When it comes to the NBA's all-time greats, LeBron James can already lay claim to being better than many legends in one particular category.
An ESPN report points out that King James has a higher winning percentage (36-7 for .837) through the first round of the NBA playoffs than Tim Duncan (55-24), Kobe Bryant (50-24), Shaquille O'Neal (45-23) and yes, even Michael Jordan (31-15).
In fact, James's first-round winning percentage is better than any player dating back to 1984, since the league's expansion of the postseason to fit 16 teams. That should bode well with Bron's second-seeded Cavs set to tip off their first-round series with the No. 7 Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
While the statistic is unique, James trails every one of the aforementioned superstars in the NBA championship total. One's got to think that the likes of Jordan and Bryant would laugh off James owning a better first-round winning percentage, while counting their rings — all 11 of them. Hey, but the numbers are what they are, and LeBron sounds ready to dominate yet another opening round of the playoffs.
"It's a totally different mindset," James told ESPN, comparing the postseason to regular season. "There's so many games in the regular season, you can't give all your time to just one opponent because you can have four in five nights ... But in the postseason, you have at least four times that you're going to see that opponent. At this point, there's not many different sets that you're going to see. You're going to see the same personnel. So I'm able to lock in."
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