LeBron James was never going to let the Eastern Conference Finals go without a Game 7

LeBron James wasn’t going to go out in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games. I mean, really? LeBron James? In this NBA economy? Not a chance.

You can read this, be mad that Game 6 and LeBron happened, whatever. But LeBron was not going to lose a Game 6 in the Eastern Conference Finals at home and miss out on a potential eighth-consecutive NBA Finals against a young Celtics team. The idea of that is simply outrageous.

That doesn’t take anything away from the Celtics — they’re one of the most talented teams in the league despite their age. Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and the rest of the Celtics have a booming future ahead of them, win or lose this series. The association is their’s for the taking.

But it was never going to be that easy for Boston, at least not right now. We’re talking about a series that involves The King — a player that’s made an incredibly strong case as the best of all-time. Those kinds of players (few and far in between) don’t lose a Game 6 at home.

LeBron has been the best player in the NBA for many, many years now. Anybody that wants to put that up for debate can keep it at his or her local barbershop or message board. It’s straight facts. At this point, it’s fine to admit that the NBA’s MVP award is more of a Most Outstanding Player award, which is exactly why it’s going to be handed to James Harden. Because if it went to the player who genuinely was the most valuable to his team since at least 2007 (and maybe even earlier), LeBron would still be the incumbent of the award at this point going on over a decade.

And being at home against said King means not a damn thing for whoever the visiting team is. Terry Rozier said as much after Game 6:

LeBron came out and displayed what was arguably his best performance this entire postseason on Friday night. He had 46 points on 11 rebounds and nine assists with three steals and a block. He was always in control.

The last time LeBron played an elimination game in Boston was Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals. He had 45 points in that game to go along with his 15 rebounds and five assists. He would go on to win Game 7 in that series with 31 points. There’s a chance he does that on Sunday night, too.

Whether or not LeBron finishes the mission and sends the Cavaliers to another Finals has yet to be seen. The Boston Celtics are a great story. It’s hard not to love Brad Stevens as a coach — he took Butler, a small basketball program to the promised land not once, but twice. Within that, he’s helped create a Celtics team that’s going to compete in the NBA for a long time. It’s why he’s considered a genius for many reasons. But the idea that he could create something that was going to get past LeBron in anything under seven games isn’t right — it was never going to be that easy, despite the lack of help he’s received in this postseason.

By the time Sunday night comes, we should expect nothing less than the best out of LeBron. Every time his back has been against the wall in his career, he’s responded. It’s one thing for the majority of NBA fans to view him as one of the best players on the planet. It’s another thing for anybody to even question LeBron’s ability to come through when his back is against the wall like it was on Friday night. And he knows damn well when that’s going on.

After Game 6, LeBron said that he would go into around-the-clock treatment in order to get ready for Game 7. He said that he would try to go out and do his job to the best of his ability for said game.

He’s pretty much done that every season since he’s been in the NBA. It feels like Sunday will be one of his biggest tests, with a roster that’s lacking as of late (despite seeming like it reached a revival at the trade deadline) and an aging body at 33 years old. But if there’s ever been a player in the history of the game that’s been built for this — it’s LeBron James.

In Game 6, LeBron checked out with 57 seconds left to go. It speaks volumes that it took for the Cavaliers to get to that point to let LeBron have his moment.

But this is what LeBron does. He’s not normal. We can’t have normal conversations about him, his game, and his legacy. It would be a disservice, and disrespectful to his legend.

And all of that is completely normal — for LeBron James. Sunday’s game will undoubtedly add to the story of his career. But the latest chapter in this book will be similar in the sense that it was going to take the distance of any kind of series to strip the King of his throne.

And even then, failure is probable. The King has established that for many years now.

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