report in simple accounting fashion
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And there are those who are willing to work in areas of gray, in terms of nuance and circumstance.
Some will say that Michael Jordan won six titles and Kobe Bryant won five (Bill Russell won 11 but is somehow usually not included in the counting discussion), and LeBron James has three, and that's that.
Perhaps so, in the column, that is that.
But for those who entertain perspective, James did something in this postseason that deserves to be recognized and revered. The Cleveland Cavaliers' 87-79 Game 7 victory in Boston on Sunday night earned James a silver trophy and not a gold one. It doesn't feel right to put this accomplishment next to the titles.
Yet it doesn't seem fair to slide it in the list of Eastern Conference titles and move on. It's the responsibility of basketball fans who are willing to explain to those who don't know or aren't born yet or maybe aren't aware what James has done this season.
It will be easy to minimize this once the moment passes, to write it off as the Cavs getting fortunate that Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward were hurt, that the Boston Celtics were too young, that the Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors weren't worthy opponents. To wave it away with an entire generation of other Eastern Conference contenders that have become faceless to a certain extent in James' wake.
That would be a disservice to James and a disservice to the history of the game. Love James or hate James, his performance has earned the respect to understand and hold true the authenticity of the achievement.
For example, James had 35 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists and 8 turnovers in Game 7. That's an excellent game. It's not an all-time James game -- it's frankly a borderline top-10 performance just in this postseason. Reviewing just the columns, it'd be easy to let it fade into the crowd of James' immense playoff résumé.
What must be understood is it came when James was playing in his 100th consecutive game of the season. That he played his third game in five days. That he got round-the-clock treatment on his right leg after playing 46 minutes to stave off elimination 48 hours earlier. That he played all 48 minutes in a playoff game for the first time since 2006, when he was 21 years old. That in the fourth quarter he made 4 of 6 shots, had three rebounds and four assists after he'd played 3,757 minutes this season, more than anyone else in the entire association.
For those who were around James, those who see him in the hours after a game or before he gets on the massage table or after he gets off the plane in the middle of the night, they can't believe he rises to the occasion again and again.
"I mean, the bigger the stage, the bigger the player, and he's been doing it for us since we've been here," said Cavs coach Ty Lue. "The great quote from the great Doc Rivers is, 'You always want to go into the Game 7 with the best player,' and we have the best player on our team going into a Game 7. I like our chances. And he delivered again."
Here's the delivery situation: James has won six straight Game 7s over the past 10 years, two of them on the road. He has won seven of the past eight elimination games he's been in, including three this postseason. And he has now come from 2-0 down to win a series three times in his career. That has happened only 20 times in seven-game series in NBA history.
The two times he has lost Game 7s were in Detroit in 2006 and in Boston in 2008. He has since beaten the Pistons four times in the playoffs and he's gotten the Celtics five times in a row now.
He will go into the NBA Finals as an underdog, no matter who the Cavs play, for the seventh time in his nine trips. There's a better than average chance this season won't end in his fourth title and instead end in his sixth Finals loss. And for that, those who use the columns can use it to batter him.
"Jesus Christ, you think you're frustrated? How would you like to get there eight times and not win?"
That's what Jerry West said in 2011 when James called him after he lost his second Finals in his eighth season looking for a shoulder to cry on. West told James he'd wanted to quit several times after losing the first eight Finals he played in. That once when he was jogging in Los Angeles he was heckled by a passerby and he was driven to the edge of considering homicide. West is bitter about the history to this day; he frowns at the mere mention.
As he turns 80 on Monday, though, the historians have done him so much better. He was known as "Mr. Clutch," and more recently, "The Logo." Nuance, grainy highlights and oral history have made West's legacy ironclad. He was done right.
The same respect is due for James. The trials of this season, the details surrounding the weakening of his team and the weekly challenges that he had to navigate while shouldering an incredible burden brought him to Game 7 in a preposterous position. The Cavs had no business being there; by all rights they should've lost to the Pacers a month ago.
