The Bernstein Brief: LeBron James Owns His Story
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) A player who never allowed himself easy comparison just simplified everything for even the dumbest NBA observer.
No more quibbling about what LeBron James isn't or hasn't been or hasn't done, in whatever fashion he was supposed to have done it. No more nitpicking, no more using his uniqueness against him for sour self-aggrandizement.
One of the greatest basketball players we will ever see just imposed his will over the winningest single-season team, leading the Cavaliers to a 93-89 win against the Warriors in Game 7 on Sunday night. He beat them in their building with a 27-11-11 performance that capped off the first ever comeback from down 3-1 in the Finals. James' emphatic chase-down blocks are the signatures that should be remembered -- the distillation of rare talent and raw determination.
James is a force of nature who has resisted categorization, and he complicated narratives as he changed teams and cities. But this isn't difficult anymore.
It should never have been.
To be on any other side of any LeBron James argument is the territory of the willfully ignorant, a place for losers.
Once a child prodigy bearing outsized expectations, James has more than fulfilled them in becoming a legendary player in a way that only he has been, and only he may ever be.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.