LeBron James and the Cavs are ready to begin defense of their 2016 NBA Championship. Bron knows it will be a challenge to repeat and made note of how teams around the league have one goal in mind, to beat him.
In a media session on Friday, Bron told Cleveland.com:
I know teams switch and pick up new coaches or new players, and their whole goal is kind of they want to beat me.
The reigning Finals MVP is not wrong. James has been on the team that has represented the Eastern Conference in the Finals for six consecutive seasons. James continued:
It’s never just about me, but I always hear them saying, ‘We got to beat LeBron.’ It’s not just me on the court, but I understand that teams get together in this conference and across the league to try to beat me.
It isn’t as though LeBron isn’t on his own super team. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love aren’t scrubs. Also, LeBron formed his own super team down in Miami when he couldn’t get past the Celtics.
He acknowledges that.
“I understood at that point in time that in order for me to compete for a championship and get to that next level, I had to figure out and get with some guys that could be on the same level as Paul, Ray, (Rajon) Rondo, KG and those guys,” James said. “I just didn’t feel like … to do it here, I was out calling guys in the summer time, trying to get guys to come here and guys just continued to decline offers from us.
“And then at that time we didn’t even have any money to go get anybody. I knew personally that D Wade was a free agent, I knew Bosh was a free agent, I knew Amare (Stoudemire) was a free agent, I knew Carlos Boozer was a free agent, so I knew I had to try and get some guys to try and get Boston, man. That was my whole mindset.”
The narrative that tends to be floated around, specifically by former players, is that it’s bad to join together with other great players to topple Goliath. Smart people everywhere reject that notion. If your ultimate goal is winning, why wouldn’t you do everything within the rules to make the possibility of winning easier? Teams absolutely make decisions based on the potential of having to slay Goliath to reach their ultimate destination.