College? LeBron James had a great four years without it

What if LeBron James went to college? And let’s assume he actually stayed four years. As many seniors finished their fourth year of college and graduated into the real world, LeBron would be right there with them.

In theory, it’d be the end of a storybook college career, a blowout win over a favored appointment. In his freshman and sophomore seasons, he came in fresh out of high school and was thrown into the fire; he took his usual bumps and bruises and survived, stronger. He saw his other people from his class move on to do big things, like Dewayne Wade and others disappear like Darko Milicic.

By his junior season he broke through. Made the tournament, reached the Sweet 16 but that was as far as his experience could take him. Now, as a senior, with the necessary tools and experience under his belt, the missing pieces finally in place, he breeze through the first round against a clearly overmatched opponent. In round two, he beat the guys who had been there and done that basically through pure will. So what if he had the easy route their, number one seeds usually do.

Now he’s broke through to what would be his NCAA Championship game, which in this case is the NBA Finals. On the way there, he’s accumulated an amazing highlight tape, and just one game ago had what might be forever remember as his career-defining game, that Michael Jordan moment that people had been waiting for where he scored 48 points, 29 of the Cavs last 30 points, including their last 25 points completely taking over the fourth quarter and both overtimes, capped by the lasting image of LeBron, physically spent, more relieved than happy that the game was over Cleveland had won.

The opponent their facing is in anything but uncharted waters. The Spurs are the equivalent of the perennial powerhouse, the team everybody hates but no one can stop, they win one way, with their players being more or less zombies to a winning system. (Sounds a little like Duke right?)

If it’s one thing we’ve all learned the past four years it is how fast things can change.
Four years ago the Cleveland Cavaliers were one of the worst teams in the league, in a city that hadn’t seen a championship team since Martin Luther King was alive.

Can any of us say we’ve accomplished so much in just four years?