went to the Bucks, Rockets, Wizards, Cavs, and Nets before coming to these Warriors.
Steve Kerr was the President and GM for the Phoenix Suns. His big move that year was trading Shaq to LeBron’s Cavs.

9. The 2010 NBA Draft happened just days after the last LeBron-less Finals

Evan Turner and Wesley Johnson were top-4 picks. The Warriors drafted Ekpe Udoh at #6.
300 players have been drafted since LeBron last missed the Finals. 151 of them — over half — have already left the league.
Included among those 151 players drafted and already out of the league is former #1 pick Anthony Bennett.
Drafted that summer, Hassan Whiteside has played for the Sacramento Kings, Reno Big Horns, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Amchit Club, Sichuan Blue Whales, Al Mouttahed Tripoli, Jiangsu Tongxi, Memphis Grizzlies, Iowa Energy, and Miami Heat while developing into a 2nd team All Defense player. LeBron? Yawn. More Finals.

10. What was happening around the world at the time of the last LeBron-less Finals?

Cam Newton won the Heisman and led Auburn to a title.
Landon Donovan scored a miracle as USA beat Algeria in the World Cup.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were not yet engaged.
The U.S. still had troops in Iraq.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still a thing.
Game of Thrones was still just a book series.
Gale Boetticher was still an up-and-coming Albuquerque chemist.
The world was still working to clean up the BP oil spill.
Osama bin Laden was still the world’s most wanted man.
Donald Trump had last been seen on Celebrity Apprentice with Meat Loaf and Gary Busey.

If you like this article, please comment below and share it with your friends. Be sure to follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, humor, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.