after a win on wednesday the lakers have taken a 3-1 lead in the nba finals just one win away from a championship with a lead so large in the series that only one team in nba history has come back from such a deficit and the leader of that comeback is now on the other side of things unless the miami heat pull off a miracle lebron james is destined to win his fourth nba championship but not every ring is built the same so how will this championship change the trajectory of lebron's legacy or maybe an even
better question does this change anything at all [Music] for the first time in a decade the los angeles lakers have made their way back to glory of course the job's not finished yet but it pretty much is job's not finished job finished i don't think so are you sure about that the lakers are one win away from their 17th championship which will tie the boston celtics for the most in league history in fact this season makes it the lakers 33rd finals appearance in franchise history which means the lakers have better odds of making it to
the finals than the clippers have of winning a regular season game i wish i was kidding possibly the most shocking and insulting stats i have ever seen in my life so this particular championship isn't all that special in the grand scheme of things except it features a player that is building one of the most complete extensive and record-breaking resumes the game has ever seen when it comes to records in the finals lebron is now first in wins second in points second in assist second in steals fourth and rebounds and first in triple doubles but we
are already familiar with those numbers and unfortunately filling the stat sheet does not always result in success which leads us to the other record the dreaded three and six finals record it's by far the largest black mark on lebron's career it's a number that continues to haunt him on his quest to becoming one of the greatest to ever do it in fact lebron james and will chamberlain are the only two players to reach top 10 status while maintaining a losing record in the finals but how does that old saying go quality over quantity well of
every player to ever play the game lebron is tied for the second most finals mvps tim duncan has five rings but was outplayed by tony parker and kawhi leonard in two finals magic johnson has five rings but missed out on two finals mvps to kareem and james worthy kobe has five rings but only two finals mvps and kareem has 6 rings but only 2 finals mvps so if the goal is to play big when it matters most sure winning the finals is extremely important but being the best player on your way to a championship is
just as paramount this is why robert ori a man with more championships than michael jordan is not considered better than mj because we are all aware of the context in which case mj and lebron are the only players to be the best player on each of their championship winning teams more than twice and with the way lebron is currently playing he may possibly win his fourth finals mvp now the key word here is possibly because right now the lebron james anthony davis combo is looking like one of the most deadly and equally productive duos to
ever do it but even in his 10th finals appearance lebron is just as dominant as ever putting up numbers that even anthony davis can't quite keep up with in fact two narratives that are circulating at the moment are that anthony davis is playing outstanding defense in comparison to lebron and that anthony davis is carrying the lakers down the stretch both of these narratives being painfully incorrect lebron not only has a higher defensive rating than anthony davis in the finals lebron has scored three times as many points in the fourth quarter as anthony davis so far
in the series but the standard he has set for himself has become so incredibly high that if he wants to call himself the goats these are the criticisms he will be getting until he silences every one of them because let's be honest the constant never ending complaining to the refs is completely out of control i actually saw a play where lebron drew contact got the foul call and still complained because the foul wasn't called soon enough like you got what you wanted what more do you want from the guy and then there was this play
where lebron complained for a foul while he was in the middle of a layup like dark the play isn't even over yet of course he's not the only player to ever complain to a ref but it's more than just some whining here and there yelling at the reps has become a staple of lebron's game an actual attribute he's apparently trying to boost or something and then there was this little incident that many viewers picked up on after their loss in game three against the heat lebron walking off the court like a sore loser except if
this is being a sore loser then does that make larry bird a sore loser for walking off the court during a free throw while getting eliminated in the conference finals or let me guess is that just his competitive nature showing and then there's the argument that i've never quite understood about this road to a championship being an easy one first it was lebron couldn't compete in the west and then it was game time and then small ball was supposed to pick apart the lakers big slow defense and then it was watch out for this young
gritty nuggets team and now here we are with the lakers just one win away from a championship and apparently their opponent isn't great and anthony davis is carrying the lakers how exactly is the team that took down the squad with the best record in the nba the league mvp and defensive player of the year took down a celtics team with one of the best duos in the nba and a star in jayson tatum and only lost three games coming into the finals how are they not a good team sure they don't have a superstar but
you don't just accidentally stumble your way into the finals they have earned their shot at a championship and to say they aren't a worthy opponent is insulting to all the work they've put in up to this point according to this kind of logic i guess the bucks and the clippers and the nuggets and the celtics and the raptors and every other team in the nba just wasn't trying but obviously they were and this take is ridiculous if this miami heat team is not a great finals team then what do you call the 2015 cavaliers with
lebron and literally a bunch of bench players or what about the 2001 76ers with allen iverson basically playing five on one against the lakers or the 2007 cavaliers with lebron james basically playing five on one against the spurs my point is that not every team that makes it to the finals is going to be an all-time great super team the finals over the last decade has skewed our perspective of what a great team looks like and for the first time in a long time lebron and company are not facing off against a team full of
hall of famers of all the all-time great players who spent the last 10 months fighting for this moment only two teams actually earned it so here we are on an inevitable course to a lakers championship in lebron's fourth ring and possibly fourth finals mvp so what does this change well for fans who have been paying attention for the last 17 years not much and for the others well again this championship won't change much you either accept his greatness or you don't at this point in his career the numbers and accolades are inevitably going to pile
up another championship or two is not going to change the fact that lebron is arguably the best to ever do it another ring doesn't increase or diminish lebron's seemingly ageless dominance this was all a part of the plan three and six was always just a number not a defining value of lebron's ability or legacy and that three potentially changing to a four is only validation to what some realized years ago hope you all enjoyed and as always until next time [Music] you
