This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If not for those five straight defeats in Utah, LeBron James would be viewed as a reasonably good basketball player.
That's an extreme example. Yet it illustrates the standards James is asked to live up to, with the judgment of his status in NBA history always being viewed as conditional, pending the annual outcome of the NBA Finals. That's silly.
Just imagine if he pulls this off, though. If James can complete Cleveland's comeback from 3-1 down to Golden State in this series, he will have delivered one of the greatest performances in league history and added to a legacy that only can be enhanced at this stage. For once in his life, he can became an overachiever.
No professional athlete ever has been more scrutinized than James and nobody has played any sport with higher expectations. That's fair, in many respects. People want a lot from LeBron, on and off the court, and I'm one of them. But at some point, you have to appreciate everything this guy does.
His production of 41 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists in a Game 5 victory Monday, with the Cavaliers facing elimination on the road, was epic stuff. The disclaimers were that Golden State was missing suspended forward Draymond Green and center Andrew Bogut left the game with a knee injury, opening the lane for James. The Warriors still had Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes to defend him, though, and they couldn't stop him or Kyrie Irving, who also scored 41 points in a remarkable convergence.
All the Cavs have to do now is win two more games. That's asking a lot, but when has merely a little ever been demanded of LeBron?
He brought a big percentage of these high standards upon himself by going to Miami, joining a stacked roster. Cheering against him and the Heat for those four years was justified. Now that he's back in Cleveland, I may not have done a complete 360, to quote Karl Malone, but I've certainly softened my stance toward LeBron. That's partly because I'm a sucker for the story angle of long-suffering fans, with the 1964 Browns having delivered the most recent championship to a city that loyally supports its teams.
Beyond that, I marvel about how he performs in a world where everything he does and says is picked apart. Maybe that has something to do with how the Jazz keep making him appear human in Salt Lake City, with those five consecutive victories in his annual visits with Miami or Cleveland. It's crazy, really. The Jazz haven't won a playoff game in six years, but they keep topping LeBron. They even beat him in 2013-14, during their 25-57 season.
James is 5-8 lifetime in Vivint Smart Home Arena, including the night in January 2006 when he overcame illness to score 51 points in a win during his first stint with the Cavs. Otherwise, he has endured losses via buzzer-beating shots from the Jazz's Sundiata Gaines and Gordon Hayward and a last-second miss by Miami teammate Udonis Haslem, after James passed the ball in the final sequence. James already had scored 17 fourth-quarter points as the Heat rallied that night, but we all criticized him for not scoring 19.
That's what we want from him — as an athlete, citizen and societal spokesman. That's both understandable and unrealistic.
Citing academic research, The Wall Street Journal observed how fans are more demanding of James than Golden State's Stephen Curry. Basketball is supposedly easier for James, with his gifts, than for Curry, who had to overcome doubters along the way, coming from Davidson College. "The striver is more popular than the natural," The Journal concluded.
Curry is beginning to experience some backlash as a two-time MVP, but nothing like what LeBron faces. James thrived in Game 5 in Oakland, where he was loudly booed for his role in his incident that resulted in Green's suspension. That stuff rarely works, not that fans ever would try some other strategy.
So a series that appeared over at a couple of earlier stages gets interesting now. The Warriors won a clinching Game 6 in Cleveland last June 16, and they're capable of doing so again. But what if the Cavs extend the series again? What if there's a Game 7 in the NBA Finals? And what if LeBron James wins it on the road?
Wow. If that happens, the world might have to say he's pretty good.
Twitter: @tribkurt