NBA Finals may resolve "best player" argument

Jun 7, 2007 - 6:09 PM By Chris Bernucca PA SportsTicker Pro Basketball Editor

SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - There's nothing like a "Best Player in the NBA" argument to spice up an NBA Finals in need of a little bit of flavor.

Fronting for the curmudgeon crew is Tim Duncan. The metronomically consistent power forward of the San Antonio Spurs went to four years of college, possesses a fundamentally flawless grounded game and performs without pizzazz.

Leading the text-messaging hipsters is LeBron James. The sensational swingman of the Cleveland Cavaliers entered the NBA directly out of high school, gets into and out of trouble with his frightening athleticism and has a flair for the dramatic, which is something the league could use over the next two weeks or so.

When the Finals tip off Thursday night, the Stepford Spurs will be heavily favored to capture their fourth title in nine years, and the only excitement they bring to the NBA's biggest stage are the gratuitous camera shots of Eva Longoria.

The fiancee of Spurs guard Tony Parker conveniently has a TV show on ABC, which will have to battle both "The Sopranos" and the summer for the nation's attention.

"I think when LeBron makes the Finals, I think it's going to be better for the TV ratings," Parker said.

"Tim, this is his fourth (Finals), so it's pretty old news for him," Spurs swingman Michael Finley said. "The league is about new, exciting things, and LeBron is that thing right now."

Ask anyone to pick a player to build the future of their franchise around, and the choice would be James. Just 22, he already is drawing favorable comparisons to Michael Jordan - although his long-term future probably has more of a parallel to Magic Johnson - and has the first of what should be a handful of chances to not only meet but exceed the heaping helpful of hype piled upon him since puberty.

But if the parameter was to select a player on the first day of training camp who would give your team the best chance of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy eight months later, the choice would be Duncan, who may be the only person who feels the need to enhance his legacy.

Whether long-term or short-term, there is a clear cornerstone quality to both players. The difference is that James had to rebuild the Cavaliers by himself as a teenager, while Duncan was a grown man walking into a setting with a pretty solid foundation.

"I cannot relate to him in any way, honestly," said Duncan, who was mentored by David Robinson as a young player. "I was in a much different situation. I was on a veteran squad and I was much more a piece of the puzzle. I think he's a much bigger piece of this puzzle. They're asking him to do a lot more."

The lack of flash in Duncan's game also makes it easier to label him as a player whose skills better befit a bygone era, when foreign players were a foreign notion and 7-footers did not masquerade as shooting guards. But closer examination of James' game shows it has the same qualities.

"I think there's not that big a difference, to be honest," Spurs assistant P.J. Carlesimo said.

Carlesimo naturally admits to being partial to Duncan, whom he calls "the best player in the NBA" without any hesitation. But he points out that James has an innate sense of the fundamentals that are sometimes obscured by his high-flying act.

"If you look at his game, he's an old school player," Carlesimo said. "If you take the dunks out - which is hard to say, because he's such as spectacular dunker - he rebounds, he passes, he's unselfish. LeBron could have played 30 or 40 years ago with no problem because he knows how to play basketball. He's very old school and I say that in a very positive way."

But perhaps the biggest difference between Duncan and James - at least right now - is where their games have gotten them thus far.

With the deeper resume, Duncan has three championships and is working on a fourth. Among dominant big men, only Shaquille O'Neal (four), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six) and Bill Russell (11) have more.

James is in his fourth season and playing in his first Finals, with expectations - but no guarantees - of return engagements. While Jordan did not win a title until his seventh season, he certainly made up for lost time by finishing with six. Johnson had three Finals appearances and two championships by the end of his fourth season and eventually retired with five rings.

"In Timmy's case, when you look at wins and championships, that's what separates these guys," Carlesimo said.

Carlesimo doesn't believe that championships are a prerequisite of greatness. They certainly don't hurt, however.

"I don't think they have to validate it at all," the coach said. "I don't think it diminishes how great Karl Malone or John Stockton was. (But) it would be unfair to not say that it enhances the other guys.

"When you have the Russells, the Duncans, the Magic Johnsons, the Michael Jordans, that enhances them. You can't say they're not more special because of what they did." That stance is shared by James, who given the current disparity between conferences easily could become the Elgin Baylor of his day - a spectacular player who simply ran into better teams in the postseason and was denied his breakthrough moment.

"I think you become one of the greats by doing a lot of things as an individual," James said. "They don't base that on your team perspective and things like that."

If that sounds somewhat like an NBA Finals concession speech, don't be fooled. One of the old-school qualities Carlesimo neglected to point out is that everything James does on the court is geared toward one goal - winning.

"He's too talented, too driven not to win one," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "I agree with the talk about in order to have 'one of the best players in the world' you should have one of those (rings) on your resume, if not more. It's a matter of time for him."