LeBron James has set the standard for greatness in the modern NBA, but his influence goes beyond just the record books. In a chat on ‘Club Shay Shay,’ his former coach with the Cavaliers, Tyronn Lue, also credited the King with launching the “superteam” era after his move to the Miami Heat in 2010.
“He’s changed the game,” said Lue. “He’s made it so that these guys are able to go to whatever team they want and build their careers. He was the one to take that first step. It’s to the point where everybody’s doing it, and he paved the way.”
It’s not that James started the superteam fad; he just normalized it in a way never seen before. Prior to James’ “big three” Heat squad, there were other star-studded rosters, including the 2008 Celtics with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. Before them, there was the 1990s Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and defensive specialist Dennis Rodman. Of course, we can’t forget the Showtime Lakers with Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
What makes LeBron’s case so different is that, unlike with the Celtics, Bulls, and Lakers, he left his initial team behind to team up with superstars in free agency. He actively chose the easy path to a ring and set a new precedent for how much players dictate their own career path.
Suddenly, players began to value team loyalty less as they pursued whatever path gave them the best odds of success. Where players in the past valued sticking it out and working up to win a championship, James popularized the idea of ring chasing, and it had a ripple effect through the entire NBA.
In the years that followed his move to the Heat and his return to the Cavaliers to play with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, many superstars followed his lead. Kevin Durant famously joined the 73-win Warriors before later joining forces with Kyrie Irving and James Harden in Brooklyn. In the 2023-24 campaign, the Clippers even tried a “big four” with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, but the experiment never produced the results they hoped for.
Interestingly, things are starting to go the other way now. After the Phoenix Suns‘ failed experiment with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal, the trend began to break as teams and players realized that the proper formula to winning involves building proper depth, chemistry, and balance on the roster.
Today, there aren’t any “superteams” left in the NBA, and the most common builds now are superstar duos like LeBron James and Luka Doncic. It’s a refreshing change that adds parity and unpredictability to the NBA, but it’s only a matter of time before things swing again.
Just like LeBron began the “superteam” trend, it’ll only take one team or a single player to discover a new method that teams will rush to implement for themselves. Still, whatever happens going forward, the added freedom and power that players have over their own careers will never go away, and it’s one of the many ways that LeBron has changed the game for the better.
