LeBron James’ career stands on its own

LeBron James isn’t Michael Jordan.

And he doesn’t need to be.

The comparison is one many NBA observers have insisted on making throughout James’ 15-year career.

Unfortunately we sometimes feel compelled to base our appreciation of one player’s greatness on how it stacks up against a predecessor’s, or to justify an insufficient appreciation by using the same comparison.

Yes, Jordan won more NBA titles (six) than James has (three and counting).

Did Jordan have a better supporting cast than James? Yes.

Did Jordan have better coaching than James? Probably.

Did Jordan face stiffer competition? Yes, at times.

Could James have hit a curveball better than Jordan did had he chosen to interrupt his career in mid-stream to try baseball as Jordan did? Who knows?

The bottom line is, if you can’t appreciate James’ career without bringing Jordan into the equation you’re doing this all wrong.

Look, it was easy to be rubbed the wrong way by the unprecedented hype — premature at the time but ultimately understandable — when James was in high school.

It was even easier to be turned off by the silly marketing stunt called “The Decision,” the live broadcast of James’ announcement that he would be “taking my talents” to Miami as a free agent in 2010 after playing the first seven years of his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But it’s really hard to find anything else off-putting about James, who will lead the Cavaliers, with whom he re-signed in 2014, against the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals beginning Thursday.

It will be James’ eighth consecutive appearance in the Finals, and if you’re tired of watching James play for an NBA championship, it’s difficult to imagine what you would rather see in the Finals.

Yes, the Eastern Conference is significantly weaker than the Western Conference and a fourth consecutive Finals between any two teams can grow tiresome. But the fact that James and this Cavaliers team are conference champions and playing for an NBA is remarkable and eminently worthy of respect.

Seeing if James and his group of mostly non-descript teammates can hang with or maybe even defeat the significantly more talented Warriors is worth watching.

James has raised the bar for himself so high that the expectation for any playoff performance by him is roughly a triple-double starting with at least 35 points, more likely 40-plus if his team is facing elimination in the game.

His team has won seven of the last eight games in which it has faced elimination and James is 6-2 in Game 7s, having won his last six, including two this season.

James and his teammates will enter these Finals as significant underdogs as his teams have been more often not in his previous eight Finals appearances.

If Cleveland loses as expected, James detractors will point to his 3-6 Finals record as evidence he’s not as good as Jordan, who was a remarkable 6-0 in the Finals. If the Cavaliers manage to win, James’ detractors will again show their myopia by comparing 4-5 and 6-0.

But win or lose, the fact that James is back in the NBA Finals is a testament to his greatness. His eight consecutive trips are further testament to his greatness as is his ability to elevate the play of his teammates. The level at which he has played when the stakes have been the highest — and the threat of elimination most strong — solidifies his place among the NBA’s all-time elite.

Throw in the fact that he is a legitimate role model at a time when such athletes are nearly non-existent and you have a player whose greatness cannot be appreciated adequately by comparing him to someone else — anyone else.

Appreciate him for who he is, what he has done and what he continues to do.