Until May 31, 2007, LeBron James had accustomed us to fantastic performances, and sometimes historic ones since he was smashing the records for precocity. The prodigy confirmed game after game the expectations, the hopes and the flattering comparisons. But he had never achieved such mastery, such domination, such a degree of maturity as in this Game 5 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit. At 22 years and 152 days, the King will produce the first big game of his career, the founding act of his legend.
The peeling of his performance leaves you dreaming. The context first: a Game 5 conference final. The adversary then: the Pistons, champions 2004, then finalists 2005. The place obviously: the mythical Palace of Auburn Hills. Finally, there is the line of stats: 48 points at 18/33 to shoot, 9 rebounds, 7 assists.
The numbers, though thick, do not convey the visual impression left by the young Cavs winger. The Pistons, renowned for their defense, have been helpless against such prodigious talent.
“We have tried everything and tried everyone”, remembers Chauncey Billups for The Undefeated. “Tayshaun Prince was on him for a long time, then LeBron caught fire. Rip Hamilton wanted to take it, so LeBron caught fire. So I decided to go… I had to put pressure on her, try something else. He smoked me… We honestly tried everything, but with the great players, it happens. »
LeBron in the footsteps of Michael
The mark of the great player is printed when the adversary has no more solution, or rather when the player finds a solution to each challenge of the defense. This is how the great champions marked their time.
In our summary at the time, we wrote that LeBron James was now “in the very closed club of superstars. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and even Dwyane Wade last year (in the 2006 Finals) had those moments. Those moments when you become a star in your sport. Those moments when everything you touch turns to gold. »
The Pistons tried to contain him by taking him to two, blocking him on the baseline, changing defenders. Quietly and efficiently, LeBron James adapted.
“Nothing was easy, we put him on the ground. Really. And he got up, saying nothing. He kept doing his thing. I respect him. It’s probably the best performance against us.”admitted the leader of Detroit, MVP of the 2004 Finals.
Then commentator of the match, Steve Kerr, well placed to use this qualifier, could not retain the sacred word after an award-winning basket to equalize at 107 everywhere 1min15 from the end of the first overtime.
” It’s incredible. It’s Jordanesque. »
The testament of greatness
Indeed, how not to think of Michael Jordan when such a gifted kid scored 29 of his team’s last 30 points? In this meeting in double overtime, the winger is the only Cavalier to register a basket in the last 18 minutes of the match, for a total of 25 points in a row!
In the days that followed, American commentators debated whether to classify this match in the history of the greatest performances of all time. ESPN will talk about it as a performance that “will be talked about for years”, a “testament of greatness” similar to Reggie Miller and his 8 points in 9 seconds, the 63 points in Boston or Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game”, or still the 42 points in the Magic Finals in 1980.
LeBron James, he still has not decided.
“I haven’t established a ranking because I’m still playing”he explained before the last match at Palace a few years ago. “After that game, I was exhausted. I gave everything during this match, leaving everything on the floor. I had been in the zone before, making big stats, but I always kept winning in mind. »
More than fifteen years later and with the necessary hindsight and above all the matches, the titles, the records that LeBron James has achieved since then, we can estimate that our title at the time, “A Star Is Born”, was justified but that he left no one to imagine what was to await us in the following years. Finally, it is not a star who was born, this famous May 31, 2007, but it is much more than that: a myth.
