LeBron James and Kevin Durant faced off for the 45th time in the NBA (regular season and playoffs combined) when the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Monday. Ahead of that big game, Hall of Famer Chris Bosh was asked on NBA on NBC if James, his former Miami Heat teammate, ever had a rival that he would always look at.
“I think for him it was always about his focus,” Bosh said. “Of course, there were people along the way that would be in the way of his goal, but I think when you’re that great, or you’re that talented, there is no individual you look at.”
Former NBA player Brian Scalabrine suggested the late-great Kobe Bryant perhaps could have been one, but Bosh disagreed.
“But they never played each other in the Finals,” Bosh stated. “So that was kind of like something that never happened.”
James’ rivalries were more with teams than with any one player. The first big one was him against the Boston Celtics with their Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. James faced off against them in the playoffs in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012. The Celtics won the first two, but he then won the last two.
Pierce has actually called himself James’ greatest rival, but this is somewhat one-sided. Back in 2013, James said he didn’t have an individual rivalry with anyone, but acknowledged that Pierce is the closest thing to one. He then made it clear that he views the Celtics as his rival, not any one player.
James could have potentially had somewhat of a rivalry with Dwight Howard, but they only ever faced off in the postseason once. Howard’s Orlando Magic defeated his Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. James and the Cavaliers would have faced off against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers had they advanced, and it’s a shame we never got to see that matchup.
After those clashes with the Celtics, James and the Heat, whom he joined in 2010, took on the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals in 2013 and 2014. He won the first meeting, but the Spurs got revenge the following year. They had also beaten him in the 2007 NBA Finals, but again, there was no real rivalry with one player. James and Spurs superstar Tim Duncan were never viewed as rivals.
Once the Spurs were out of the way, James, who returned to the Cavaliers in 2014, clashed with the Golden State Warriors on the big stage. The two teams faced off in the NBA Finals in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The Cavaliers would only come out on top in 2016.
That was when talk began about James and Stephen Curry being rivals, but the former dismissed it. It was him against that Warriors juggernaut. Durant, of course, joined the Warriors in 2016 as well to add more spice to it.
Today, you’d think of Curry and Durant if someone asks who James’ rival is. The 41-year-old might not look at them that way, though.
The one player James always gets linked to is one he never got to play against: Michael Jordan. They are the two players in that GOAT debate, but it’s not really a rivalry, is it? James ultimately just never had the kind of dynamic with anyone that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had. That was an all-time rivalry, and you’d wish James had one as well.
