By Doug Branson
I was sitting in my room blankly staring at the television after game 5 of the Cavs-Pistons series, wondering if the sideline reporter was ever going to let Lebron get to his press conference. You have to understand, I had just watched one of the gutsiest and clutch performances in NBA playoff history. Bron-Bron scored 48 points, dished 9 assists and grabbed 7 rebounds in a double-overtime thriller. He scored his team’s last 25 points including a shot to send it into double OT and the eventual game-winner. More than the numbers, he was simply unstoppable. It was the first time I remember looking at Lebron and thinking to myself, “There is nothing that can stop this man from leading his team to victory, nothing.” As he drained shot after shot in closing second after closing second, over defender after defender, I eventually stopped jumping out of my chair to cheer. What was the point? By the second overtime I just sat in amazement, marveling at the display I was seeing put forth on the court in front of me. It was competitive basketball in its purest form. I felt numb, in a good way.
But the strange part about it was I couldn’t help but think that I had felt like this before.
In fact, I felt like I had seen this kind of performance before. I have already stated my discontent with the immediate comparisons between LJ and MJ and the whole Pistons rivalry, but I had to admit to myself that this, at least, felt Jordan-esque. I just couldn’t put my finger on this severe case of sports deja-vu.
Leave it to ESPN’s obscure stats to save the day.
Shortly after the game was over they flashed the graphic showing the last time a player scored 48, 7, and 7 in a playoff game. Of course it was Jordan but the year and the opponent is what triggered memories I thought I had long buried.
The date was April 28th, 1995 and I was a young boy, growing up in Gastonia, North Carolina, cheering for my hometown Hornets to pull off an amazing upset, of sorts. The Hornets, a four-seed, had drew the fifth seeded Bulls in the first round. Jordan was back after his 18 month absence, but the Bulls still hadn’t gotten their team swagger back. The Hornets finished ahead of the Bulls in the regular season and looked poised to make their first long playoff run. I was elated and reserved at the same time. I just knew the key to taking down the Bulls was jumping on them early in the series.
Which brings us to game 1. I watched eagerly as my team battled through the Bulls tough defense and played them close down the stretch. But something didn’t feel quite right. Jordan couldn’t miss from anywhere and the Bulls, including Pippen, looked like they didn’t mind handing him the ball and letting him “return to form”. As the game went into overtime I sat slumped in my chair, hand buried in stale popcorn, knowing what was about to happen. Jordan absolutely took over and I felt numb, the same kind of numb I felt while watching Lebron will his team to victory, sort of.
It was numb, mixed with anger, mixed with pure hatred of how good Jordan was but that’s not the point. Jordan could do no wrong and he made everyone in the stadium, at home and in the parking lot know it. He made opposing fans feel powerless to do anything but just watch the inevitable. He made me feel numb. He did it in game 1 and finished us off in games 3 and 4.
As I said before, I have been wary of making comparisons between Jordan and James. Not because I didn’t have tangible connections to make between the players. Stats don’t lie. But in this day and age numbers don’t have much of an effect on me anymore. After seeing stat after stat on ESPN, as a sports fan I’ve become desensitized to “the cycle” and the “triple double” and how many 40 point games a player has. Besides that, its hard to make a numbers comparison between someone who went to college for three years and someone who came straight out of high-school.
To make that comparison I needed something greater, something intangible, a feeling. On Wednesday night I got that something greater. Lebron James didn’t look like Jordan, play like Jordan, shoot like Jordan, score like Jordan, win like Jordan. Lebron James made me feel the way I did when I watched Michael Jordan.
I felt like I was a young kid again, hopelessly watching a master at work. I felt numb.
The Daily Jones 