Over the years, LeBron James has been labeled as a player who shies away from clutch moments. ‘He doesn’t want the ball at the buzzer,’ critics would say. To solid Cleveland Cavaliers fans, that sort of rhetoric is nearly blasphemous, as they have witnessed the King’s greatness during several closing times.
In fact, James has hit two buzzer-beaters in this postseason alone, including Saturday night’s floating dagger that gave the Cavs a 3-0 series lead over the Toronto Raptors.
One person who knows James’ versatility in clutch scenarios quite well is his former teammate, Richard Jefferson. “RJ,” as Jefferson came to be known during his stint with the Cavs, was in attendance for Cleveland’s practice session on Sunday.
In an interview with Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Jefferson noted that he’s witnessed James’ greatness for so long that he wasn’t even surprised by his game-winner against the Raptors on Saturday.
“The more comfortable, the more you’re in those positions, when you’re doing things in the NBA Finals, to go and hit a shot in the second round that worse comes to worse you’re going to overtime, that’s not the most stressful of shots. Right,” Jefferson asked rhetorically. “Not to take anything away from it, it’s amazing, it’s mentally talented, the touch on that shot is what’s impressive, not the strength or everything he’s known for — the strength, the physicality, and all the size — that shot was pure skill and touch.
“As you get older and you start to develop more skill and touch, even for a guy that’s starting at this spot (puts his hand at level of his head) at 24, 25, understand he’s still going to go to this spot (puts his hand inches higher). And that’s where a lot of the criticism kind of came in, people didn’t understand that.”
ESPN Stats and Info lists James with made five go-ahead shots in the final five seconds of regulation or overtime in the playoffs — that’s good for two more than His Airness, Michael Jordan. With no signs of regression, that number could go even higher. Furthermore, James’ total of 12 game-tying or go-ahead field goals with less than 10 seconds left in the postseason is equal to the marks of Jordan and Kobe Bryant combined.
“Anybody that wanted to criticize Bron in those moments forget that he was taking teams to the NBA Finals at 22, 23 years old,” Jefferson said, referring to James’ early career. “When you do that, you have an unrealistic expectation of an individual. The scary thing for people to think then, as good as he was, he was going to be twice the player later in his career and people couldn’t fathom that, they couldn’t fathom that someone that good that young.
“‘Well, he’s averaging 28 a game and eight assists and did this, but Michael Jordan did this.’ But Michael Jordan couldn’t get past the Pistons,” Jefferson added. “Michael Jordan had struggles getting past the Boston Celtics. Later in his career, when he was in his prime, he was dominant. That’s where Bron is right now.”
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin furthers the talk on James’ clutch gene and notes some of the other remarkable things that the Cavs superstar has done throughout these 2018 playoffs.