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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Purple and gold confetti fell on LeBron James Saturday night as he sat on the court in a nearly empty stadium and took in the new reality that he was heading to his ninth NBA final in 10 seasons. . One of the first people he thought of was Anthony Davis, his Los Angeles Lakers teammate.
“This is why I wanted to be his teammate and why I brought him here,” James said after the Lakers closed out the Denver Nuggets with a 117-107 victory in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Western Conference. “I wanted him to see things that he hadn’t seen before in this league. Being able to do it to him meant a lot to me personally. “
Their partnership gives the Lakers four 17th franchise championship victories (the Lakers will face the Miami Heat or the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals) and has been mutually beneficial from the start. Davis, a 27-year-old power forward, recalled an early conversation with James, 35, after they became teammates before the start of the season.
“When I first came here, he told me he wanted to give me my first ring,” Davis said. “And I told him I wanted to take him back to the final.”
The Lakers have endured their share of adversity this season – the longest season in the league, according to the schedule. They became embroiled in a geopolitical dispute during a preseason trip to China, then mourned the death of Kobe Bryant in January. After a four-month hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the Lakers traveled to Walt Disney World for the NBA restart with their lofty goals intact: championship or failure.
“It’s been a crazy obstacle course for our franchise,” James said.
Even as he nears the end of his 17th season, a season that began nearly 12 months ago – “An eternity,” said his teammate Jared Dudley – James has been exciting to watch.
Saturday was at its best, which is saying a lot: 38 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists while shooting 15 of 25 from the field. He scored 9 straight points for the Lakers at the end of the fourth quarter. During a subsequent timeout, his teammate JaVale McGee pretended to place a crown on James’ head.
“It’s incredible,” said Michael Malone, the Nuggets coach. “When you just step back and look and wonder what LeBron is doing at this stage in his career, how he keeps finding ways to get better and better, and take the team he’s in to new heights, that defines greatness “.
But it’s also worth remembering last season, when many people realized that James was not, in fact, indestructible. He missed a large part of the season after injuring his groin, and the Lakers finished in the draft lottery with a 37-45 record. The finals were free from LeBron for the first time since 2010 – James said he watched every game on television, including two of them in a hookah parlor – and it was the first time he missed the postseason entirely since 2005, when he was a player. sophomore for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Davis was having problems of his own, having spent much of last season trying to get out of New Orleans. A trade with the Lakers finally materialized in June 2019.
It has made all the difference: for James, for Davis and for the Lakers, who are making their first trip to the finals since 2010, when Bryant won his fifth and final ring. James is now preparing for his 10th trip to the final overall. The list of athletes who have been so good for so long is short.
But all of this is new ground for Davis. Despite all his individual accolades, he had never had a deep run in the playoffs. In seven seasons with New Orleans, he went to the playoffs twice and helped the team win a series. There was never any doubt that he was gifted. But could you raise a franchise?
One of Davis’ new teammates this season turns out to be the most dominant force in the game, a cyborg who plays basketball. But James has never won a title alone. He’s needed to pair up with standout players, Dwyane Wade in Miami, Kyrie Irving in Cleveland, and that doesn’t make him unique. Now, he has paired up with another.
In five games against the Nuggets, Davis averaged 31.2 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 54.3 percent from the field. It also produced the climax of the series, and perhaps the entire restart, when he hit a triple on the buzzer in Game 2, elevating the Lakers to a 105-103 victory.
Then James recalled a game the Lakers had played against the Nets in March. Davis tried a similar shot, a triple off the opposing bench, which missed and the Lakers lost. Davis was tough on himself, but James said he was encouraged that Davis had even been willing to try.
“It’s not about making the shot,” James said. “It’s about having the belief to just take it, for example, and live with the result.”
Davis wasn’t satisfied with his performance in the Game 3 loss to Denver – “I can’t have two rebounds in a complete game,” he said – and James knew enough to keep his distance before Game 4. He was basing that reading on the situation in the position of Davis’s eyebrows, his unibrow, to be specific.
“If his forehead is too low, then you know you shouldn’t talk to him,” James said. “If he is taller, then he has accepted the fact that you are allowed to come into his office and talk to him.”
The day after Game 3, James analyzed the brow barometer: low brow. “No one spoke to him,” James said.
Davis scored 34 points in Game 4 but twisted his ankle, and the Lakers called him “questionable” for Game 5. A “questionable” Davis was in the starting lineup and finished with 27 points and 5 rebounds, then reveled with the strange aftermath. – A trophy presentation in an empty arena filled with confetti and man-made noise from the crowd.
It was a different and special celebration (in its own way), and it felt like the beginning rather than the end.
“This group of guys wants only one thing,” Davis said, “and that’s to win a championship.”
