A sports columnist is a very peculiar type of person.  Our peculiarity lies in our inability, at times, to admit defeat.

In our writing we make claims as to who will win, arrogantly claiming exactly why Team X is superior to Team Y.

But when team Y comes out of the gate and absolutely mops the floor with team X’s baby-faced assassin and his crew we sometimes are not so hasty to admit our follies.
Now after Lebron James, who stands as one of my least favorite players of all-time, did the improbable in this year’s Finals it would have been so easy for me to take the low road.

I could talk about how badly the aforementioned baby-faced assassin played for almost the entire seven games.
I could talk about how the series would have been over had Draymond Green not been suspended for Game 5.

I could even take the route that most people seem to have adopted and insist that this entire series was rigged by the Illuminati or some other group of big-wigs secretly pulling the strings.

But I will not because first and foremost I consider myself a fan of the game to my core. I acknowledge that true greatness on the court is hard to find and that once found it should be appreciated and heralded.

Regardless of  Stephen Curry’s horrid play, Draymond’s relentless cup checks, or how many people think Jay-Z or some other rich guy bought Lebron this championship, the fact is he TOOK it from the Warriors.

Not only did he lead both teams in every statistical category worth mentioning — points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks — according to espn.com, but he came back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
According to bleacherreport.com his final stat line was an absurdly dominant 29.7 points, 8.9 assists, 11.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game.

If that was not enough he did so against the best team in the league, a team that had just toppled Michael Jordan and the 95-96 Bulls’ record for most wins all-time.
The same team that one series before had managed to claw its way out of a 3-1 hole. Lebron beat history with history! What better way is there to affirm greatness than that?

How about joining all-time scoring leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to win Finals MVP with two separate teams (NBA on ESPN).

Some may argue that point-guard Kyrie Irving deserved the award, especially after the clutch shot he sunk over Curry in the fourth quarter but it goes without saying that King James carried the Cavaliers to the promised land.

I may never be a Lebron fan,  I may never purchase his number 23 jersey or rock a pair of his sneakers, but I also will never forget what this man accomplished in these 2016 NBA Finals.
At this point he has nothing else to prove to me or anyone else in the sports world. I mean, if lifting a 52-year-old curse to bring your city a title is not enough to cement one’s legacy, then I do not know what is.

Anthony McDougle is sports editor of The Daily Leader. Contact him at anthony.mcdougle@dailyleader.com