King of the East & What It Means

LeBron James made massive headlines in the summer of 2010 after announcing his "decision" to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for the sunny beaches of Miami. What ensued was 4 NBA Finals appearances, including 2 championships for The King. However, after losing in 2014 to the San Antonio Spurs, LeBron decided to make amends with Cleveland and return after 4 seasons in Miami. Cleveland immediately made the Finals with LeBron back on their roster, but eventually lost in 6 games to the Golden State Warriors. What LeBron proved, however, was that he is far and away the most important player in the Eastern Conference, and other than Steph Curry, LeBron is still the best player in the NBA. He has dominated the Eastern Conference for the last 5 years, and unless either Toronto or Boston can find a way to beat the Cavs in the playoffs, LeBron will return to the Finals for a sixth straight season.

The most important aspect about LeBron is that he has always stayed in the Eastern Conference. Think about all the stars in the West: Kobe Bryant & Tim Duncan for the past 2 decades, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the Warriors, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder, Chris Paul of the Clippers, James Harden of the Rockets and Damien Lillard of the Trail Blazers, just to name a few. Now think of the best players in the East not named LeBron James: Carmelo Anthony of the Knicks, DeMar DeRozen and Kyle Lowry of the Raptors, and Paul George of the Pacers. You could also throw Jimmy Butler of the Bulls in there, as well as John Wall and Kyrie Irving, but after that it gets pretty thin. All I'm saying, is that it's no surprise that the West beat the East 196-173 in the All-Star Game this season, and it would have been even more lopsided if Paul George didn't nearly set the All-Star Game record for points scored.

One thing about having LeBron is that you're going to have to deal with controversy both internally as well as in the media (especially on ESPN). The Cavaliers are now on their 2nd coach in 2 seasons since getting LeBron back, and there have been rumors lately that LeBron isn't great friends with the other two stars on the Cavs - Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. This is one thing you get with LeBron. When things aren't great, LeBron can tend to be a bit dramatic, even sending out tweets that some people have interpreted as subtweets about his Cavaliers teammates. But make no mistake, LeBron and the Cavs will enter the NBA Playoffs most likely as the #1 seed in the East, and will likely rollover whoever they play in the first round. What this means is that if the Cavs can put aside their personal differences for the betterment of the team, there are very few teams that can match up with them from a talent perspective, even in the West. If they can figure out how to play as a team (and how to properly use Kevin Love), the Cavs will be a very tough out in the playoffs.

To sum up, I feel that we as basketball fans have sort of taken LeBron for granted this season, especially with the way the Golden State Warriors have been destroying records. But LeBron is still in his prime, and it won't last forever. He has a few more years of pure greatness left in him, and this is still one of those years. If the Cavs can figure out a way to work together and play as a team, there are very few teams in the entire league that can beat them.

- Cameron