@murksiderock how many more championships, Finals MVPs, and Regular Season MVPs do you think LeBron can pull off??
Long response incoming lol:
Honestly in my gut, I think its almost over for him as a high level, elite player. I expected he had at least one more run as arguably the greatest player alive, and this season proved me right...
I think when the cliff comes, its gonna come hard and fast, I expect a Peyton Manning type decline---->if you followed Manning's career, he started 2014 on fire and was back in the MVP race, then there was an abrupt slowdown mid-season and by the last quarter of the year he was clearly washed. The way that happened all in one season was astonishing to watch...
The end is coming at some point, I'm not of the opinion LeBron has 4 or 5 high level years left, particularly given signs of decline were shown this year. I know he wants to stay to see Bronny possibly in The League with him, which the earliest would be 2023-24, that would be Year 21 for LeBron. So overall, at best, I see LeBron playing 4 more years
max, and I definitely don't expect him to be a Top 10 player at that point...
LeBron's personality also strikes me as the type though, if a hard cliff hits him the way it did Manning, I cant see him overstaying his welcome if he's hurting his team, because that's what it was with Manning. He was a negative on the field and he coulda tried to rejuvenate in the offseason and come back in '16, but he knew he couldn't. The previous 1.5 seasons dating to mid-14 was enough evidence that the level he was used to playing at was gone forever. Similarly, "if" that strong of a decline hits LeBron, I can see him leaving before 2024, but I dont see him past 2024 period...
He's got 3-4 years left, sooner if he loses it all quickly, so to circle back to your original question, he's done winning MVPs. The idea that he could repeat this level of play in Year 18, there just is no precedent for it, I think he remains a Top 10 player but we start seeing more age and the upcoming season will see a strong shift to AD as the complete focus of the team...
I have enough faith in Pelinka that they are gonna retool to keep the Lakers in contention for the foreseeable future, so I dont necessarily think Bron is done winning championships. Its too early to predict they go b2b, but I can definitely see one more chip within the next 2-3 years. Anything more than one is asking a lot, expecting him to get to 6, when we know the landscape of the sport changes fast and he will be assuredly a declining asset going forward...
I say he gets one more ring, maybe it comes in his very last season like Manning, maybe it comes sooner. One more ring, no more MVPs though and when they win that ring he will easily not be the best player on that team, though maybe he wins FMVP with a throwback performance?
Like most others though, at this point I've seen everything I need to see from LeBron. Literally nothing that happens in his career from here forward can hurt him because there is not a single precedent of someone at Year 18 or later being relevant as an elite player. Hes already been greater for longer than anyone in the history of the sport. He showed me in his first 13 years what he was, if he never wins another title, irrelevant to me. If he wins a title but AD or someone else is the best player on the team, irrelevant to me. If he gets to another Finals and his squad loses, doesn't matter. If he finally loses a Rd1 series, or misses another playoffs, or loses in the Semis or WCF that he hasn't lost in, in well over a decade, doesn't matter...
He's the greatest basketball player I've ever seen with the Grand Canyon between him and the next closest guy(s) in my 21 years watching The Game, and objectively he's one of the two greatest players to ever play, and maybe he isnt #1. But nothing that happens from here will change that, and I'm looking forward to when the next historical peer comes along to put his name in the LeBron level of GOATness (and I think Luka really has a shot at becoming a Top 5-10 GOAT)....
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Mike never lost in the finals
, he’d probably be co-goat at worst
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