In Boston, LeBron James Is Reminded a Career Is Not All Glory

About two months later, James emerged from a luxurious automobile on the Boys & Women Membership of Greenwich, Conn., to announce in a televised particular that he was becoming a member of the Miami Warmth as a free agent.

The brand new-look Warmth proceeded to eradicate the Celtics from the playoffs in 2011 and once more in 2012, after a seven-game scrap within the convention finals. That yr, the Celtics had been really house for Recreation 6 with an opportunity to clinch the collection. Earlier than the sport, Doc Rivers, who was then the Celtics’ coach, instructed his gamers to drive James to shoot from the skin. They heeded his message.

“The best way he was scoring, when you go by a scouting report, was the way in which we needed him to attain,” Rivers, now the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, mentioned in an interview. “Like, if he needed to rating, it needed to be from the skin. It needed to be with the 3-ball. We didn’t really feel like he might beat us with that. And he did.”

James prolonged the collection by accumulating 45 factors, 15 rebounds and 5 assists in a lopsided win. He shot 19 of 26 from the sphere and a couple of of 4 from 3-point vary.

“That,” Rivers mentioned, “was the second LeBron grew to become a champion.”

The Warmth went on to win Recreation 7, after which defeated the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder within the N.B.A. finals as James gained the primary of his 4 championships.

As for roughing up the Celtics, it appeared to change into one among James’s favourite pastimes. Throughout his second stint with the Cavaliers, he helped oust the Celtics from the postseason all 3 times he performed them.

So maybe there was some reduction in Boston when James decamped for Los Angeles earlier than the beginning of the 2018-19 season, because it meant the Celtics would see him much less typically. But it surely additionally appeared becoming that he signed with the Lakers, whose rivalry with the Celtics is sort of as outdated because the league itself.

On Saturday, Celtics followers confirmed up in “Beat L.A.” shirts and jeered each time James touched the ball, which was actually simply their manner of honoring him. The sport itself was basketball as theater, similar as ever, all the way in which to the bitter finish.

Sopan Deb contributed reporting.