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started at center on Dec. 28, 2021
against the Houston Rockets.
For most forwards, that kind of
emergency assignment wouldn’t be
big news. But like the Soul Stone
missing from Thanos’s Infinity
Gauntlet, the No. 5 was the only
position on the court where James
had never started. A big contention
for the LeBronists (Jamesians?) in
the never-ending GOAT debate is
that Michael Jordan was merely a
shooting guard in his prime. James
can do it all—and now he has. In
his first game at center, he logged
a triple-double.
His listed positions in each of
his 19 seasons hint at his ever-
evolving game. He started as a
teenage shooting guard on the
Cavaliers in 2003–04. Then for
the next eight seasons, he was a
dominant 3. In 2011, James had
to fill in for Chris Bosh at power
forward. By the next year, Heat
coach Erik Spoelstra had realized
James was most dangerous as both
the team’s primary ballhandler and
a down-low threat.
“Shoot, if I knew LeBron was
going to play the 5 we probably
would have done that a decade
ago,” Spoelstra said this season.
James’s transformation,
however, also reflects a league-
wide de-emphasis on positioning
and trend toward smaller lineups.
If versatility is a prerequisite
Kevin Durant, who is a better
pure shooter and taller? Or
reigning champion Giannis
Antetokounmpo, maybe
the Bucks’ best passer and
someone who can dunk without
jumping? (That’s only a slight
exaggeration.)
There are many statistics that
track a player’s performance at
different positions. But here at
SI KIDS, we never default to a
mathematical solution when a
whimsical one will do. We’re not
asking, Who can play every position
the best? We’re asking, Who could
play every position the best...at
the same time? In a world of literal
franchise players, who wins the
NBA’s clone wars?Unfortunately the SI KIDS cloning
facilities have been temporarily
decommissioned following an
incident involving Buzz Beamer
and a small army of Phillie
Phanatics. Thankfully, the folks
at NBA 2K have stepped into the
breach. Using the “Player DNA”
option in the game’s create-a-
player feature, it’s possible to
make wholesale copies of existing
NBA stars. You can even give your
clones distinguishing accessories,
like a sleeve. (It helps keep track
of the evil one.)
To test LeBron’s all-around
game, I gave control of the
L.A. Kings (not those ones) to
the computer. My first strategy
to keep up with the Jameses wasI’m not giving you
kids my gamertag.
I’m having a
hard enough
time beating the
computer.