The Whiteboard: What trophies could the NBA name after LeBron James?

The NBA just renamed their major postseason awards after historical greats. Which award could have been named after LeBron James if he wasn’t still playing?

Yesterday, the NBA announced it was renaming a slew of it’s postseason awards to honor some of the league’s historical greats. Starting this season the league’s newly named postseason awards are as follows:

• MVP — The Michael Jordan Trophy
• Clutch Player of the Year (New) — The Jerry West Trophy
• Defensive Player of the Year — The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy
• Rookie of the Year — The Wilt Chamberlain Trophy
• Sixth Man of the Year — The John Havlicek Trophy
• Most Improved Player of the Year — The George Mikan Trophy

As was noted at the time, naming the MVP Award after Michael Jordan is a pretty strong vote in his favor for any future GOAT arguments. But the league clearly wasn’t going to name any of these awards after an active player, which left LeBron James out. Still the conversation immediately turned to what awards could (or should) eventually be named after LeBron.

Evan Turner jokingly suggested that if the NBA ever holds another version of the bubble playoffs, the trophy should be named after LeBron. There were also jokes about the NBA naming its Executive of the Year Award after him (in honor of his maybe ill-advised push for the Lakers to trade for Russell Westbrook) or the NBA naming the MVP of the play-in tournament after him (since that’s where the Lakers seem to be headed this season).

But, jokes aside, the question is an interesting one.

Jordan is certainly synonymous with the MVP Award, he won five in his career. But Bill Russell also won five and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six. I think you could make an argument that Finals MVP would have been a more fitting award to name after Jordan considering he won six, LeBron has the second-most with just four, and his 6-0 NBA Finals record is perhaps the most defining piece of his legacy.

LeBron has achieved so much in his career, if you had to pick one aspect, one defining piece of his legacy to highlight with a namesake trophy, what would it be?

What is the legacy of LeBron James?

There is strong argument that longevity is the hallmark of LeBron’s career. He should tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most career All-Star selections this season with 19, and will likely take both that record and the all-time scoring crown from Kareem before he retires. He’ll probably finish third on the all-time assist leaderboard despite only leading the league once in his career. He’s made the All-NBA team 18 years in a row. He made the NBA Finals for eight consecutive years.

He has peaked as high as almost any player in NBA history but what makes him so special is just how many and how many different kinds of peaks he’s had — he’s led the league in scoring once, in assists once, in minutes played three different times (with a 13-year span between the first and second times he accomplished it). He made the All-Defensive first team five times.

The point is, it’s hard to find a specific single-season accomplishment or statistical benchmark, the kind that would be honored with a trophy, that LeBron has repeatedly owned. What has made him so special is that he’s been around long enough and with enough versatility in his excellence that he’s been able to check so many different historical boxes.

It may feel like a mark against his legacy, that it can’t be neatly summed up with a single trophy or award. But I kind of like the idea that what makes LeBron special is that he could have won them all.

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More ugly fan behavior at Warriors vs. Bucks

On Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Draymond Green got into it with a courtside Bucks fan, who was ultimately removed from the arena. Here’s what you need to know:

• How it started: Early in the third quarter, Draymond could be seen going back and forth with a Bucks fan seated behind the basket. According to a deleted tweet from Bleacher Report, Draymond could be seen saying, “You ain’t s–t. … Explain yourself if you wanna be heard.”
• The ejection: A few minutes later, Draymond stopped to speak with the game officials and could be seen gesturing toward the fan. Arena security eventually came and removed the fan from the arena.
• What was said: After the game, Draymond shared more about the interaction with reporters, saying, “[He said] some threatening stuff to my life. I was this close to really going back, diving all the way in, but I kinda just went back, told the official. When I told the official what he said, he’s like ‘He gotta get outta here.”

Another MVP-worthy performance from Jayson Tatum

The Celtics received another enormous performance from Jayson Tatum, holding off the Lakers on the road. Here’s what you need to know: 

• A back-and-forth game: The Celtics led by 15 at the end of the first half but saw that slip away in the second, eventually trailing by 13 points in the fourth quarter.
• Jayson Tatum was there to rally: Over the final 4:25 of the fourth quarter, Tatum scored 7 points and added an assist to help erase that 13-point deficit and force overtime.
• Another incredible game: Tatum finished with 44 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal, shooting 15-of-29 from the field. This was his fourth 40-point game of the season and the Celtics are now 13-1 when he scores 30 or more.
• His MVP case: Tatum is now leading the league in minutes played while averaging 30.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks per game on a 61.1 true shooting percentage, all for the team with the best record in the NBA. The Basketball-Reference MVP Tracker now gives him the fourth-best odds of winning, trailing only Nikola Jokic, Luka Donic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.