In the history of the NBA in the past decade, the small forward can be said to be the most beautiful position, from James's first championship in 2012 to the fourth time in 2020, during which every year the FMVP trophy was won by small forward players, Leonard and Durant became historic superstars, and the old Jen reached the height of Michael Jordan, the first small forward in history.
In fact, after James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the first championship trophy in team history in 2016 and was crowned FMVP, he has surpassed the original history of the first small forward Larry Bird, who was once known as the "black and white double male" with Magic Johnson in the 80s, winning the championship trophy 3 times in his career, winning the FMVP twice, being selected to the best team 9 times, and the only regular season MVP three-game championship in history, leaving a bunch of "king-forcing moments" that fans are talking about.
However, James's catch-up momentum is also very fierce, he has reached the Finals for 8 consecutive seasons since 2011, until 2020 after winning the fourth crown with the Lakers, the overall honor of his career has come to 4 championships, 4 FMVPs, 4 regular season MVPs, and the first 13 firsts in history, which can be described as a comprehensive encirclement of Larry Bird' predecessor.
And James's more terrifying place is the data, as of now, he has scored a total of 35367 points, ranking third in history, and the new season is very likely to surpass Carl Malone and approach the historical scoring king Jabbar. Career average of 27.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game has also become a personal representative number, as for the playoffs, he is even more terrifying, 7631's total score is more than a thousand points more than Jordan behind him, and later people want to surpass it is difficult to ascend to the sky, so the question is, James has reached the level of ten thousand people under one person in the overall position of history, why are there still many voices in the industry that Larry Bird is the first small forward in history?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > James' honor comes from "running around"</h1>
Or that old saying, compared with the most orthodox supergiants in history, James always has "utilitarianism", Jordan, Magic, Kobe, Russell and Duncan, the top ten stars have a deep city imprint, whether at the peak or the trough, they have never left the parent team halfway, and James is different, he chose to take the initiative to hold the group at the peak, and whenever the team enters the trough, he immediately withdraws to the more flexible team to re-form the championship lineup. This greatly increased his personal peak and team peak overlap rate, so that James can reach the Finals for 8 consecutive years, but how he did it, most fans know it, which will make Bird, who has a short career life but always wears a green jersey, more brilliant.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > second, James' data comes from the ball bully attribute</h1>
Unlike the historical definition of a traditional small forward, James has been a "point guard in the guise of a small forward" since the Cavaliers, he holds a lot of ball power, he can score points if he wants to, and assists when he wants, in other words, possession is the basis for his access to all-around data, and later Westbrook also proved this, and Larry Bird also has a historical level of ball dealership and passing ability, but he did not play point guard like a magician, nor did he deprive his teammates of the right to obtain excellent data From that point of view, Bird is the one who really fits the definition of the strongest small forward.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > Third, Bird's spiritual attributes are too powerful</h1>
As mentioned earlier, Bird is a famous "forced king" in history, such as "I will kill you here", "Are you all here to fight for the second place?" This level of confidence and hard power has conquered a large audience, and even today's new generation of fans will be amazed to hear the legend of Bird, and it is worth mentioning that the spiritual attribute is precisely the weakest link of James, either winning the thrill or losing very thoroughly, which is also the most obvious gap between him and Bird.
Of course, Bird belongs to the old guys of the 80s of the last century, we did not see him play with our own eyes, we can only form their own subjective impressions through hearsay, or many years later, James is also the representative of the perfect player in the hearts of basketball fans, after all, history has left only honors and data, and the position of the first small forward has no suspense.