It All Comes Down To The Postseason For LeBron James

Great players are defined by the number of championships that they win and how they play in the postseason and in crutch time of the playoffs when it matters the most.

That doesn't mean that you can just look at the number of championships that two player have won and determine which player is better just on that number. For example, Robert Horry's 7 NBA championships doesn't make him a better player than Oscar Robertson, who won just one NBA championship in 1971 with the Milwaukee Bucks. Steve Kerr's 5 NBA championships doesn't make him a better player than Hakeem Olajuwon, who won just two NBA championships in 1994 and 1995 with the Houston Rockets.

However, the greatest players who have ever played in the NBA are separated by their performance in the postseason. For example, Karl Malone has the second most career points in NBA history, while his longtime teammate from 1985 to 2003 with the Utah Jazz, John Stockton, holds the NBA record for most career assists. However, both Malone and Stockton will never be considered two of the greatest players of all-time because they never won an NBA championship although they made the playoffs every year together and made two NBA finals in 1997 and 1998 but fell to Michael Jordan and his Bulls both times.

LeBron James can do whatever he wants in the regular season but it won't matter because his legacy will be defined by his play in the postseason.

Obviously, that doesn't mean that LeBron can go chill and grab a sandwich until the playoffs roll around, but we all know what LeBron is going to give us in the regular season. His regular season average is going to be around 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists because that is what LeBron puts up every year. Following his rookie season, his averages in the regular season for the last 7 years have been 28.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 7.1 assists.

There are still reasons to watch LeBron during the regular season.

It will be interesting to see if he has developed a post-up game, which would be a huge threat considering his passing ability and the fact that he is a huge 6 foot 8 inch small forward that can play anywhere from point guard to power forward. During the summer, LeBron worked with Rocket's great center Hakeem Olajuwon to improve his post-up game. LeBron said, "Just to see how he was able to dominate in the low post, for me as an individual, I just try to look at some of the things I feel I need to get better and hit home at it."

It will also be intriguing to see if LeBron is finally committed to being more aggressive in attacking the rim instead of settling for long jumpers and threes. Through the Heat's first three games LeBron has not even attempted a three point shot, while last season he averaged about 3.5 three point attempts per game. With his more aggressive and attack minded mentality, LeBron has been getting to the free throw line much more often. Through his first three games, LeBron is averaging 12.3 free-throw attempts per game, while last season he averaged about 8 a game.

However, until LeBron proves that he can get it done in June and win an NBA championship, he will never be one of the greatest NBA players to ever play the game and he will still have a ton of doubters.

LeBron will have to be able to get over the pressure of playing in an NBA finals and play like he did in the conference finals last year against the Bulls. In game 2 of that series, LeBron scored 9 of the Heat's 14 points in the 4th quarter to close out the Bulls after the game was tied at 73 with 5 minutes remaining. In the next game, LeBron once again scored 9 points in the 4th quarter to help the Heat beat the Bulls by 11 after they were up by just 3 at the beginning of the quarter. In game 4, LeBron scored 6 points in the the final 1:36 of overtime to extend the Heat's lead from 91-89 to 101-93 by the end of overtime. In game 5, LeBron hit a three point shot to tie the game at 79 with a minute remaining and then hit a jumper with just 29 seconds left in the game to give the Heat a 81-79 lead. LeBron averaged just under 26 points during the 5 game series with the Bulls.

However, if the LeBron that closed out the Bulls doesn't show up, the LeBron that was practically invisible in the 4th quarter of the NBA finals against the Mavericks will once again be without an NBA championship after this season and many more to come. In the NBA finals, LeBron averaged just 17 points per game (9 points less than in the Eastern Conference Finals) and struggled mightily in the 4th quarter. In the 6 game NBA finals against the Mavericks, LeBron scored a total of 18 points and averaged just 3 points in the final frame. When superstars are supposed to shine and great players are supposed to be made, LeBron failed to raise to the occasion.