LeBron James' rare quest for eighth straight NBA Finals

Apple released its original iPad in the last year that LeBron James failed to lead an NBA team to the NBA Finals. Kobe Bryant was at the tail end of its apex, and Stephen Curry hadn’t quite changed the way franchises thought about geometry and gravity in relation to the three-ball. The year was 2010, and at the end of that season, James was still in his first stint with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the same way that Curry’s Warriors shook the way the game was played on the court, James and his superstar friends shook the way the game was played off it. James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami and deliberately and systematically created the NBA’s first player-driven superteam. Beginning with that moment, infamously known as "The Decision," James would completely dominate the Eastern Conference, winning the next seven conference titles and collecting three Larry O’Briens in the process.

LeBron has become a monster among creatures and a catalyst for questioning the fundamental and near universal belief that Michael Jordan is what greatness looks like in its purest form. In season 15, James not only played all 82 games, but he continues to do so at levels very few of his peers, past or present, could even fathom.

James, for everything he brings to the Cavaliers, finds himself on a team that is somewhat of an underdog heading into this postseason. These Cavs have been abysmal on the defensive end, and both the [checks notes] Raptors and the [double checks] 76ers look like more complete basketball teams. James, for the last seven years, has been a sort of a great equalizer, but at what point does the gap between complete teams and a flawed Cleveland team with LeBron become too large?

Until it happens, James and Co. remain the unofficial favorites despite what Vegas says. History tells us it takes a Herculean effort to keep him from the Finals, and the present says that he’s playing at or near the best basketball of his career. No superstar has gone through more this year — the loss of his No. 2 star, the Isaiah Thomas saga, Kevin Love’s injury, the revamped roster, the coaching saga — and because of this, no superstar has been forced to shoulder more of the load for his team.

These kinds of odds have brought out the best in James, especially during this run of Eastern Conference titles. In his book "The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man" Edgar Morin gives a lot of credence to what shadows can do to create the mood and tone of a film, suggesting that “no horror can be so horrible, no beauty so enchanting, if really seen, as the horror or enchantment suggested by its shadow.”

Shadows are created when objects work to hinder the direction of light, and James has been better than anyone at pushing through those obstacles to keep his teams out of the dark. His 45 and 15 in Boston show what a single performance on a single night can do to change the tone of an entire postseason. His ability to lead Cleveland from a 3-1 deficit over a basketball team that won 73 games shows what his peak can do to change the tone of an entire epoch.

It’s impossible to reimagine the last seven years with any other player in LeBron’ shoes. For all of the philosophical changes to the way the game is played from a tactical perspective, no scheme is good enough on its own to counteract the impact James has just for suiting up for the opposing team. No single player brings more simultaneous confusion and clarity, no single player is more relaxed in his identity, and no single player has the power to create and eliminate atmosphere more than James.

Yet no single player suffers more from a series loss despite doing so much than LeBron. While James will take the court to begin what he hopes is an eighth consecutive peregrination to the Finals, somewhere along the way we should examine ourselves and the way we interpret such a fascinating career. LeBron gets buckets and finds ways to win simply by finding harmony and balance in the chaos.

If nothing else is clear, James will do something during this playoff run that will stop the very fabric of time, forcing us to understand the intensity and the divergence from the shadows into the light. It may be a pass, a dagger, a defensive stop or a simple rebound that he snatches from the outstretched arms of an entire city — but he will do something to change the hoops world, much like he always has, much like it feels like he always will.

Even if James doesn’t lead these Cavs to another Finals trip, there is significance in things coming to an end, which creates the possibilities of new beginnings. He’s a potential free agent this summer, and it could mark the final passage of his epilogue in Cleveland and his forward in a new city.

There is no more important story than LeBron James this spring. Watch to see if he’ll exit the shadows or if he’s vanquished before he reaches the light — just make sure you’re watching it all unfold.