Every once in a while LeBron James let you in. He talked almost every day to the media after practice or a Miami Heat game, because he always felt a responsibility came with his role and maybe even enjoyed some banter.
He’d joke. He’d opine. Sometimes, like one day during his final season with the Heat in 2014, he let you behind the curtain and actually see him for a second.
This came when someone asked about what he thought of the trite topic of who was better, LeBron or Michael Jordan. Yes, this question was alive and numbing back then, just as it is today. Except LeBron let you in.
“I’m not done,” he said. “That’s how I feel whenever anyone brings that up. I feel good. I love the game. I don’t know where I’ll end up. But, if you’re comparing, I’m not done.”
Nine years later at 38, he still isn’t done. He broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record Tuesday night with a 14-foot fadeaway jumper. He put his arms in the air, tilted his head toward the ceiling and basked in the moment before bending over in emotion.
“I wouldn’t be me without all of y’alls help, all y’alls passion, without all y’alls sacrifice,” he told his family and the crowd as the game was stopped. “I would never, ever in a million years dreamed this better than it was tonight.”
There were congratulations, applause and a quick, on-court ceremony with James, Abdul-Jabbar and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The afterward again involved the question of LeBron vs. Whoever — Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell.
Everyone has a favorite. Jordan was a basketball assassin who won six titles. Abdul-Jabbar is Heat president Pat Riley’s pick, the two part of the great Showtime Lakers teams. Russell won 11 rings.
Asked Tuesday night if he was the greatest, LeBron didn’t go the diplomatic route.
“If I was a GM for a franchise that was starting out and had the No. 1 pick, I would take me,” he said. “I’ve been able to do whatever this game has wanted me to do. Not take away from anyone else … but I can’t take anybody over me.”
Abdul-Jabbar was gracious in his comments, but there was no apparent warmth between him and James. Maybe the reported ice in their relationship is real. It wouldn’t be the lone freeze-out involving James, as South Florida knows.
It remains complicated, his relationship with the Heat even after all this time. There’s been some thaw. There certainly will be more by the time his No. 6 jersey goes into the arena rafters, just as it should.
James scored 7,913 of his record-breaking 38,388 points with the Heat. That’s not insignificant. He won his first two titles here. Some fans hold tight to his clumsy exit. It’s better to remember how he helped make even the most trivial regular-season game feel like a three-ring circus show.
Sometimes everyone needs to be reminded that four-year Heat run was South Florida’s best since the dynastic Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s. There is no third run to be listed.
The Heat and LeBron have had their successes since. They met in the 2019 finals in the pandemic bubble, LeBron’s Lakers winning in six games. The Heat or Lakers don’t seem much this season, but LeBron remains one of the NBA’s best in averaging 30.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and seven assists.
There’s a Tom Brady feel to LeBron’s career at age 38. You get the idea he’s years from the end, just as Brady was at that point. Will LeBron play until 45? Will he want to?
“It’s been great,” LeBron said of his career at some point Tuesday. Then he repeated what he did that day on the Heat practice court, the idea that told you what he’s really thinking:
“I’m not going nowhere.”
He’ll be the first player to score 40,000 points. Then 45,000. That’s what anyone drawing a hard line about him not being the best doesn’t understand. The conversation isn’t over. LeBron’s not done.
