$20 Chinese Food!

Is there anything better in this world than LeBron James?

I am not an athlete idolizer by any means, but it seems as if anything LeBron touches right now is pure gold. The Olympics. The NBA regular season. Announcing he will be in next year's dunk contest. That State Farm commercial where he dances like Kid N' Play. And now the puppet commercial. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtzQ0eXVoJo

And then the ridiculousness of LeBron got a little more ridiculous tonight. With one second remaining, LeBron hit a fadeaway three to snatch victory away from the Magic.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4200792

Simply insane.

And it made me wonder a little more what I already debated and thought about in terms of LeBron and the Black Mamba. Not necessarily who is better, but who would you rather have at the end of a game?

I always made the argument that LeBron is now a better player than Kobe, but when it comes down to needing someone to hit a game winner I would choose Kobe. Is that the right choice?

After looking at the fantastic website http://www.82games.com/, I learned some interesting stats. They break down game winning shots for the following seasons: Regular Seasons: '03-04, '04-05, '05-06, '06-07, '07-08, '08-09 (thru 2/4) and playoffs: '03-04, '04-05, '05-06, '06-07, '07-08. Game Winning Shot Opportunity = 24 seconds or less left in the game, team with the ball is either tied or down by 1 to 2 points.

Under this definition, the league leader is LeBron James. He is 17-50 (34%) while Vince Carter is second with 16 (31.4%), Ray Allen with 15 (38.5%), and Kobe Bryant with 14. Here is the shocker! Kobe is 14-56 for a shooting percentage of 25%. He has the most missed game winners in the league!

82 games also looks at clutch players. For these stats "Clutch" is defined as: 4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points.

The top 3 at the end of the 08-09 regular season? Kobe at 56.7 points/48 minutes, LeBron at 55.9 points/48 minutes, and Carmelo Anthony at 54.4 points/48 minutes. No suprise that these three are still playing. Yet how about these other numbers for LeBron per 48 minutes in clutch time? 14.3 rebounds, 12.6 assists, and 3.5 steals. He just takes over the game in all aspects.

So who do you take? Hard to argue with this:

Where Were You?

Michael Jordan played a total of seven games in his first two playoff appearances. The greatest of all-time averaged 35.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 2.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game. He shot 47.4% from the field, 22.2% from three, and 84.5% from the free throw line.

LeBron James thus far has played 28 games in his first two playoff appearances with averages of 28.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks. He shoots 45.8% from the field, 32.2% from three, and 75.6% from the line.

Despite LeBron's success in winning a few series' in the playoffs, not many put King James into Michael's category. Yet. Until last night.

Last night changed everything.

Last night was a friend calling and the first words were, "LeBron is ridiculous". Last night was getting a text message from Ravi about LeBron's game. Last night was the game where you tell your girlfriend about it and she actually gets excited, even saying, "I guess he is taking his throne". Yes I know my girlfriend is awesome.

Bill Simmons on ESPN.com wrote this before last night's game:

Like many others, I'm looking forward to Game 5 solely because of LeBron. Like many others, I want him to shift into fifth gear, hush the crowd, rip Detroit's heart out and make the Vivid Video face after everything's said and done. Like many others, I will be disappointed if this doesn't happen.

Simmons and all of us got our wish. 25 straight points to finish the game and 29 out of the last 30. He was so unstoppable that the Pistons seemed dumbfounded. In fact, their fans looked bewildered after the game. They just sat there in the arena staring out into nothing. It became a game that you had to see. No one cared about Kobe anymore. Billy Donovan became irrelevant. Oden and Durant would have to wait. It was all about LeBron. Simmons and others said it best when they simply stated that you would remember where you were when LeBron dropped 48 on the Pistons.

And you know where I was?

At my step-grandmother's retirement party.

Yep.

Seriously.

And she is great, certainly deserving of a great party. But LeBron's game will haunt me forever. Whenever someone brings it up, I will say, "oh yeah, I saw the highlights since I was at my step-grandmother's retirement party".

At least the shrimp balls were good.

Note: After I wrote this, the tutor in our program at school Melissa walked in and said, "Did you see that game last night?"

I walked away, head down, dejected and said, "no, I had to go to my step-grandma's retirement party".

And so it begins.