Imrem: Is Blackhawks dynasty or LeBron James dynasty more remarkable?

This week both the Blackhawks and LeBron James will play for a third championship in recent years.

So forgive me for missing the point last week, when I joined the conversation comparing James to Michael Jordan.

The real debate should be whether James' remarkable run or the Hawks' remarkable run is more remarkable.

No, no, we're not going to settle this with James going head-on against the Hawks in hockey … or in basketball for that matter.

Either of those matchups would be pretty compelling, don't you think?

The Hawks just overcame physical punishment from Anaheim and one of the storylines was how big the Ducks were.

Imagine being rammed into the boards by the 6-foot-8, 250-pound James, assuming he can stand up on skates.

Could James keep up with the speed of the Hawks any better than the Ducks could? If Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich irritated him could he withstand the likes of feisty Andrew Shaw in either hockey or basketball?

Uh, sorry again about the digression.

Let's get back to pondering James' and the Hawks' aspiring dynasties.

Last month the Hawks advanced to the Western Conference finals for the fifth time in seven seasons. Now they're in their third Stanley Cup Final in six years.

This week James will make his fifth straight NBA Finals appearance.

The Hawks and James have won two recent championships apiece, his coming in 2012 and 2013 and theirs coming in 2010 and 2013.

James has persisted with two franchises. The Hawks have persisted despite retooling a couple of times.

So which is more remarkable, James carrying different teams toward championships or the Hawks launching different lineups toward championships?

In their own ways, the Hawks and James resemble the Bulls of the 1990s.

Forgive me again for bringing Jordan and the Bulls back into the conversation when it should be limited to James in relation to the Hawks.

But here goes.

In a sport featuring five starting players, the Bulls always had Jordan and Scottie Pippen. In a sport of essentially 20 starters, the Hawks always have Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and a few other mainstays.

The Bulls and Hawks retained their cores, kept building around them and kept prevailing.

Meanwhile, James is like the Bulls in that everything revolves around one player: him now and Jordan then.

In basketball, the sport's best player can be a dynasty unto himself. In hockey, the best player needs considerably more help.

Jonathan Toews could be as much the two-way superstar that James is but not come close to having the same impact on a game or a season.

NBA salary-cap restrictions make it difficult to continue building a roster around James, so he has to do more of the work himself.

Meanwhile, the NHL cap makes it difficult to continue restocking the Hawks, though a quirk in the rules enabled them to add a couple of players at this season's trade deadline.

Here the Hawks and James are anyway, each with a chance to win another title.

So tell me, which is a more remarkable run right now, James' or the Hawks'?

My inclination is to say LeBron James' will be if he carries this limping collection of Cavaliers to the NBA title.

But if he loses and the Blackhawks win another Stanley Cup, a runoff election will be in order.

mimrem@dailyherald.com