When it comes to regular-season dominance since 1973-74, only Michael Jordan can top King James.
Normally at this time of year, we would be writing breathless articles about the MVP race, rallying our support behind one candidate or another and sifting through torrents of angry e-mails supporting that player's rivals.
Not this year.
The MVP race has been over since about mid-January. LeBron James has run so far away from the pack that he could shoot 0-for-100 from the field over his final eight games and still win the award going away. (For fun, I fact-checked this: Even with 100 straight misses, no assists and no rebounds in his next 200 minutes, he'd still lead the league in PER.)
Only two items of interest remain. First, will some sycophant homer screw up what should be a unanimous decision with a completely indefensible vote for his local guy? And second, is this the best individual season a player has ever had?
As you might suspect, today's topic deals with the second of those questions. Some of this may sound familiar, as this time a year ago I mentioned that James was en route to one of the best statistical seasons in history.
Here's the thing: This season, he's been better.
Once again, a hallowed record (at least in my world) is in play for James as we enter the final eight games: He could surpass Michael Jordan's 1987-88 campaign for the greatest single-season PER in the modern era. I have to add the "modern" qualifier because the league didn't keep track of things like blocks and individual turnovers before 1973-74, rendering the PER exercise a guessing game for players from previous eras.
James' current PER of 31.81 is second best in "modern" history, and with eight games left (of which he'll probably play only five or six), he retains an outside shot at breaking Jordan's all-time mark of 31.89. At the very least, he's going to be within hailing distance.
Top All-time PER Seasons
Michael Jordan 1987-88
35.0PPG 5.5RPG 5.9APG 40.4MPG 31.89PER
LeBron James 2009-10
29.8PPG 7.2RPG 8.6APG 39.0MPG 31.81PER
Michael Jordan 1990-91
31.5PPG 6.0RPG 5.5APG 37.0MPG 31.79PER
LeBron James 2008-09
28.4PPG 7.6RPG 7.2APG 38.6MPG 31.76PER
Michael Jordan 1989-90
33.6PPG 6.9RPG 6.3ASP 39.0MPG 31.31PER
Michael Jordan 1988-89
32.5PPG 8.0RPG 8.0APG 40.2MPG 31.29PER
Regardless, James will almost certainly set another record: The best two-year PER stretch of any player in history. James was no slouch last season, finishing at 31.76 for the third-best PER ever (well, until he bumped it down to fourth this season); combined, that gives him a two-year average of 31.78. The best Jordan mustered was 31.55.
Obviously, the larger James versus Jordan argument won't be much of a debate until LeBron picks up some hardware in the postseason. Nonetheless, I can't emphasize enough what an extraordinary accomplishment James' past two seasons represent. We've flinched at comparing current players to Jordan after several previous "next Jordans" were found wanting. But that has put up a mental barrier to a declaration that the numbers see as obvious: In terms of regular-season performance, we're watching the next Jordan.
I'd argue that we can extend that comparison further. When Jordan was at the same stage of his career as LeBron, the press treated him almost exactly the same. Like James, he was a wondrous regular-season performer who had never won anything important and thus couldn't be compared with the likes of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Looking back, that whole notion seems laughable, if not downright quaint … yet we're falling in the exact same trap. Jordan, remember, didn't win a title until his seventh season. As luck would have it, James is in his seventh season, and his odds of winning a crown have never looked better. With the Lakers faltering down the stretch and the Celtics succumbing to age, only James' nemesis from a year ago -- Orlando -- would rate as an even-money proposition to stop him from winning the trophy.
That part of the James-Jordan comparison won't be settled for another two months, his regular-season one in a little more than two weeks.
James leads the league in scoring, at least for the moment (Kevin Durant is only 0.2 behind, and if James rests the final couple of games, Durant will have a number to shoot for, David Robinson-style, in the season finale). But LeBron is not just scoring. He's getting his 29.8 points per game with incredibly high-percentage shots. James' true shooting percentage of 60.4 ranks in the league's top 25, and most of the players ahead of him are snipers with much smaller offensive roles.
Yet for me, his passing is the most amazing part. In fact, for a wing player, it's eye-popping: James has cracked the league's top 15 in pure point rating even though he plays small forward. (Except for James and San Antonio's Manu Ginobili, every player in the top 40 plays the point).
Or try this one on for size: No forward in league history has ever averaged more than eight assists per game until this season; Larry Bird's 7.6 assists per game in 1986-87 came the closest. James is averaging 8.6, even though he's playing in one of the slow-paced eras in league annals and averages a relatively modest 39.0 minutes per game. Put him at Bird's pace in 1986-87, and he'd be averaging a whopping 9.3.
The same applies to most of James' numbers. On a per possession basis, his triple-crown stats of 29.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 8.6 assists crush Oscar Robertson's triple-double season in 1961-62 … or Jordan's 32.5-8.0-8.0 season in 1988-89 … or just about any statistical season in history.
All except one, that is. James' output still trails Jordan's peak campaign in 1987-88 by a whisker. He has a chance to glide past him in the final two weeks but, with Cleveland throttling down to coast into the postseason, probably won't.
