After their gutsy Game 4 win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers lead the Western Conference semifinals three games to one. Suddenly, they seem to have a real shot at winning the NBA championship this year.
It has already been a miraculous turnaround from their 2-10 start in the regular season, which happened with a roster many felt was incomplete, if not downright broken.
Buy Lakers TicketsLeBron James hasn’t played his best in the playoffs: His right foot may not be 100% yet after he missed a month with an injured tendon. But he is nearly halfway toward earning his fifth championship ring.
While an increasing number of people believe he has a legitimate argument as arguably the greatest player of all time, others feel it is sacrilegious even to entertain the discussion. One of those others is ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, but on Tuesday, he said that if James wins his fifth world title this summer, he would “no longer feel insulted” by such a discussion.
If LeBron wins a fifth NBA title, @stephenasmith says "it would warrant a discussion" of passing MJ on the basketball Mount Rushmore 👀 pic.twitter.com/YR3tuBkCpu
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 9, 2023
“I will acknowledge that I have found it insulting, for anybody, to think that he belongs above Michael Jordan,” Smith said. “If he were to win a fifth title this year, I would no longer feel insulted by that discussion. I would have to concede that. Yeah, I still ain’t putting him above Jordan, but I understand others who might think otherwise. Because for him to take this team from where it was to where it is now … It would warrant a discussion as the greatest player to have ever played this game.”
The big knock on James and his legacy is his six NBA Finals losses, which is more than most of the other all-time greats in basketball history. Jordan, of course, was 6-0 in the championship series.
But if James carries this Lakers team to the world championship, and especially if he were to add a sixth ring shortly afterward while still playing at a very high level, even his harshest critics would have to acknowledge that he has taken his legacy to an even higher level.
