During his 23 years in the NBA LeBron James has collected four rings and more than a few rivalries. In his prime Cavs years, it was Steph Curry and the Warriors standing in his way. Golden State won three of the four consecutive Finals they met, but LeBron and the Cavs came back from 3-1 down in 2016.
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Earlier in his career, he had to contend with Tim Duncan and the Spurs. San Antonio swept him in his first Finals in 2007, with Duncan famously telling him afterwards, “This is going to be your league in a little while. But I appreciate you giving us this year.” He would get revenge with Miami in 2013 after Ray Allen’s shot pushed the series to a seventh game, but then the Spurs struck back and essentially ended the Heat dynasty the next year.
LeBron also had some phenomenal battles with the Boston Celtics over the years, and in particular with Paul Pierce, but Gilbert Arenas doesn’t consider that a real rivalry.
On his podcast earlier this week, he said, “That’s not a rival,” when his producer mentioned Pierce’s name. “When was it a rival?” he asked.
Arenas’ contention is that Pierce wasn’t LeBron’s rival because the Celtics and Cavs didn’t begin to have great battles until Kevin Garnett showed up in 2007. Before that, Boston had missed the playoffs two years in a row and been knocked out in the first round twice before that.
Obviously, LeBron’s individual greatness goes beyond his individual contemporaries. Only Duncan, Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant are even in the same conversation as him. But that doesn’t mean that they were his only rivals.
The Celtics knocked the LeBron-led Cavs out of the playoffs in both 2008 and 2010. LeBron left for Miami that summer and vanquished the Celtics in 2011 and 2012. Does that mean LeBron wasn’t Pierce’s rival because he needed Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to beat him?
Arenas even said, “A rivalry is you and him versus each other, not when your team gets all 10 times better and then now y’all beating on the team that you’re superior than, because I’m pretty sure that individually, y’all was not rivaling him.” By that logic, LeBron took himself out of the running when he created the Big 3.
Pierce and LeBron guarded each other most of the time whenever they met, and they had many memorable battles. Arenas, on the other hand, met LeBron three times in the playoffs, and his Wizards managed only three wins in 14 games while losing every series.
Was LeBron James better than Paul Pierce? Sure, anybody should be able to admit that. But Pierce gave him all he could handle over a number of years, helping push him to a higher plane. Pierce held a 21-18 edge when they met in the regular season, while LeBron was up 17-13 in the postseason (and 3-2 in series wins). That’s a rivalry, and a great one, at that.
