TORONTO -- On a May night 10 years ago in The Palace of Auburn Hills, Bill Russell leaned up against a doorway and shook his head as he spoke about LeBron James.
“How old is he? Twenty-one? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player that good who is this young except for maybe me,” Russell said before letting out one of his famous high-pitched laughs to punctuate the joke. “He reminds me of Magic Johnson because he’s so big and he handles the ball so much, he is so hard to guard. He has all the talent and when he gets the experience who knows where he’ll go.”
That night Russell, who rarely gives interviews, talked about Bob Pettit, about Sam Jones, about Magic Johnson and about Michael Jordan when sizing up James. It was 2006 and James was playing in his first postseason in a series against the Pistons he’d eventually lose.
This was before the MVPs, before the titles, before James won two trophies with Russell’s name on them as Finals MVP. It was all potential and possibility.
A decade later, James’ knees and ankles were in ice, an island in the small lake that had become the visitors’ locker room at Air Canada Centre. The players had celebrated their Game 6 victory and close out of the Toronto Raptors by tossing buckets of water on one another. The floor is rubber, because it’s a hockey locker room foremost, and James always gets the goalie’s locker, the wide one away from everyone else.
It allowed him to survey the scene. Kyrie Irving embraced teammates at his locker. Kevin Love sat in a totally soaked shirt declaring the Cavs the Eastern Conference champs and scrolled through congratulatory texts on his phone. Tristan Thompson entertained the Canadian media. It’s always a big story when a local boy hits the big time, even when he does it by beating the hometown Raptors. As the boom mics lowered and camera lights lit him up, Thompson flashed a giant smile. This is what his mom, Andrea, calls “showing those dimples.”
James sat alone. No phone. No worries. Someone walked up and flashed six fingers, the sixth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals. Russell’s name was invoked.
“Amazing,” James said.
Ten years later, James and Russell in the same conversation. With no laughter. By reaching six straight NBA Finals, James has done something that hasn’t been done since Red Auerbach and Russell’s Boston Celtics of the 1960s. Seven players on those teams, most of them Hall of Famers, accomplished the feat: Russell, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Satch Sanders and Frank Ramsey.
Next week, James will be the eighth as he continues to dominate the Eastern Conference. In the 10 years since Russell wondered how far James would go as he watched him get his feet wet in the playoffs, he has raised seven conference title trophies.
He ended the Pistons’ run in the 2000s, and stopped the Big Three Celtics at one title. He has ruined numerous promising seasons by the Chicago Bulls, quashed some of the best Indiana Pacers teams in history, broke up the Miami Heat by leaving in free agency, and now he has broken the hearts of thousands of Raptors fans who watched the greatest run in team history.
Careers are measured in championships, not getting to the championship. There’s no getting around this, James cannot win an argument about Jordan’s six titles or Kobe Bryant’s five. Forget the notion of Russell’s 11.
James has a 2-4 record in the NBA Finals. He’s going to face a tall task in winning his third title and the Cavs’ first, against either the Golden State Warriors or Oklahoma City Thunder. The Cavs are healthy and streaking, their offense breaking records and their full team intact. But three weeks from now it’s quite possible that record will be 2-5, and that will be used against James. It always has been.
But seeing that locker room, you’d never call what happened meaningless. There’s Channing Frye after 11 seasons and a heart scare that almost ended his career getting his first shot at the Finals. There’s Richard Jefferson, back after 13 years to tie a record for the most seasons between appearances. Love after shoulder surgery and months of rehab. Irving after knee surgery and even more months of rehab.
James doing something William Fenton Russell did. How often is that something seen in the NBA?
Deep into his career with scars and rings and memories and a sense of history, James got it. He totally got it. And he totally let himself enjoy it.
“I'm just truly blessed. I mean, the man above has given me an unbelievable ability, and I just try to take full advantage of it,” James said. “That's my life. It's everything, and I give everything to the game. To be in a position where I can go out and help a group of guys get to places where either they haven't been before or been but want to accomplish even more in their careers, it just means a lot. So a lot of emotions were just going through my head.”