LeBron James Reveals The Moment He Believes He Became the Greatest NBA Player

LeBron James has had incredible success on the floor. For many NBA fans, the great LeBron is the greatest basketball player of all time.

King James has hit numerous records and his resume is really thick. The Lakers superstar has earned three NBA titles, three NBA Finals MVP awards, four regular-season MVP honors, 16 All-Star Game selections, 12 All-NBA First Team nods, two All-NBA Second Team selections, and five NBA All-Defensive First Team nods. You don’t play with that.

LeBron is third all-time in most points scored and eighth all-time in assists. Yes, he deserves that spot in the GOAT debate.

Who’s the GOAT?

But, when did he become the greatest NBA player? In Episode 7 of “More Than An Athlete” in December of 2018, LeBron talked about that moment. He believes he became the GOAT after taking the Cleveland Cavaliers to the top after suffering a 3-1 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals.

“That’s what I felt. I was super, super ecstatic to win one for Cleveland because of the 52-year drought. … The first wave of emotion was when everyone saw me crying, like, that was all for 52 years of everything in sports that’s gone on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped, I was like — that one right there made you the greatest player of all time.

“Everybody was just talking — how [the Warriors] were the greatest team of all time, like it was the greatest team ever assembled,” he said. “And for us to come back, you know, the way we came back in that fashion, I was like, ‘You did, you did something special.’ That’s probably one of the only times in my career I felt like, oh, s—, like you did something special. I haven’t had, really had time, to really, like, sit back and think, but that … that was a moment.”

What @kingjames considers being the GOAT ? ⁣
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New episode of More Than An Athlete out on @espn+. pic.twitter.com/7XSQ2GpOVo

— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) December 30, 2018

LeBron is the greatest player of all time

LeBron was brilliant in the series. He helped the Cavaliers win three straight games. They became the first team ever to do that in the Finals. King James was averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks. These numbers gave him his third NBA Finals MVP award and third NBA title.

LeBron became the first player in the NBA history to lead all players in the playoff series in points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks.

When compared to Michael Jordan, some fans pick the Chicago Bulls legend because of his NBA Finals success. Jordan won a title in all six appearances. Meanwhile, King James is currently 3-6 in his nine Finals runs to that stage. But, LeBron is the first player since the Boston Celtics in the 1960s to make eight straight NBA Finals. The Bulls icon has never accomplished that.