First off this is not meant to be a knock on Lebron. Personally I have Lebron as the best Forward ever and easily Top 5 all Time for non-Centers.

The purpose of this post is to give some color to Lebron's 7th Straight trip to the Finals. I will be comparing Lebron's path to Elite Stars in the West. My Thesis is that Lebron has faced very few ELITE level players in his path to the Finals. For this exercise I defined ELITE level players as 1st or 2nd TEAM ALL NBA in the year they faced Lebron. So how many 1st/2nd TEAM ALL NBA players has Lebron faced in the Eastern Conference the last SEVEN years?

2011 - Rose (1st Team)

2012 - NONE

2013 - NONE

2014 - NONE

2015 - Pau Gasol (2nd Team ALL NBA)

2016 - NONE

2017 - Isaiah Thomas ( 2nd Team ALL NBA) **Injured

So in summary Lebron has faced ONE 1st TEAM ALL NBA players in the East the last 7 years. I was absolutely shocked at this. He has faced a grand total of two 2nd TEAM players. Pau Gasol was 2nd TEAM ALL NBA, but it was common knowledge that Blake Griffin was much better that year. But Blake only played 67 games so the writers gave it Gasol. I contend that Gasol was not an ELITE player in 2015, but who knows. And we all know Isaiah was injured this year. So basically Lebron played 2 ALL NBA players in 7 years in the EAST. But without context this data is amusing but rather useless. So how many ELITE players did the West guys Play?

Kevin Durant

2011 - Dirk (2)

2012 - Kobe (1), Bynum(2), Parker (2)

2013 - Marc Gasol (2)

2014 - Parker (2), Griffin (2), Paul (1) 2015 - Injured

2016 - Draymond(2), Curry(1), Kawhi (1)

2017 - Gobert(2), Kawhi(1) - injured

Westbrook

2011 - Dirk (2)

2012 - Kobe (1), Bynum(2), Parker (2)

2013 - Marc Gasol (2)

2014 - Parker (2), Griffin (2), Paul (1)

2015 - Missed playoffs, KD injury

2016 - Draymond(2), Curry(1), Kawhi (1)

2017 - Harden (1)

Kawhi

2011 - In College

2012 - KD(1), Russ(2), Paul (1), Griffin (2)

2013 - Gasol (2)

2014 - KD (1)

2015 - CP3 (2)

2016 - Russ (1), KD (2)

2017 - KD(2), Curry (1)

Harden

2011 - Dirk (2)

2012 - Kobe (1), Bynum(2), Parker (2)

2013 - KD(1), Russ (2)

2014 - none

2015 - Curry (1), CP3 (2)

2016 - Draymond(2), Curry(1)

2017 - Russ (1), Kawhi (1)

Curry

2011 - None

2012 - None

2013 - Duncan(1), Parker (2)

2014 - CP3 (1), Griffin (2)

2015 - Harden (1), Gasol (1), Davis (1)

2016 - Russ (1), KD (2), Lillard (2)

2017 - Kawhi (1) Injured

SUMMARY (removing injured players: Kawhi/Thomas 2017)

Lebron : First TEAM (1), Second TEAM (1), Total = 2

Durant : First TEAM (4), Second TEAM (8), Total = 12

Westbrook : First TEAM (5), Second TEAM (7), Total = 12

Kawhi : First TEAM (6), Second TEAM (6), Total = 12 (was in college 2011)

Harden : First TEAM (6), Second TEAM (6), Total = 12

Curry : First TEAM (6), Second TEAM (5), Total = 11

I've always known that Lebron has had easier paths in general to get to the Finals. But this data is truly shocking. Lebron in the last 7 years only had to beat a single 1st TEAM ALL NBA player in the East to make the Finals. And only one 2nd TEAM ALL NBA player, who really didn't deserve it (got it because Griffin missed 20+ games). While guys like Durant, Westbrook, and Kawhi had to face a DOZEN 1st/2nd TEAM ALL NBA players. The difference is SHOCKING and cannot be ignored.