LeBron Isn’t Really Like Mike, but He Is Like the Logo

LeBron James isn’t the same player he was when he won his first three NBA titles. He’s still arguably the league’s best player, but he’s no longer in his prime. He was 27 and 28 when he won his first two in Miami, and 31 when he won his third in Cleveland. LeBron turned 35 this season, his 17th in the league. He leads active players in career regular-season minutes (48,551) and is no. 1 all time in playoff minutes (10,728). He can’t quite run and jump like he used to, or handle the same types of defensive assignments. But what he has lost in speed he has more than made up for in savvy. LeBron doesn’t have to be the best athlete in the NBA anymore. He wins with his mind these days.

James set up the Lakers so that he doesn’t have to be superhuman. They can gentleman’s sweep their way through the playoffs with a win against the Heat on Friday, winning all four series in five games. It would be a better cumulative record (16-4) than his title team in Cleveland (16-5) or either of the ones in Miami (both 16-7).

LeBron would be only the third player to win a title with three different teams, and the other two (John Salley and Robert Horry) were role players who were in the right place at the right time. He’s close to building three champions from the ground up, each more impressive than the last. He had the benefit of learning from Pat Riley in Miami, while Kyrie Irving was already in place in Cleveland, and Kevin Love came soon after. But LeBron came to Los Angeles in 2018 with nothing more than a vision and a dream—then spent the next two seasons making it a reality.

He was basically George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven. He hatched a plan, and methodically recruited all the players he needed to make it work. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, and Alex Caruso are the only three Lakers who predate LeBron. They signed Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee after him in 2018, traded for Anthony Davis and signed Danny Green and Dwight Howard in 2019, and then picked up Markieff Morris at the buyout deadline in 2020.

Davis is Brad Pitt in this analogy. His stat line in the playoffs (28.2 points on 57.8 percent shooting, 9.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game) doesn’t even seem real. He’s the perfect complement to LeBron at this stage of his career. Davis is a versatile pick-and-roll partner who can score from every area of the floor while also doing the heavy lifting on defense. He held Jimmy Butler in check in Game 4 after Butler dominated LeBron in Game 3. It was the kind of thing that Peak LeBron used to do—match up with the best player on the opposing team, regardless of position, and take them out of the game.

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But LeBron has been just as important to Davis, both on and off the court. He’s the best playmaker that AD has ever played with, and runs the offense and keeps everyone else involved so that Davis can focus on scoring. He’s also set the tone in the locker room, showing his younger costar how to lead a team through the playoff gauntlet, as well as everything that has to be done during the regular season to get them ready for those moments. It’s the same type of mentorship that LeBron received from Riley and Dwyane Wade in Miami.

Their relationship has been a win-win. They are more like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar than Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Shaq and Kobe were close enough in age that there was a dispute about “whose” team it was. That was never an issue for Kareem and Magic. Magic learned from Kareem when he was near the end of his prime before taking over as Kareem aged out. The same thing can happen with LeBron and AD.

Davis is 27, the same age LeBron was when he came to Miami. He can grow into a role as a leader in the next few seasons. The Lakers may not be “his” team for a while, but there doesn’t have to be a formal handover. A day will come when Davis draws upon a lesson from something that happened to him and knows exactly what to say, and he will be the older player sending TikToks to his younger teammates instead of LeBron sending texts.

Everything is set up for Los Angeles to be a contender for a long time. It will be the prime destination this offseason for any veteran looking for a ring. And with so much of the league hemorrhaging money during the pandemic, the Lakers’ midlevel exception could land them a valuable piece to add to a title team.

They can make an even bigger move after next season. Their only players currently under contract beyond that are LeBron (who has a player option) and Kuzma (who has a team option as part of his rookie deal). Even after re-signing Davis, who is set to be a free agent, they will have more than enough cap room to chase any star they want and put together a legitimate Big Three. LeBron can waive his option and sign for less money if he wants to make a deal work.

He can give any younger star the exact same pitch that he gave Davis. LeBron knows what it takes to win a title, and can put them in a position to win one. It’s harder than it looks. Kawhi Leonard found that out when he tried to copy LeBron’s playbook with the Clippers. There’s a reason that LeBron is 27-4 in playoff series since losing to the Mavs in 2011. He knows how to assemble contenders in ways that maximize his talent. There are all kinds of hidden pitfalls that can prevent a favorite from winning it all, from the inability of a coaching staff to adjust, to the refusal of a supporting cast to sacrifice, to an ownership group that won’t open up the checkbook. LeBron has learned how to sidestep all of them.

That’s why the comparison between LeBron and Michael Jordan is no longer that relevant. It goes beyond just the ways the NBA has changed in the past 20 years. LeBron is now in his 17th season and should be able to play at least 20, assuming he stays healthy. Jordan played only 15. He won all six of his rings with one team, and almost all the key players in his supporting cast came via the draft and trades. He never had to put together the puzzle of a championship team, or outmaneuver the rest of the league to get the players he needed. That may be why he hasn’t had the same success after becoming the general manager of the Wizards or the owner of the Hornets. Jordan was thrown into the deep end of the pool with no prior experience after his second retirement with the Bulls, and hasn’t shown the ability to successfully run a team in the past two decades.

LeBron is more prepared for a post-playing career in management because he has already been doing it for the better part of a decade. Few all-time-great players have successfully made the transition to the front office. And Jordan is not the gold standard at that level of the game.

Jerry West should be the goal for LeBron. During his nearly two-decade run as GM and executive vice president of basketball operations for the Lakers, he built the teams that won six titles before heading to Memphis and turning around the Grizzlies (he just missed drafting LeBron in 2003). He then worked as a consultant with the Warriors, helping them put their dynasty together, and the Clippers, who became an elite franchise after he came on board in 2017. West has two advantages over his competitors in NBA front offices: He knows how to assemble a championship team, and he can use his experience to sell that vision to other superstars. He’s not Jordan, but he is “the Logo.” After the Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer, Montrezl Harrell tweeted that West was “different in that office.” LeBron is too. Just ask Davis.

The difference between LeBron and West is that the latter played in a different era, when player salaries were far smaller. He never had the chance to ascend to the very top rung of management. LeBron has made $307 million in his NBA career and even more in endorsements. His net worth is currently estimated at $480 million. Much like Jordan, he will be able to lead an ownership group of his own one day. Except he will know what to do once he gets there.

There’s an old wives’ tale about two bulls on a hill, looking down at a herd of cows. The young bull looks at the old one and tells him, “I’m going to sprint down this hill and get with one of those cows.” The old bull laughs and says, “I’m going to walk down and get with all of them.”

LeBron is the old bull these days. He doesn’t need to sprint anymore. The path to his fourth ring hasn’t been as difficult as the one to his third. It could be even easier for his fifth.