The brilliance of LeBron James almost always shows up in the box score and leads the highlight reels. He's been nearly indestructible and often indescribable, and his path from home to Miami and back has been both scrutinized and enjoyed, perhaps unlike any athlete's journey before him.
Now, James is making another return -- to the NBA Finals, where he has been now for each of the past five seasons. In the Eastern Conference finals, as evidenced in the Cavs' 118-88 sweep-clinching Game 4 victory, James made it so the Atlanta Hawks never really had a chance.
There was much made in that series -- and rightly so -- of Matthew Dellavedova's emergence, of Kyrie Irving's ever-changing status, of the way J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert just kept delivering and made that midseason trade look like maybe the best in Cleveland sports history. Meanwhile, James kept raising the bar that was already ridiculously high, kept making plays and delivering huge baskets.
Late Tuesday night, there was confetti falling from the top of Quicken Loans Arena. Lots of it.
There are lots of layers here, lots of reasons for Cleveland to celebrate the Cavs' second Eastern Conference championship, and for Cavs general manager David Griffin to be praised; lots for lovers of unselfish, team-based basketball to appreciate and, frankly, a lot of reasons to think the NBA Finals will be really good.
But all of this starts with James -- it started last summer and continued through many interesting and some tumultuous months -- and for everything that he's earned (and been given, and been through), he came back to the Cavs and they went from laughingstock to conference champion. And the four-time NBA MVP will have the ball in his hands as they try to become NBA champions starting next week.
"I can't guarantee you we'll win (in the NBA Finals)," James said in the postgame news conference. "I guarantee you we'll play our asses off."
James keeps breaking playoff records for individual domination. He's been doing this a long time now, and after a four-year Miami vacation that included two titles he's back with the Cavs. Against the Hawks, James fell three assists short of becoming the first NBA player to average 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists over the course of a playoff series.
Really. Any series. And this was the conference finals.
He might have gotten those three assists, too, but he needed to play only 29 minutes in Game 4, and still finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. He made sure it was over early, and he had plenty of help. The Cavs — once 19-20 and a hell of a soap opera but not much of a cohesive basketball team — overwhelmed the Hawks from the start, and James spent the fourth quarter wrapped in ice and dancing on the sideline.
Afterward, he acknowledged being emotional about not just the accomplishment but also his homecoming last July, the trials of a season in the spotlight, about not being a patient person but signing up for a situation that would require patience, about a bunch of transactions that shaped this current roster. James is used to everyone watching -- and to making snap judgments.
On the floor after the game, Griffin said he thought "everything fit well" when making moves to shape this roster that included adding Smith, Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov.
"We had the greatest player on the planet who made it all work," Griffin said.
David Blatt, who's been accused of being the coach only when James allows him to, said James is "not only a fabulous basketball player but an experienced winner who leads his guys in a way that empowers them and does not belittle them, in a way that lifts them."
LeBron is the boss, and there's nothing wrong with that. If he has to be a part-time spiritual director, travel coordinator and personnel opinion-giver, well, that's fine, too.
Imagine Plan B. Look back at the history of the Cavs without him.
History. Get ready for lots of talk about it -- about Cleveland's title drought, about the time James broke up with Cleveland on national TV, about the letter he wrote when he came back and the emotions rekindled when he actually returned. It's all coming. The NBA Finals start June 4. Like it's been, fairly and entirely accurate or neither fair nor entirely accurate, this is about James, about his putting a team and city upon his broad and chiseled shoulders, about his immense talents.
Nobody has ever averaged at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and better than nine assists over the course of a series.
James has one more series this season.
A whole bunch of history awaits.
Congrats to my brother @KingJames on 5 straight finals appearances... alot of people have no idea how tough that is.
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) May 27, 2015
