After years of playoff challenges made of provocations, clashes and streaks (with James always winning, at least on the floor), LeBron and Lance will wear the same jersey and attend the same dressing room: "If you can't beat him, join him" Stephenson thought

LeBron James against Lance Stephenson was often one of the most unlikely rivalries that the NBA of the last decade has told, in which the winner eventually was always the same. The most obvious to predict. On the one hand, in fact, there was the most long-lived and brightest talent of the last 15 years, one of the greatest players in NBA history who continues to grind records, awards, and achievements. On the other hand one of the most irritating, crazy and unmanageable players of the League, one of those who places a super stubble in defensive recovery and begins to rejoice, without worrying then that the opponent meanwhile has picked up the ball again and scored an easy lay-up behind him.

Stephenson's goal has always been a different one, going far beyond the mere result: the no-look assist is already worth the ticket price, much more than a possible conversion to the basket by his companion. Lance has been called to carry out this task since 2010 when from mid-April onwards he was often and willingly called to take on the role of the anti-star as if it weren't already in his nature such a role. Stephenson has embodied the redeeming of all the haters, of those who have misdigested James in recent years and who in every crash of the former Pacers player have seen the gesture of challenge that they themselves would have liked to move towards LeBron. The dream of many has always been that David could put Goliath to the test. But Stephenson has never managed to throw him out of the playoffs, despite repeated attempts and psychological and media battles won. No, in the end, the best choice was to take part in the court of the King. In Los Angeles, at the foot of Hollywood Hill where anything is possible, they are ready to tell this umpteenth side of the story. However, we must not forget all the previous episodes.

The "limelight" of 2012: the provocation from the bench in Match 3

A rivalry that seems to go back to the mists of time and that saw for the first time the honors of the Stephenson chronicles in the far May 17, 2012; series of Conference semifinals between the then Miami Heat by James and the Pacers in which the New Yorker played a marginal role. Lances in fact, in that strip of six races that led then to the success in the comeback of the Florida team, remained on the floor only seven minutes in total. Sufficient, however, to be noticed by LeBron while the No. 6 of Heat was in the bezel. Stephenson, standing in front of the Pacers bench, began to provoke James while performing a free shot, at the end of the third quarter of a match that was looking very good for the Pacers who seemed in control of the series. After that ko, James and Wade were forced to give their best, then launching the sprint to the first career title won by LeBron. 

At that moment, however, the situation for the former Cavaliers player was very black and Stephenson decided to seize the opportunity: Lance repeatedly mimed the gesture of suffocation, in a movement promptly captured by the cameras. The match ended 95-74 in favor of Indiana, with the team returning to the locker room having to shield Stephenson to avoid the wrath of the various Juwan Howard, Udonis Haslem, and Chris Andersen, ready to jump on him and settle the accounts in their own way (as told later by Danny Granger). That, however, was only the appetizer of what happened 24 months later, when Stephenson had become a landmark of those Pacers, called to the last great challenge against the King's Miami Heat. LeBron went to the Finals as usual, but Lance did everything he could to blow up his plans and nerves.

The historic series (from Lance's point of view) of 2014

25 May 2014, game-4. The Pacers, aware of playing one of the last opportunities available to them (that roster then began to lose inexorably valuable pieces in the years to come), are under 2-1 in the series and Stephenson then decides to raise the tension 24 hours from the most important challenge of his career: "Quiet, the series is about to change after LeBron has done trash talking with me: it is a clear sign of weakness, since he usually does not behave like that. I usually always try to put my opponent on the line by telling him that I'm going to get him under my skin, that I'm going to get him out of my head. And now he tries to fight me with my own weapons: this means that it's me who's doing things the right way, that's making him go crazy. These were the words chosen before the delicate challenge, which Stephenson then closed with nine points against 32, ten rebounds and five assists from LeBron. No, it did not work. That's why, four days after, Lance decided to raise, delivering to the world one of the most used GIFs in the history of the web. With a minute and 43 seconds still to play in the third quarter, Lance near James in marking decides to blow in his ear, making the King smile with amazement and sublimating in a gesture of a few moments his innate ability to be irritating and annoying on a basketball field. James at the end of that game answered those who asked him if he had ever been before: "Blow me in the ear? Well, maybe my wife. I do this often with her. Every now and then it's a tactic I use to defend myself. A few years later Stephenson said he thought that this could be the last technique to try to frustrate (in vain) James, who brought home the fourth success in the series and once again the scalp of the Pacers.

The LeBron and Lance disputes of recent years, until yesterday

After its explosion in 2014, Stephenson refused a 44 million in five years contract from the Pacers to accept 27 in three seasons offered by the Hornets. From that moment on, a long lap began between the NBA teams that led him first to the Clippers, then bounced back to the Grizzlies and finally to the Pelicans, who left him free in February 2017. A player useful to many teams at the time, including the Cavaliers who thought of him: "I just want to win - said James, dodging the speculations of those who imagined him in the team with Lance - this is the only thing that matters. I have no personal problems with anyone. Well, in the end Stephenson returned once again to the Pacers and did not miss an opportunity to challenge his eternal rival: a prohibited shot on November 1, 2017, pecking a flagrant foul for his behavior clearly beyond the allowed, in addition to the streaks of January of this year, at the end of which James pointed out:"Lance is a dirty player, for him talks history and I'm the first one who should remember it". The last reminder then arrived at the playoffs, in the first hard-fought series won by the Cavaliers only after seven matches. A worn out LeBron even responded with a push to move him away, getting a technical foul on his way to the bench for a timeout. From next year, however, they will go down that road together, both in the same direction. A paradox until yesterday, gone almost unnoticed in the day that has rewritten the hierarchies and balances of the league. "There are no accounts outstanding between the two", they emphasized rumors filtered by the same LeBron: starting tomorrow the eternal rivals will think about how to make peace.