LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Denver Nuggets needed three straight wins, but LeBron James needed three days off, and one lesson of the NBA’s last decade is that LeBron usually gets what he wants. Now he gets to go to his 10th NBA Finals, and the amazing part of that is … all of it.
His 10th NBA Finals. Magic Johnson played in nine. Kobe Bryant played in seven. Michael Jordan played in six. Tom Brady has played in nine Super Bowls, which is absurd, but he did it all with one franchise and one coach. This will be James’s ninth Finals in the last 10 years, with three franchises and four head coaches, an astounding feat: Every few years, he joins a new team and almost instantly makes it great.
James finished the Lakers’ Game 5 win over the Nuggets with 38 points on 25 shots, 16 rebounds, 10 assists – what some players would call a career night, and what James calls a night. Sometimes James makes the game look easy, like that moment in Saturday’s clincher over the Nuggets when he got fouled, turned to Nikola Jokic mid-air and said, “and one,” and then finished his layup. It was like watching a pianist eat a turkey sandwich without missing a note. But there are an increasing number of moments when the game seems hard for him, and that is what stands out about his play now: In his seventeenth season, he still finds a way.