Especially with the Miami Heat, LeBron James has dominated the league since entering it. Here’s why he would have dominated the 90’s as well.
The Miami Heat and those associated with the franchise know first hand, but everyone that remotely follows or is associated with the NBA knows that LeBron James is at worst, the second greatest player to ever lace them up in the NBA.
While his reign has extended over three decades, as we prepare to dive deeper into the last one that has just begun, many have asked how he would have done in the decade prior to his arrival in the league.
Coming into the league at the beginning of the 2000s, it is often pondered upon if LeBron James could have dominated the 1990s in the fashion that he has dominated the league since coming in. I am here to tell you that he could have and here’s why.
We will take two perspectives here to illustrate our case. We will take it first from a qualitative perspective, painting a picture of what we can see with our eyes.
We will then take it from a quantitative perspective. Here, we will dive into a few numbers to see exactly what they express. Here we go.
When thinking about the era that was the NBA in the ’90s, it was all about physicality, the midrange, and post play. When looking at LeBron James, especially the Miami Heat version, he would have been tailor-made for such a league.
Tailor-Made LeBron
He probably would have become that player, game and body wise, earlier or for the long haul if he had been playing in the ’90s to take the abuse. It would have definitely been a bit more effective for him.
Even outside of the girthier LeBron though, any form of The King of could have succeeded. People like to point to the fact that he hasn’t experienced such physicality during his time, but that isn’t necessarily true either.
Although the league has gotten a bit softer over his years, it was still pretty recklessly physical when he first arrived. Remember that Piston’s team that won the 2004 NBA championship? Heck, the Miami Heat teams of the 2000s were a pretty feisty bunch, to make another example.
On the other side of that, is that any more physical than players are allowed to play LeBron today? I mean, the occurrences aren’t as frequent, as they’ve tightened up on the officiating and penalty for flagrantly or simple hard fouls, but they are still able to beat him up pretty bad.
Through it all though, he is still and has been the best player in this league. You also have to account for the fact that although a player of his height, weight, muscle structure, and skillset was a rarity when he did come into the league, it would have been a total unicorn in the ’90s.
Because the game was played much more physically and closer to the rim, his special attributes would have arguably been of greater advantage than they are today. You also have to account for the fact that the rules, his ability to play from almost any position, and his body would have allowed him to dish out just as much punishment as he would have taken.
There is this small hurdle that we like to call His Airness, Michael Jordan, but that would have been ok. We would have all loved to see it.
That also doesn’t mean that LeBron wouldn’t have dominated though as there could have been two, as although he isn’t LeBron or MJ, there is a Kevin Durant in the league today who’s game comes close to rivaling the dominance of LeBron’s game.
Looking at the Numbers
When looking at the numbers, there are a myriad of them that can be used here to illustrate the point. The ones we will focus on here will be points per 100 possessions, effective field goal percentage, three-point percentage, and a few supporting stats.
When looking for a comparative set of figures here, you can go one of a few ways. While one way to go would be to compare against the league average per player for those statistics, you could compare them to the only player in the conversation with LeBron, his comp from that generation, and arguably the greatest player to ever play the game.
For our purposes, we will use Micahel Jordan. Here are the averages of his averages across that decade.
Jordan averaged 40.97 points per 100 possessions in the decade of the ’90s, while LeBron James has a career per 100 possessions average of 36.6 points per game and 37.4 points per 100 with the Miami Heat, the era, style, game, and body type of LeBron that I mentioned you would most likely see full time had he played in that decade.
While LeBron has averaged 10 assists per 100 throughout his career, Jordan only averaged 6.8. Whether you use his career figure or the Miami Heat figure, Lebron’s better than three assists more per 100 possessions would have accounted for those points not scored by the King himself, thus accounting for the difference in their impact on winning from a points perspective.
When looking at the next stat of question, effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the fact that three-pointers are worth more than two-pointers but packages them into one total shooting percentage, that works nicely to account for the offensive philosophical differences betwixt eras of the NBA.
More Discussion & Conclusion
In the ’90s, Michael Jordan had an effective field goal percentage of 51.03 percent. LeBron has maintained an effective field goal percentage of 54.2 across his career, and furthermore, 57.7 percent across his time in Miami or during his ideal 90’s body type years.
Lastly and although they both got better as their careers progressed, the ’90s weren’t as bombastic from deep, and the current era either shoots a three of tries to get to the hoop, three-point percentages are a huge factor here. Basically, whether the rest of the league was using it at as high a clip or not, it was a weapon for MJ and would still be a weapon for LeBron in that era.
MJ shot the three-ball at 35.61 percent during the decade of the 1990s. LeBron James has shot 34.4 percent across his career, with his career-high season of 40.6 percent coming in the 2012-13 season. Yes, another ideal stat from his Miami Heat days, the period that most resembles how he would most likely look if he played in the ’90s.
What does it all mean though? It means that he is almost the same player as MJ was statically in that era, but he was also just a bit more physically gifted than MJ. While they both had apex athleticism, the most that the creator could give to any one person, LeBron was also blessed to be 6’8 with a frame capable of athletically toting 270 pounds around.
When you look at it from a qualitative, quantitative, and overall perspective, as we did here though, it all points to one thing. LeBron James would have dominated or been just as dominant as he has been, even if he played in the 1990s.