It has been one of the most entertaining NBA Finals in history, the overtime games, the storylines coming in, everything about this Finals just screams “All-Timer”. And there’s one player that is making this all possible. Mr LeBron James.
Debate if he is the GOAT or not, it is clear that without him, this series would’ve been done a long time ago. He has taken a Cleveland Cavaliers team that has no Kyrie, no Kevin Love and has literally taken a team to a place that, without him, the Cavs would be the the New York Knicks,
Bill Walton is one of those guys that talk in intricate detail, but because he’s Bill Walton, you don’t mind. He has talked about LeBron’s historic finals, comparing it to the likes of Russell Magic.
“LeBron has never played better,” Walton told SLAM. “He is playing at the level and the style and the control and the impact of some of my favorite players ever—Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Steve Nash. And the greatest thing about basketball is the ability of the team to come together, no matter who the team is. LeBron, his skill package, his physical fitness level, the vision of how to play, to pull the whole team together, to inspire all these guys who nobody wanted, what he has done is inspire the whole city. He’s inspiring the whole community along the way, and really changed the dynamics of the series psychologically, emotionally and personally.”
Walton then goes on to talk about his influence on the people of Cleveland and the state of Ohio.
“What great players do, is they make everybody else believe. When you walk the streets of Cleveland, when you fly into this city, when our plane touched down and the flight attendant said welcome to Cleveland, the plane burst into applause. When I came out of the airport, there’s just Cavs memorabilia everywhere. When I walked to the Q from the hotel, to see all the fans, they believe because of him. It’s overwhelming, the enthusiasm and the excitement. When the Cavs came in people said they had no chance, and they’ve continued to compete and believe each time out. It’s just been a real thing of beauty.”
You rarely see that these days, where one player, one person can literally lift a whole city and get them to believe that it is possible. Nobody has done it in this calibre, in the way LeBron has done it and even if they lose this Finals, it will be forever remembered.