The Cavs had a long celebration in their locker room after the game. Teams haven't gotten to celebrate much on this patch of land, be it TD Garden or in the adjacent lot where the Boston Garden once stood. James has had a few of his darkest moments in that locker room.
Then he summed it up.
"It's been roses," James said. "There have been thorns. There's been everything that you can ask for. I've said this has been one of the most challenging seasons I've had."
OK, so not a championship in name, but it smelled just as sweet.
Who had the best sneakers of the NBA conference finals?
LeBron James, facing off against the Boston Celtics in the East finals for the first time since 2012, caught everyone in TD Garden by surprise when he laced up a white, green and gold edition of his Nike LeBron 15 sneaker. While the shoe did technically celebrate the Irish, they were actually a tribute to James' Saint Vincent-Saint Mary High School back home in Akron, Ohio, complete with "SVSM" initials along the heel.
In the West finals, James Harden has continued his MVP-level play in his latest Adidas signature shoe, the creatively titled Harden Vol. 2. Designed to harness three of his signature moves, the shoes feature support and grip for his jab step, his Eurostep drive, and of course, his step-back jumper.
"He's playing more on his toes and around the forefoot, so that's where the traction pattern provides him with the most grip," said Rashad Williams, Adidas Basketball's senior director of footwear.
While Harden has rotated through a batch of Houston Rockets-friendly red variations throughout the series, the black-and-red pair he donned for Game 3 also featured gold accents along the upper, and could make a reappearance should Houston advance to the NBA Finals.
For Harden's teammate and arena hallway sidekick PJ Tucker, wearing the standard version of the much-hyped $200 "Off-White" Nike Hyperdunk 2017, designed by Virgil Abloh and now worth around $750 on the resale market, simply isn't enough.
The Rockets' 3-and-D wing took matters into his own hands to give his pair some added flair, teaming up with sneaker craftsman Dominic Chambrone, aka The Shoe Surgeon, to fully dip-dye the white sneaker into an all-red pair.
On the other side, the Golden State Warriors' trio of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Nick Young each had their own unique footwear as the stakes of the playoffs heightened.
All series long, Durant has donned a pair of the KD 10 that feature a graphic combination of some of the most loved sneaker themes throughout his decade-long Nike signature series. Appropriately dubbed the "What The" KD 10, the multicolored design features elements from his breast cancer awareness tribute pairs that've honored his late Aunt Pearl, and tongue lettering from his classic Nerf basketball hoop-inspired KD 4 model.
Curry took the floor for Game 5 in an unmistakably bright pair of his new Under Armour Curry 5, forgoing the clean look of his white-based sneakers that he'd worn for most of the playoffs. The vibrant yellow-and-orange colorway takes some inspiration from Fuzzy Peaches, a gummy orange candy that he and the family are known to snack on around the house.
Last but not least, Young stole the show during Game 3 when he unearthed a pair of former teammate and close friend Gilbert Arenas' second Adidas signature shoe from 2008. An official collaboration with Japanese tableside grill restaurant Benihana, the clashing red-and-black sneakers not only celebrated the league's love for its fried rice concoctions, but also the former Wizards All-Star's famous "Hibachi!" catchphrase after made shots.
The shoes, originally limited to only 100 pairs, weren't exactly a gift from Gilbert, as Swaggy P allegedly raided the sneaker collection of his close friend (who's also a Size 13) after signing with Adidas in 2016.
"Nick has stolen a lot of shoes in his lifetime from my closet," Arenas clarified the following morning on his online show, "Out of Bounds."
Young didn't exactly scorch the nets in the true spirit of "Hibachi," shooting just 1-of-3 from the field with a pair of free throws in under 20 minutes of playing time.
"Seventeen minutes, 17 shots -- that's what you're supposed to do in those shoes!" Arenas joked. "A shot per minute in those shoes. This is the Hibachis -- you're supposed to light up."
As both series are set to conclude with deciding Game 7s over the holiday weekend, be sure to stay tuned on ESPN's Facebook Group SneakerCenter for sneaker updates in real time. Check out the best pairs worn so far during the conference finals, and vote for your favorite sneaker below.
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