When LeBron James takes the court on Wednesday night for Game 1 of the 2020 NBA Finals, he will become only the fourth player to ever play in 10 NBA Finals, joining Celtics legends Bill Russell and Sam Jones as well as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
LeBron’s 10th Finals appearance comes in his 17th NBA season, which means he has competed for the championship in 58.8% of his NBA seasons. The 2020 Finals is the 74th championship series in NBA history – LeBron has been a part of 13.5% of those series.
As LeBron gets set to tip off his 50th NBA Finals game on Wednesday, here is a quick refresher on where he stands statistically in NBA Finals history.
LeBron made his Finals debut in 2007 – at the age of 23 and in his fourth NBA season – but his Cavaliers were quick work for the veteran Spurs, who swept the series in four games. Moments after Game 4, LeBron and Tim Duncan met near the locker rooms with Duncan saying this to LeBron: “This is going to be your league in a little while, but I just appreciate you giving us this year,” and the two players laughed as they parted ways.
After a series of playoff disappointments over the next three seasons, LeBron famously “took his talents to South Beach” and joined the Miami Heat, where he would team up with fellow All-Stars Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade with a goal of not only getting back to the Finals stage but finishing the job and winning the championship.
LeBron spent four years in Miami and made The Finals each year. After suffering a setback in their first Finals appearance together in 2011 against Dallas, the Heat would win back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, with LeBron winning Finals MVP each season.
From 2011 to 2012, LeBron increased his scoring output in The Finals by nearly 11 points per game – from 17.8 points against the Mavericks in 2011 to 28.6 points against the Thunder in 2012. LeBron added 10.2 rebounds per game against OKC, marking the first of six Finals where he averaged a 20-10 double-double, including becoming the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double in The Finals in 2017.
• 2012: 28.6 PTS, 10.2 REB
• 2013: 25.3 PTS, 10.9 REB
• 2015: 35.8 PTS, 13.3 REB
• 2016: 29.7 PTS, 11.3 REB
• 2017: 33.6 PTS, 12.0 REB, 10.0 AST
• 2018: 34.0 PTS, 10.0 AST
After winning back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013, LeBron and the Heat tasted Finals defeat again as Duncan and the Spurs avenged their 2013 loss with a five-game win in 2014. This was the third time that LeBron had faced the Spurs in The Finals. It was his most frequent opponent at the time, but would soon be surpassed.
Following the 2014 season, LeBron made the decision to return home to Cleveland, with the hopes of delivering a title to his home state of Ohio. With LeBron and Kevin Love joining Kyrie Irving in Cleveland, the Cavs made a 20-win improvement from 2013-14 (33 wins) to 2014-15 (53 wins). While they finished second in the East during the regular season, the Cavs went 12-2 in the East side of the bracket to advance to The Finals, where they would meet the 67-win Warriors in the first chapter of an epic series of Finals matchups.
The Cavs fell in six games to the Warriors, but LeBron was absolutely brilliant as he became the first player to lead both teams in points (35.8), rebounds (13.3) and assists (8.8) for the entire Finals series. His 38.9% usage rate for the series remains the highest mark of his Finals career as he did everything in his power to help the Cavs compete against the Warriors. Despite losing the series 4-2, LeBron received four of the 11 votes for Finals MVP.
LeBron’s scoring and rebounding averages in the 2015 Finals remain his high marks for any Finals series. However, his assist mark would be topped multiple times over the next few seasons.
The 2015 Finals was just the first of four straight Finals meetings with the Warriors. In 2016, LeBron essentially said leading both teams in three statistical categories wasn’t enough, so he led both teams in all five categories with averages of 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks. In addition to his statistical brilliance, LeBron also helped the Cavs make history as the first to ever overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals.
LeBron won his third title – the first championship for the city of Cleveland in any sport in 52 years – and collected his third Finals MVP award. However, those would be the last trophies he would collect at The Finals. In 2017 and 2018, the Cavs would continue to represent the Eastern Conference in The Finals, but won just one game in two series losses to the Warriors, who added Kevin Durant to their squad after losing to Cleveland in 2016.
During the 2017 Finals, LeBron made more history as he became the first player to ever average a triple-double in the NBA Finals with 33.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game in the five-game series. A year later, LeBron averaged 34 points, 10 assists and 8.5 rebounds as the Cavs were swept and his second stint in Cleveland would come to an end.
LeBron joined the Lakers as a free agent in 2018, but his first season in Los Angeles was marred by a groin injury that forced him to miss 17 games in the middle of the season and derailed the Lakers’ playoff hopes. It was the first time since 2006 that LeBron did not make the playoffs and the first time since 2011 that he did not make the Finals, snapping an incredible run of eight straight Finals appearances – the likes of which had not been seen since Russell’s Celtics teams of the 1950s and 60s.
But it didn’t take long for LeBron to start a new streak as the Lakers went from 37-45 (.451) in 2018-19 to 52-19 (.732) in 2019-20 – the team’s highest win percentage in a season since 2008-09. The Lakers have gone 12-3 in the playoffs – winning each series 4-1 – to advance to the Finals for the first time since the franchise won its last title in 2010.
LeBron is now just four wins away from claiming his fourth NBA title and do so with his third different team – a feat that has only been accomplished by Robert Horry and John Salley in league history. No player has won Finals MVP with three different franchises; LeBron (Cleveland and Miami), Kareem (Milwaukee and Los Angeles) and Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio and Toronto) are the only players to win Finals MVP with two different teams.
Just more history on the line for LeBron at The Finals. Whether it is in Miami, Cleveland or the NBA Bubble in Orlando, LeBron feels quite at home on the Finals stage.
