The Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is gearing up for the 20th season of his NBA career. Playing 20 seasons in the league is a huge achievement for any athlete, but still being one of the best players in the league is even more impressive.
LeBron might be turning 38 soon, but he remains one of the faces of the league. He proved his worth to his doubters by dominating the league last season. Despite having an amazing season, the end result wasn’t good, as the Lakers missed the playoffs.
So in the upcoming season, James will be hoping for a bit more support from his teammates to make a stunning comeback.
LeBron already has four rings to his name, but winning another will skyrocket his legacy in the eyes of the fans. Speaking of his legacy, he has done a pretty good job of protecting it.
The biggest achievement of LeBron is arguably protecting his legacy during the dominance of the Golden State Warriors from 2015-2019.
LeBron James’ Legacy Remains Unscathed
For half a decade, the Warriors were hands down the best team in the NBA. They initially had an insanely good team that featured Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
But the biggest factor that made them truly unstoppable was the addition of Kevin Durant to the team. It was obvious to everyone that no team would be able to beat a healthy GSW during that era.
An NBA fan on Reddit recently pointed out that despite the odds being against James, he still didn’t let the Warriors dynasty ruin his legacy. Unsurprisingly many fans decided to share their thoughts on the same; here are some of the best comments by the fans:
top7to9: The bigger context of LeBron’s career helps with this too. ’15-’18 was the end of an 8 year run where the only deciding factor for making the NBA Finals out of the East was whether or not LeBron James was on your team.
Euphoric_Travel6762: Even KD’s legacy took a hit and he was on the team .
SamuraiPanda19: Harden and the Rockets should get praise for being one of the only teams to even really try and beat them during that period.
KaiserKaiba: Bron and Kawhi’s legacies have been fine and “survived”. It’s probs cuz (regardless of context) they’re the only stars to get a win on the Warriors in the playoffs from 2015-2022.
Megasabletar: Lillard is a great example. The best team Lillard will have had in his career, right in the middle of his prime, wasn’t even competitive with the KD Warriors. It was jv against varsity and that Blazers team gets looked at as a joke for it.
opacous: Most of us casually think of the “rivalry” of that period as being between one dude and an entire team that had a DPOY and up to two MVPs.
BlueHundre: I mean people hold it against him when comparing to Jordan. Also, it’s hard to hold the losses on LeBron because LeBron made the Finals but the Warriors were just way better than the Cavs in 17 and 18. 15 is tough because Love and Kyrie got injured.
tubbymunchkin: It probably has something to do with him averaging like 35 9 and 8 over those 4 series lol. Then winning a chip in 2020. He’s unstoppable.
piprimes: Well yeah, everyone knows LeBron was still the best player in the world by far, No one could’ve beat KD warriors.
sonicoduh1125: Why is no one mentioning that he’s one of only 2 teams that even beat that team, and his was in more impressive fashion imo.
kellydayscruf: Everyone holds those losses against him. That 4-6 bullshit is the worst narrative in sports. If he hadn’t won in LA, the lebron disrespect wouldve seen all time levels.
zer0_badass: I think it is because he has shown he is that dude. After that championship win he got for Cleveland there wasn’t much you could say. The man won in Miami, Cleveland, and Las Angeles as a Laker. You may not like the way he plays ball but the man knows how to win.
LeBron James and the Cavaliers defeated the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. Considering the Cavs made a comeback after being down 3-1 in the series, it made James realize that he was the greatest basketball player of all time.
While James never defeated the Warriors that had KD as well, it would simply be asking too much from a player. After all, the Warriors simply destroyed the power balance in the NBA.