Nonetheless, it's a season for the ages -- and his second of the like in a row. We've held off on comparing James to Jordan for some good reasons, especially since he hasn't won a title yet. But at this point, there's nobody else left to whom we can compare him.
Pour de bien tristes raisons j'ai vu pas mal de matchs de ligues chinoises ... Le niveau est très léger. National je dirai. Vraiment dommage pour lui qu'il ait pas envie de venir se frotter aux grosses teams européennes.
Je retrouve plus le topic Around the NBA, donc je mets cette news ici :
Stephon Marbury MVP du All-Star Game Chinois Basketsession
Stephon Marbury continue de kiffer son petit séjour en Chine où il vient de briller lors du All-Star Game qui se déroulait ce week-end. Dans un match où la défense était interdite, Marb a fini MVP du match avec 30 points.
Mais plus qu’une simple performance de scoreur, c’est un véritable show digne de ses meilleurs “vidéos vaseline” que Starbury a offert aux fans chinois. Cross, alley oop et surtout une série de shoots à trois-points totalement surréaliste.
“Je n’attendais rien de spécial avant ce match,” expliquait la star de Coney Island. “Je voulais juste prendre du plaisir mais j’ai réussi quelques actions qui ont eu un vrai impact sur le match.“
Et ouais, il est comme ça le Marb’, même au basket il ne fait pas forcément les choses qu’il avait prévu mais, parfois, ça marche.
Qu'est-ce qu'il fout la bas ?!
Il a suffisament de niveau pour jouer dans un gros club Européen !
J'arriverais jamais à comprendre la mentalité US...
extrait:
"I am old school. Although change is a normal function of life, I just don’t want opponents liking and respecting each other on the court. Off the court, I have no problem. It’s just a game, but on the court I want more Larry Birds.
"
-- Doctor R a dit : -- Dice a dit : Lebron c'est pas en rapport avec le fait que le N°23 ne doit plus être portée?... Pour Arenas il doit en avoir marre de la vanne sur le Zero. Pour le choix du 6, je suppose que c'est parce qu'Arenas est né le 6 Janvier... Lebron? -- Lebron ce serait en hommage à Julius Erving selon certaines sources
et son gamin est né le 6
Doctor R vrais Montpellierains font vraies choses ! (Habitué)
-- Dice a dit : Lebron c'est pas en rapport avec le fait que le N°23 ne doit plus être portée?... Pour Arenas il doit en avoir marre de la vanne sur le Zero. Pour le choix du 6, je suppose que c'est parce qu'Arenas est né le 6 Janvier... Lebron? --
Lebron ce serait en hommage à Julius Erving selon certaines sources
Après LeBron qui annonçait vouloir porter le n°6 la saison prochaine, Gilbert Arenas vient de faire la même en demandant à la NBA de changer de number pour la saison 2010-11 et porter le 6 !
-- Karlone a dit : Crawford le mérite.. Le genre de joueur qu'on a envie d'avoir sur son banc en playoff. C'est quoi déjà son high score sur un match de PO ? --
-- Doctor R a dit : -- Clutch a dit : C'est ton avis c'est pas le mien ok ... Crée un topic 6ème homme ce sera plus clair non ? -- ouais pourquoi pas ? ou un topic awards 2010 --
Ben si vous pensez que c'est utile y a pas besoin de permission hein
Un topic Crawford ça serait pas mal pour un joueur qui fait l'unanimité depuis 6 mois aprés pourtant avoir été trainé dans la boue pendant des années au motif qu'il jouait à NYK puis à GSW
-- Clutch a dit : je parle du 6ème homme moi pas de Crawford uniquement ... --
Et ?
Quand quelqu'un débute une discussion sur James MVP dans le topic Cleveland, le mec qui a envie de continuer continue la discu dans le topic "awards" ?
Stopweb est le forum champion pour les discu qui dévient...
Je pige pas là mais bon...
Doctor R vrais Montpellierains font vraies choses ! (Habitué)
-- Clutch a dit : Ben non ... j'élargis le propos sur un topic plus général ce qui me semble pertinent ... C'est quoi cette remarque là ??? --
Ben c’est assez logique pourtant, Seb poste une vidéo sur le topic, ça parle de Crawford ailleurs, je vois pas l’intérêt de venir parler de Crawford ici sachant que 1/ ça casse la discussion sur la vidéo 2/ ça casse la discussion sur le topic Atlanta…
A ce moment-là si quelqu’un débute une discu sur le triple-double d’Evans dans le topic ROY, on a qu’à continuer sur le topic Sacto, ensuite dans le topic statistiques, et finir dans le topic de l’équipe contre qui Evans a fait le TD pour casser les éventuelles discussions qui y étaient déjà non ? Ca peut être sympa !
Karlone “He a bitch !” - Green on teammate Durant 11/12/18 (Mythe)
-- Clutch a dit : -- Sam Dalembert a dit : Heu tu pouvais pas poster sur le topic Atlanta où l'ano parlait de Crawford comme 6ème homme ? -- Ben non ... j'élargis le propos sur un topic plus général ce qui me semble pertinent ... C'est quoi cette remarque là ??? --
ça c'est à force d'écouter parler allemand, ça rend psychorigide