Lakers: LeBron James vs Andre Iguodala – The challenge of the ancients

The NBA Finals 2020 features the struggle between two very familiar opponents on the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the NBA Finals for the first time in 10 years and the matchup includes two ancient basketball beings.

“We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I beat you I was but a champion, now I am the GOAT.”

We could imagine the meeting between LeBron James and Andre Iguodala in the upcoming NBA Finals to begin this way. The two players will finally face one another after a year of hiatus.

This is the clash of two old, sage veterans who have been champions and Finals MVP, two of the best example of longevity in the NBA. But they are the representatives, much like the light and the dark side, of two diametrically opposed kinds of player.

The superstar, with the burden to drag his team to the final prize with exceptional performances, and the ultimate role player, the one willing to sacrifice his minutes and production to give the team whatever necessary to get to the end, whether it is filling the stat sheet or with defense, intangibles and leadership.

These two represent the top sports and medical science are able to accomplish today in terms of extending the career and performances of professional athletes. At 35 and 36 years old they still look in unbelievable tip-top shape, taking care of their bodies with maniacal attention.

They are going to meet for the fifth time in the last six years. Both have won on each other and been Finals MVP. This really is some kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi-Darth Vader meeting. Two old, sage adversaries, once teammates on the 2012 Olympic Team, who meet again after a (not so) long time, to battle for the conquest of the fourth championship.

Even their path to the current situation has been the same and the opposite. Iguodala, traded by the Golden State Warriors to the Memphis Grizzlies, sat down most of the season while they were searching a suitable trade. Until he finally joined the Miami Heat, giving them an injection of veteran championship experience, and reaching the finals with a new team.

LeBron, on his side, joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent last year but was forced to sit down a long stretch of the past season by a groin injury. This year he came back on a mission, with a reshaped roster, and got to the finals with a different team from the previous appearances.

Iggy has provided the newly assembled Heat a stabilizing presence, providing leadership and his usual overall production in limited playing time. His contribution has been much more spiritual than statistical, but that does not mean less fundamental for Miami in order to get where they are today.

There is no comparison between James’s and Iguodala’s numbers. The Chose One has ranked second place in MVP voting this year, and a constant triple-double flirter in the playoffs. The former Warrior has scored in double figures just once during the current postseason. But their roles have been equally crucial for their teams.

Without LeBron, the Lakers would have never been a contender. Without Andre, Miami would have never found the cohesiveness and relentlessness to get past all their opponents in the playoffs.

Both experienced long and successful careers and now this might be the climax of this geriatric rivalry they have built through the years. This is possibly their last meeting in the finals, but their competition could eventually end up in trying to establish who will last more in the league, surviving through the eras, the playing-styles and the superteams.

“In the end, there can be only one.”