If you thought for a second that LeBron James' dominance in the NBA would stop last season as he entered his 14th year in the league, you were wrong. James entered the league in 2003 as an 18-year-old rookie straight from high school, and he's been nothing short of spectacular ever since. He was considered to be "the next big thing" in the league, but it took him a while to validate himself and win his first championship.
In fact, he had to leave the Cavaliers in 2010 and join the Miami Heat as he was looking for his first championship ring. In 2011, James broke through and won his first NBA title and was named the Finals MVP.
He is now a three-time NBA champion, three-time Finals MVP, and a four-time league MVP. Pretty impressive huh? It's hard to deny what James has been able to do over the years, but the one thing that stands out the most is his consistency and dominance at the highest level.
Still the best, even at age 32
The 2016/2017 season was the 14th of LeBron's career, and many expected him to slow down a bit. That wasn't the case, as we all witnessed. In fact, LeBron played arguably the best season of his career as he ended up averaging 26.4 points, 8.7 assists and 8.6 rebounds per game. He did all that while playing an average of 37.8 minutes per game and shooting nearly 55 percent from the field. He failed to reach his ultimate goal of winning the NBA championship, but he proved once again last season that he is still the best basketball player in the world.
Many believe that Kevin Durant might be better at this point than James, but stats and consistency speak for themselves. The basketball magazine SLAM also thinks LeBron James is still the best in the NBA.
SLAM ranks top 50 NBA players, LeBron leads the list
One of the most popular basketball magazines, SLAM, recently completed its top 50 NBA players list for the upcoming season.
Unsurprisingly, SLAM believes that LeBron James is still the best player in the NBA as they ranked him as the number one player on their list. This is what SLAM wrote as the explanation for putting LeBron at the top of the list: "A 73-win juggernaut of a team(Golden State Warriors) felt it needed to recruit Kevin Durant, the second best player in the world, in order to stave off his challenge."
The editor of the article went on to finish his piece by writing this about James: "One of these years, he’s going to show signs of age and fatigue.
He has to, right? Either way, that time, remarkably, appears to be years away. The Warriors may be the title favorite, but only because they amassed a collection of stars, unlike anything the League has ever seen. That’s what it takes to beat LeBron James. There’s not another player in the world that can boast that claim."
SLAM ranked Kevin Durant as the second best player, while Russell Westbrook was third on this list.
