NBAVideo

LeBron Says It Was About Damn Time, But It Was Worth The Wait

Yeah, LeBron James is only 27, which really isn’t that old for winning one’s first title (Michael Jordan was 28 when he won his first, as you’ll undoubtedly hear quite a bit and probably have already) and leaves plenty of time to win more. But this moment did take a long time to happen. LeBron’s in his ninth season, after all – he might be younger than Jordan was, but he’s been in the league longer (by the time Jordan completed his ninth season, the Bulls had already three-peated). What’s more, it’s LeBron’s third Finals – he made his first one five years ago, and hadn’t played up to his usual standards in either of his previous appearances.

So you weren’t just hating on LeBron if you were getting antsy for him to finally put it all together on the NBA’s biggest stage and bring home the title. As great as he is and has been for a long time, this was the missing piece to his career. He’d had chances to get it before, but he seized it with both hands this year. And for proof you weren’t the only one who feels like you’ve been waiting forever to see him do it, here’s what LeBron himself said afterwards when asked what he thought as the clock ran out last night:

Well, the time has arrived. And despite the high-profile playoff failures of the last two years, the Decision fiasco, the fact that this time was not one, not two, not three, [...] , not eight, but NINE seasons in the making – we’re thinking this moment was probably worth it for LeBron. And as a fan of the game, to finally see the game’s best player come through in the Finals like that, with one of the most dominant all-around performances in memory – it was worth the wait for us too, no?

Semi-stray thought: at one point in the wake of last night’s demolition, I thought how even LeBron’s staunchest critics had to admit that last night, he exhibited “greatness that would not be denied.” But that phrase didn’t feel quite right. Because for me, “greatness that would not be denied” implies that it was a down-to-the-wire battle of wills.

And last night, the Heat made things look pretty easy. There were times these playoffs when LeBron had to go into “will not be denied” mode (Game 4 against the Pacers, for example), but last night, he thoroughly took the Thunder apart with an almost graceful display. He scored. He rebounded. He got teammates involved. Those teammates (oh hey, Mike Miller and you seven threes) came through. Unlike earlier in the series, it could never come down to a battle of wills at the end – LeBron just overwhelmed the Thunder. And really, that’s when he’s the toughest to deny of all.

And now, the future. The Thunder are a great team. They’ll be back in the Finals. Hard to imagine they won’t win their fair share of Finals eventually. But now that LeBron has a title, it’s pretty hard to imagine him not winning some more before he’s done. Maybe he won’t win six – the competition around the league might be too stiff for that – but he’s got at least a few more years of being this tough to stop. Smart money’s on him adding to his legend with more titles – and more Finals MVPs – before he’s done. And if these Finals were any indication, it will be exhilarating watching him do it. But if when he does win it all again, we’ll never again be saying these words: “About damn time.”