LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — This week, LeBron James will play in his 10th NBA Finals, a statistic that is both mind-boggling and insufficient, like saying Claude Monet created more than 2,000 paintings or Agatha Christie wrote at least 78 books. James has been the best player on all 10 of those Finals teams. He has made it to the Finals for five head coaches, four of whom never even made the playoffs without him. But maybe the stat that we should sip and swirl around our mouths, like a glass of fine wine, is this one:
When the ball is tipped in Game 1, 28 players will have started alongside LeBron James in the NBA Finals.