LeBron fights against time and history: 36 years, 17 in the NBA, and 10 Finals

• NBA: A masterful LeBron returns the Lakers to the Finals a decade later

As the Western Champions trophy ceremony began, LeBron James listened sitting on the ground, shoeless and surrounded by confetti.

At almost

, 17 in the NBA, he is still capable of superb performances like the one that brought the Lakers back to the Finals, but it costs more to pay the bill.

His is no longer just a fight against history - “my motivation is the ghost I chase.

The ghost who played in Chicago, "he confessed about Jordan after the last ring.

His battle is also against time.

No one escaped, probably not LeBron himself, always so attentive to those details of the story, that the image was almost identical to that of

in 2009. With the Western champions cap pulled down, but with his arms crossed and the serious face.

Then, as now, they had also just eliminated the

, and in that case they came from losing the Finals last year against the Celtics.

In case anyone missed the message, LeBron wrote: This doesn't mean shit if we don't win the ring.

We understand that there is a greater goal.

That frankness revealed the fires that burn inside him: the failure of his first season with the Lakers, which ended outside the playoffs, and that of those nine Finals he has played to date, he has lost six.

It is true that the first (2007) he arrived early and with a tattered team, and that except in 2011, his performance was flawless in the others against teams that marked an era.

But when your rival is history, nobody forgives.

It will be LeBron's tenth Finals, the ninth in the last 10 seasons.

They are the same that

, and only less than

(12) and

(11).

On its own, it has more Finals than 27 other franchises in its history.

Only the Lakers (32), Celtics (21) and Warriors (11) surpass him.

The magnitude is overwhelming, and despite everything he faces them as if he had returned to the starting box: it is his opportunity to win with the third different team and in a franchise capable of enlarging any story.

It would be to have resurrected a giant who had not been in the Finals for a decade, since that 'back-to-back' of Kobe with Pau Gasol as second sword, and the certainty that at almost 36 years old he is still decisive at the top .

He does it at the hands of

, the squire whom he courted for more than half a year until he took him to Los Angeles and who now announces himself ready to take over.

'La Ceja', your best ally

Last season LeBron suffered the most serious injury of his career, a groin problem that left him out for a month.

, a world for whom he had never missed more than eight.

It was the first crack in armor that looked like steel, the first time his body was revealed to be human.

As your odometer approaches

, you inevitably think that it was good for you to miss out on the playoffs in your freshman year.

That failure, in addition to stoking the fire, gave him a necessary respite of six months.

It was legitimate to think that, with 35 years, that load of minutes and the first serious injury, perhaps he had entered another phase of his career.

And in part that has been the case, although with his new suit he is still decisive.

LeBron, who has always claimed more generator than finisher (although paradoxically he is the third highest scorer in history), has embraced the role of director more than ever to give the scorer focus to the best teammate he has ever had, Anthony Davis.

Davis is a perfect prototype of the 21st century indoor player, a tall man center increasingly versatile in attack and extremely mobile in defense.

LeBron has gone from the exuberance of previous years to choosing the moments when he takes control of the game.

It leaves room for Davis, who now assimilates that same learning that he needed until his first ring in 2012, and for the secondary, less lustrum than those of other applicants, to gain ground.

LeBron does not forget that his window as a contender for the ring will be longer the longer and better Davis continues to grow, nor that, despite forming the most devastating duo in the NBA, they need those supporting actors (Rondo, Caruso, Kuzma ... ).

Nor should it be forgotten that, at this point in the season, LeBron becomes one of the great dominators that basketball has ever seen.

James knew, sitting on the floor with a serious face, as Davis celebrated his first conference champion title, that the job is not done and that the real goal is still seven games away.

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