Whether you love him or hate him, it is undeniable that LeBron James has solidified himself as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
From the day he stepped foot into the league fresh out of high school to his current ripe-old age of 39, his storied career includes many milestones. So let's take a look at 'The King's five greatest achievements of his career (so far).
in 2020 LeBron and the Lakers had to handle an enormous amount of adversity, battling through the NBA bubble and an unprecedented season to reach championship glory. That's not to say no other team had to deal with the same challenges, but whichever team won, it was always going to be special.
But for LeBron, this Disneyworld championship was significant in solidifying his place among the greats (if he hadn't already done so). One of the knocks often brought up against LeBron is his ability to win, with a finals record of four wins and six losses.
However this championship in particular has shown that LeBron is in fact a certified winner. He had come to the Lakers having won 'chips in Cleveland and Miami and there were a number of doubts about his age and his ability to carry a team all the way. Yet he still found a way to get over the line and the screams of a "superteam" in Miami and the claims that Kyrie Irving was the only reason LeBron won in Cleveland started to fade.
Because with this win it quickly became clear that success didn't follow LeBron where he went, he brought it with him.
LeBron James joined the NBA in 2003 straight out of high school and it felt as though the weight of the world was put on his shoulders. A reporter once asked him, "how does it feel to know that if you're not eventually a first rank Hall of Famer, a lot of people will say you are a bust or overhyped?”
It seems a strange thing to put so much pressure on an 18-year-old kid but that was his reality. When we look back on it now it seems impossible that he not only lived up to the hype but by all accounts probably exceeded it. In 2009 when LeBron won his first MVP award it was the first tangible sign that he was going to be what everyone expected him to.
That season LeBron average 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists through 81 games and it was clear that it was going to be the first of many, yet this remains the most significant of his four regular season MVP awards.
Much like LeBron's first MVP title, his first championship did so much for his legacy in terms of living up to what was expected of him. But his departure from the Cavaliers seemed to have potentially tainted that legacy, jumping ship and abandoning the city he was once a beacon of hope for.
He carried the Cavs to just one finals campaign during his first tenure with the team, where the unlikely group was eventually swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007. In 2010 he "took his talents to South Beach" where he sat alongside his new teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and promised fans "not 5, not 6, not 7..." championships. The first of what was only an eventual two championships with the Miami Heat came in 2012 after an agonising loss to the Dallas Mavericks the year prior.
The finals loss in Cleveland and the loss to the Mavericks caused the pressure to mount on LeBron and the questions about his ability to win began to swirl. This all made his first championship win so much sweeter, it was an opportunity for LeBron to once again show us how great he was going to become and prove both the haters wrong and the people expecting so much of him right.
The Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games and LeBron came away with the finals MVP trophy to go along with it averaging 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists over the five games. The Heat would go on to beat the Spurs in seven games the next year.
On February 7, 2023 LeBron James ticked over a total of 38,390 regular season points, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer. There is no doubt that this is one of the most defining moments in LeBron's career and the NBA as a whole. It was the fulfilment of a prophecy, from all those years ago when he entered the league the pressure was on to be the greatest of all time, but in a way nobody really expected this.
LeBron still found a way to be better than expected when he was expected to be the best. At 39 LeBron hasn't really showed signs of slowing down, putting that number further out of reach for anybody who thinks they can come for it.
The 2016 Finals encompassed a series of moments rather than one defining moment in LeBron's career, but they all came together to culminate in a championship win, indisputably his most impressive.
LeBron left Cleveland in 2010 with a sour taste in the mouths of fans, but his love for the city brought him back and he promised to deliver a championship along with his return and that is what he did. The Cavs had not seen NBA Finals success in their 52-year history at the time and the campaign didn't get off to all that good of a start either, going down three games to one to the Golden State Warriors.
No team had ever come back from a 3-1 finals deficit let alone against the Warriors, who that season recorded 73 wins and nine losses, a new regular season record, surpassing Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.
In a three-game stretch when their backs were against the wall, James went to a new height. With the help of Kyrie Irving by his side the pair willed their team across the line in what is now regarded as arguably the greatest finals series in history.
LeBron's famous block against Andre Iguodala has gone down in NBA folklore and ultimately played an integral role in securing the title for Cleveland.
LeBron won the finals MVP, averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists in what is the crowning achievement of his career.