In 2003, Yao Ming's second year in the NBA, a full seven years after the most successful draft in the league's history, the "Golden Generation of 96".
Anyone could have foreseen but never thought that such a good draft would be born in the mediocre 2003.
After a full 18 years, when we opened the catalog of this draft, we found that there were still two "old guys" still stirring up trouble in this league. They gathered in the City of Angels to fight for their first and fifth championship trophies.
One of them is Cameron Anthony, the top ten total scorers in league history, and the other is the protagonist we are going to introduce today, The 2003 NBA Draft pick LeBron James.
The black boy, born in Akron, Ohio, was selected by the Ohio team Cleveland Cavaliers when he was 18 years old, and he began his NBA legendary journey.
As a high school student, his talent is the kind that has happened once in a century at the historical level. Cleveland, who has never won a championship before, also expects the big boy to lead the team to a historic breakthrough, but the city's fans do not know that this wait is 13 years.
On October 29, 2003, under the gaze of tens of thousands of spectators, "Little Emperor" LeBron James lived up to expectations, and against the Kings, the young champion scored 25 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 60% shooting percentage, showing his all-round performance.
However, at that time, there were obviously still people in the team who did not recognize who was the boss of this team, and this stunned youth was Ricky Davis. After playing just 22 games for the Cavaliers that season, he was swept out for trade with the Celtics.
His famous quote, "I thought LeBron was here to help me," has also become a classic joke in the NBA.
James's team core and tactical core position has been completely established, and where the Cavaliers ship will sail in the future depends entirely on James's helm.
The results are gratifying! Although the team has only achieved a record of 35 wins and 47 losses this season, the Cavaliers have won 18 more games than last season's 17-65 record. This has to be said to be the embodiment of James' value, and he was also selected as the best rookie of the season with this performance and his excellent performance of averaging 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game.
By the second year, although the team still did not make the playoffs, James still let people see his growth, averaging 27.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game, making him the starting NBA All-Star that year.
Finally in its third year in the league, the team not only had a new general manager and a new head coach, they were Danny Ferry and Mike Brown. What is even more gratifying is that James and his Cavaliers have entered the playoff stage with a regular season record of 50 wins and 32 losses.
But just as Jordan was ravaged by the Legion of Bad Boys in the '80s, facing the more iron-blooded Army of Detroit, James and his Knights were defeated after seven games in the second round. But fans see the cavaliers' infinite brightness in the future, and they also see james's growth rate that far exceeds expectations.
In the 2006-07 season, James came to the NBA for his fourth year, and he successfully defeated the Detroit Pistons on the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals. Everyone was amazed by James's growth rate of a big step a year, so that the Sweep of the Spurs in the Finals did not bring much sense of loss to the Cavaliers fans, and they also believed in Duncan's "future is yours" in such an atmosphere as James.
But the annual rings of fate are so unpredictable, in the summer of 2007, a big deal that shook the league pattern came into being in the Celtics, Garnett, Ray Allen, Pierce, the core of three different teams last season gathered in Boston, and the greenshirts jumped from a fish belly to a championship hit.
This sudden change of personality also pushed the young LeBron into the abyss completely, and for three years, James never saw the floor of the Finals again. Not only does it have the terrible dominance of the Celtic Triumvirate, but even the Orlando Magic led by Howard has the ability to slash the knight with a sword.
From 2003 to 2010, seven years, James and the Cavaliers together experienced a process from having hope to seeing the dawn to falling into darkness. Although there have been Larry Hughes, the dying "big shark" and other people, but the performance of James in this period is blameless, he did his best, 2 regular season MVP, 1 regular season scoring champion is the best proof. He is bound to do miracles for his hometown team, but how can one person's ability withstand the power of a pack of wolves.
Repeated failures finally made James lose his way, and he chose the latter in front of loyalty and championship. And at that time, the slightly immature little emperor did not know who was seduced, and even adopted the method of live television to announce his decision, and he chose to go to Miami to warm up with his good brother Wade.
Then we saw cavaliers fans cursing LeBron on the street burning the number 23 jersey...
James, who came to the South Coast, began the eighth season of his career with mixed feelings. At the same time another sad story began, and in the eight years since, in addition to the Heat and cavaliers, the other 13 teams in the East have never made it to the Finals, of course, this is a later story... (To be continued)
Kan Kanjun believes that James' first seven years with the Cavaliers were my personal favorite stage of his career. At that time, he was like a lone warrior carrying a knight alone in the alliance, fearless and courageous, domineering and exposed. What people imagined was that he would follow Jordan's successful trajectory, stay in the Knight, and eventually create a dynasty of his own.
But in the end, he's not Jordan, he's just his real self, the real LeBron James.