BY PHIL KATZ

In print | Published February 24, 2005 — Updated January 15, 2010 14:02

Have you ever watched greatness unfold? I did, about a year and a half ago. I took a night off from studying to watch the NBA debut of LeBron James. He was the most hyped player in the history of the NBA, and probably in all of sports, before he played a single professional game. His high school games were shown on ESPN and he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated before he graduated. King James’ Cleveland Cavaliers took the court that night against the Sacramento Kings, starting five former All Star players. By the time the final buzzer sounded, it was clear that the 18-year-old kid from Akron was the best player on the court, to the tune of 25 points, 9 assists, 6 boards and 4 steals. The 6-foot-8-inch, 240-pound man-child looked as if he had been using “the cream” since puberty. That night, I knew that I was watching somethingspecial.

There are those who say that LeBron James will not be as good as Michael Jordan until he wins six NBA championship rings. Barring major injury, however, there is no reason to think that LeBron will not end up with at least that many. He is halfway to becoming the third player in the history of the NBA to average 25 points, 7 boards and 7 assists for an entire season. The other two are Oscar Robertson, whose stats are simply beyond comprehension, and Michael Jordan, who did it once, in his sixth season. It took Jordan three years of college and six NBA seasons to reach the level of dominance that King James has reached in his second year out of high school. At a time when most kids his age are rewriting their sophomore papers, LeBron is rewriting the NBA record books.

Of course, basketball is a team game and it is unfair to ignore LeBron’s teammates’ contributions to his cause. Unfortunately, in LeBron’s case, he has performed as well as he has in spite of his teammates. Let’s look at the three other Cavaliers that average more than six points a game: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden and Jeff McInnis. Ilgauskas, who has been an All-Star both seasons that LeBron has been feeding him the rock, scored more than 15 points in only one of his five seasons B.L. (Before LeBron). Drew Gooden was cut by the worst team in the league (the Magic) at the end of last season. Jeff McInnis was traded, along with Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, in the middle of last season. This is not really a criticism of McInnis, who is actually a pretty solid player; I just wanted to write “Boumtje-Boumtje.”

What’s next for the man Kevin Garnett calls “The Gift”? An MVP award this season is likely, and I believe he will lead the Cavaliers at least as far as the second round of the playoffs. But he will not win the championship — yet. We need to remember that he is still 20 years old and playing with a junior varsity team. Michael Jordan didn’t win a championship until his seventh season, when he had been out of high school for 10 full years. This off-season, the Cavaliers will hopefully sign a talented wingman to play alongside King James, much like the Bulls did in getting Scottie Pippen in MJ’s fourth season. Michael Redd, for example, is a free agent who grew up in Cleveland and who has expressed interest in playing alongside the greatest player to ever play the game. In the meantime, even if you don’t follow the NBA, or even if you don’t follow sports at all, take some time this spring to turn on an NBA game and learn why LeBron is The Gift to this generation of sports fans.

Phil Katz is a sophomore. You can reach him at pkatz1@swarthmore.edu.

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