In Appreciation of a Villain

                Lebron James is the best basketball player on the planet, and for this argument I do not believe there is a real debate.  Look I am no fan of his, and over the past year or so have tried to find cases for Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant owning the best player on the planet belt.  The problem is that all of those arguments ended up having serious flaws and Lebron’s case seems to have only one very famous flaw. 

                I think right now the argument between best player has settled to being between Lebron James and Kevin Durant.  Durant right now has public support in the argument mainly because he is the more likeable player and doesn’t “shy” away from the moment like Lebron does.  There are 4 major components of a player’s game, and right now Lebron is comparably skilled to Durant in 2 of those areas while he has significant advantages in 2 others.

1.       Scoring

Right now Kevin Durant is considered to be the best scorer on the planet and rightfully so.  He has led the league in scoring for 3 consecutive seasons, and is able to do so extremely efficiently, shooting at a FG%/3PT%/FT% clip of .496/.387/.860, and this season scored 28 points on 19.7 shots per game.  However in comparison to Lebron James .531/.362/.771 line where he scored 27.1 points on 18.9 shots per game you see the difference in scoring isn’t that extreme.  Lebron is almost just an efficient as Durant and you could even make a case that he is more efficient.

2.       Rebounding

In rebounding these two are basically equals.  Lebron averages 7.9 rebounds per game and has a Rebound Rate (% of missed shots that a player rebounds) of 12.6%.  Durant averages 8.0 rebounds per game with a Rebound Rate of 11.8%.  

3.       Passing

In this regard I don’t believe there is a comparison between the passer that Durant is and the passer that Lebron James is.  Durant averaged a career high this year averaging 3.2 assists per game, and has really improved as a passer.  Lebron on the other hand this regular season averaged 6.2 assists per game which was his lowest total since 2007.  Lebron is an excellent passer with great vision who is the point forward for the Miami Heat as the primary ball handler and the entire offense runs through him.  He is better at setting up shots for other players and working that into his game. 

4.       Defense

The area where Lebron really sets himself apart from Durant though is at the defensive end of the floor.  Durant is an above average defender who can use his length and quickness to annoy people and force people into difficult shots.  Lebron James on the other hand is a menace and absolute terror on the floor and this season had a legitimate case for Defenseive Player of the Year.  He, Andre Iguadola, and Tony Allen are the class of the NBA when it comes to the ability to shut someone down on the perimeter and take them out of their game.  Along with this Lebron provides versatility on the defensive end as he can guard all positions point guard through center effectively.  This series against Boston alone he has guarded the likes of Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, whose are completely different players with different strengths, weaknesses and playing styles. 

Look you cannot talk about Lebron James though without talking about the glaring weakness on his resume, his ability in crunch time and his lack of rings.  Well to the lack of rings there is no player who is in the same league of his abilities right now who has a ring and would be a fair comparison.  Now in regards to crunch time look I would agree that I would rather have the ball in Durant’s hands, and multiple other players’ hands, then Lebron’s hands with less than 2 minutes left in a close game.  However this does not discount everything else that Lebron brings to a basketball team for the other 46 minutes. 

This debate over Lebron and Durant came to light after Durant just led OKC to the NBA Finals and people were saying that he deserved the MVP trophy.  What I am saying is that Lebron deserved the MVP because he can change basketball games on the offense and defensive end more than any player in the world.  He has the talent to take over the game as a scorer, like he did in Game 6, as a passer, as a defensive hound, as a rebounder, you name it and Lebron can do it.  His Game 6 performance is something to be appreciated, he had a performance that in NBA history only Wilt Chamberlain has been able to replicate as he singlehandedly dismantled the Celtics while the rest of his team played poorly.  The man is a triple double waiting to happen and the most dominant force in basketball.  To finish my case this year Lebron led the league in PER a sum of all statistic that rounds all the contributions of a box score of a player to a game into one statistic that should say how good you are, this year Lebron led with a 30.80, Durant was 4^th with a 26.26.  This statistic doesn’t even take defense into account fully, which Lebron is considerably better at, and says that Lebron is a substantially better player.  Look I don’t like Lebron, I actively cheer against Lebron in the Heat actually, but this does not allow me though to say things that aren’t true.  No matter what happens in the rest of these playoffs, whether the Heat get defeated by the Celtics, or OKC, or even if they win the championship Lebron James is the best player in basketball and the world needs to understand this fact.