Imrem: LeBron needs some more support to challenge MJ
LeBron James should activate the troops Thursday night as he embarks upon his seventh straight NBA Finals and eighth overall.
No, I'm not talking about activating the Cavaliers.
I'm talking about LeBron's LeLegions.
Arnold Palmer had Arnie's Army and Michael Jordan still has his, let's see, call them his JordanAIRes.
The LeLegions - James has an NBA-high 90 million followers on social media - should concentrate on doing a better job of defending James' honor against the enduring Jordan zealots.
Marketing is such a big thing in sports these days, but while James endorses all sorts of merchandise, his followers don't do a very good job of selling him.
James needs a village to take on such formidable opponents as Golden State and Jordan all at once.
Let's get a couple of things straight before we go any further.
First, Jordan still is basketball's greatest player of all time. Second, the best-ever trophy hasn't been retired.
Someone will supplant Jordan some day and it might even be James … or it might not be … we'll see.
If James can inspire the Cavs to a second consecutive championship over an elite favorite like the Warriors, he'll inch a step closer to Jordan with a few years left to close the gap.
Not that the masses will credit James for that.
James is in the conversation to be the greatest of all time. When he's disrespected, LeLegions should spread his credentials around the NBA.
Last week at the bottom of the screen on ESPN's "First Take" blared "Coming up … Is LeBron James' reputation taking a hit?"
Huh?
Apparently James' formidable body of work didn't matter to his critics after he had one sub-King James week in the Eastern Conference finals.
Whenever James isn't quite James, his detractors are eager to attack.
The LeLegions should charge in, but they don't seem to be as motivated as the JordanAIRes, at least not outside of Cleveland.
Ever since Jordan retired for good, his congregation has had boots on the ground to protect his legacy as the best ever.
After James had those recent struggles, at least for him, the JordanAIRes roared that "MJ never would have played like that in a playoff game."
Except that Jordan did play games like that: Consider Game 4 of the 1996 NBA Finals.
With a chance to sweep Seattle, Jordan scored 7 points in the first half as the Sonics outscored the Bulls 28-11 in the second quarter, 53-32 in the half and 107-86 in the game.
Nobody dared suggest that Jordan was any less a player after that indifferent performance.
He simply had, for him, a bad game. It happens to the best of them. It happened to James against the Celtics.
The difference is that people looked for reasons to like Jordan and look for reasons to dislike James.
The latter suffers the persistent stigma of "The Decision" from when he left Cleveland for Miami in 2010.
It didn't matter last week that James received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for outstanding service and dedication to the community.
To many, he's still "The Decision" guy.
In reality, this issue is as simple as Jordan being the greatest ever and James being a worthy challenger.
LeBron James needs his LeLegions to market that message above the din of the JordanAIRes.
mimrem@dailyherald.com