LeBron will take center stage in his first playoff series

	In just his third season, LeBron James has developed into a legitimate MVP candidate. John Biever/SI

LeBron James was sitting at his locker stall before a game last month when he was asked if he remembered having played pickup basketball as a high school kid against Michael Jordan during the former NBA legend's comeback camp in Chicago five years ago.

"Yeah," James said with a chuckle. "It was, uh, very ... intimidating."

Funny how much things can change in five years. These days James isn't afraid of anything. The 6-foot-8 Cavs forward is riding high, leading his team to the playoffs, where they haven't been since 1998, and making a late bid for MVP honors.

When the first round of the 2005-06 NBA playoffs tip off this weekend, James will take center stage like, perhaps, no player since Jordan. Forget the Pistons or the Spurs or the Heat or even the Clippers. For the first round at least, all eyes will be on "the King" as he makes his postseason debut in Cleveland.

Everybody will be anxious to see if James is ready to take the next step in his career. He already has won Rookie of the Year ('04) and All-Star Game MVP ('06). But until the 21-year-old phenom wins championships, he won't completely be in the class with the all-time greats such as Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

"LeBron James is an All-Star with enormous potential," NBA commissioner David Stern said last week. "I think it's good that he's now done well enough with respect to his team to get to the playoffs. That's a road you have to follow if you want to be considered among the great ones.

"The campaign last year about the Finals was 'Where legends are born,' and I think you could have said that for the playoffs. Clearly, in order to write yourself large in NBA history, you've got to be in the playoffs."

Will LeBron make a big splash in his postseason debut? Could he dazzle the nation the way Jordan did when he hung up a playoff-record 63 points in the Boston Garden exactly 20 years ago this week? Could he lead his team on a deep run like Magic and Larry did in 1980?

It's possible. As of Tuesday, the Cavs still don't know if they will face the Wizards, the Pacers, the Bucks or the Bulls in the first round. But they are hot right now, and LeBron just might be good enough to win a series on his own.

In the long run, however, it really doesn't matter.

Win or lose in this year's playoffs, he is already well on his way to joining Jordan, Bird, Magic and the all-time greats in some other areas.

James is about to become just the fourth player in NBA history (and the first since Jordan) to average 31 points, seven boards and six assists in a single season. But what really should open eyes is the way he picked up the Cavs and carried them down the stretch this season. James ran off nine straight games of 35 or more points, helping Cleveland win 11 of 12 games to secure the No. 4 seed in the East and home court advantage in the first round. On the night his streak ended, James had "only" 32 points and hit the game-winning jumper to knock out the Hornets in Oklahoma City.

That's the kind of thing Jordan, Bird and Magic did.