LeBron James reached his sixth straight Finals Thursday night with the Cavs' 113-87 victory over the Raptors in Game 6. It's his seventh overall appearance, and it would be easy for him to just brush it off as standard operating procedure.
But James seems determined to enjoy the moment this year and after Friday night's win, James choked up when talking to ESPN's Doris Burke about his teammates and what they've accomplished.
LeBron gets emotional talking about another trip to the #NBAFinals! https://t.co/OFiwrB7fPh
— NBA (@NBA) May 28, 2016
It's cool to see James be so real with his emotions. He also was emotional talking about the injuries that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love had to come back from. For all the talk of the Cavs' dysfunction during the season, they've bonded and there appears to be a real love between those guys now.
Real love, though, only matters if it gets them past their upcoming Western Conference foe. Many people are never going to accept reaching the Finals as an accomplishment for James. But we should at minimum recognize the historic company he's in with just getting to the Finals:
Most consecutive NBA Finals by player pic.twitter.com/PpftzshzaK
— Dan Feldman (@DanFeldmanNBA) May 28, 2016
You don't get to choose who you play. LeBron James doesn't get to move the Thunder to the East to ensure he has adequate competition, nor should he be expected to uproot his kids and move to a Western Conference team just to satisfy strength-of-schedule haters.
James has done something insane in reaching six straight, seven overall. Just doing it twice in a row is difficult, as Chauncey Billups said on the ESPN postgame show. It's an accomplishment, and you should celebrate your accomplishments. But for people, it will never be enough. That's just the way it is.
