LeBron James' effort in Finals is one for the ages

I AM NOT completely sure in what context to put LeBron James' efforts in the 2015 NBA Finals.

I have been courtside when Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki were spectacular, while leading their teams to NBA championships.

I watched Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone and Hakeen Olajuwon dominate in the Finals.

I have never seen anything like what James has done with the Cleveland Cavaliers through the first three games of this series against the Golden State Warriors.

He has the Cavs halfway home to the franchise's first NBA title and the city's first major championship of any kind in more than a half century.

If James pulls this off, it will be the greatest individual accomplishment in the Finals history.

No player has done so much with so flawed a team around him. The best player on the planet has shown a desire and determination that has lifted Cleveland to a level of play far beyond the sum of its parts.

Many great players talk about leading their team and setting an example for their teammates. James himself has said that many times.

No NBA player has done it in the Finals, not even James, the way the 2015 version of LeBron has done it.

This is not simply about the numbers.

Those are important, because if James had not scored 123 points (the most ever through the first three games of a Finals), with 36 rebounds and 25 assists, the Golden State Warriors, not the Cavaliers, would be in position to put a stranglehold on this series tonight in Game 4 in Cleveland.

Adding his point and assist totals, James has contributed to more than 60 percent of the Cavaliers' scoring.

Still, this is about James doing every single thing he needs to do as the best player, while simultaneously convincing his teammates that, for at least one all-important series, they can play at a level far beyond any they have played, and might never again play, in their NBA careers.

As great as Jordan, Johnson, Bird, O'Neal and Duncan were, they had Hall of Fame players on the court with them.

Since Kyrie Irving went down with a season-ending knee injury in Game 1 of the Finals, James has not had an above-average NBA player on the court with him.

In fact, big men Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson might be the only legitimate starters playing alongside James, and that's primarily because they are big.

The truth is that James has the Cavaliers two wins away from an NBA championship while playing with a bunch of rotation players.

He's Batman with no Robin and no Batmobile - just a bunch of Batarangs.

Yet guys such as Mozgov, Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and James Jones are following James' lead and making herculean efforts.

Oh, and he is doing this with a first-year coach in David Platt, who came in with no NBA experience as a coach or player. Not to belittle Blatt's basketball knowledge, because he played at Princeton for Hall of Fame coach Pete Carrill and played and coached in the Israel and the EuroLeague, but the best thing he has done as Cleveland's coach has been to swallow his pride and get out of James' way.

I'm not surprised the Cavaliers are in the Finals. Before the season, I picked them to win the title, but that was when the lineup included Irving and All-Star forward Kevin Love.

Love went out with a season-ending shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs.

Certainly, Golden State is not an all-time great team. I can think of at least a dozen past teams that would polish off the Warriors in the Finals. They did, however, win an NBA-high 67 games this season, with MVP Stephen Curry and his All-Star backcourt mate Klay Thompson, along with the lottery picks in their rotation, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala.

The Warriors are flawed, but without Irving and Love, James is working with a cast that isn't much better than what the Sixers put on the court during their 64-loss season.

It simple to understand what Golden State must do - just contain, not stop, LeBron James - but he will not let them.

"I'm so outside the box right now," James said. "I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to help our team win. It's the Finals, and it's whatever it takes."

This is not about the debate for the Greatest of All-Time. I have already cast my ballot for Jordan.

James, however, is halfway to his third NBA title, and if he gets it with this Cleveland Cavaliers team, he will have pulled off a feat that no one can match.

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood