LeBron James reached the Finals from the weaker conference nine times. That's more than any other player in NBA history

The No. 1 player in our all-time historical ranking, LeBron James, receives a ton of credit from fans for reaching the NBA Finals 10 times, something only three other players have accomplished, and even more credit for the eight-year stretch in which he made eight consecutive trips to the championship series, an unfathomable feat when you really think about it. Hall-of-Fame big man Bill Russell did make 10 straight Finals appearances, but he did so in a league with just eight to 10 teams in it. For a player in the modern era to repeat what James accomplished with the eight straight Finals trips is almost certainly not going to happen.

And full credit to James, but we did some research recently and found an interesting pattern in his different paths to the Finals: the Chosen One reached the championship series from the weaker conference nine times out of 10. That's more than any other player in NBA history, by the way, and it means that James reached the Finals out of the stronger conference once in his entire career.

That took place in 2019-20, when James made the championship series playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. (James catches flak for winning that championship in the Bubble during the height of COVID-19, but Los Angeles was a strong team that entire season, finishing the regular season 52-19, first in the West, and with the league's fifth-best net rating at +5.6).

Oct 11, 2020; Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) smiles while holding the MVP and Finals trophies after game six of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena. The Los Angeles Lakers won 106-93 to win the series. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

No player in our dataset has a wider gap between weak-conference Finals appearances and strong-conference ones than James does. However, he does have some company here, as another Los Angeles Lakers all-timer, Magic Johnson, reached nine NBA Finals in his career, and he came out of the weaker conference for eight of those championship series appearances, mirroring James' career almost to a T in this regard. (It may seem shocking now, considering recent years of Western Conference dominance, but the West used to be weaker than the East back in the '80s.)

The aforementioned Russell, on the other hand, is the antithesis of James in this overall respect, as the Boston Celtics legend reached 12 NBA Finals in his career, and he had to come out of the stronger conference for all of them. That's why so many herald Russell as the greatest winner in league history; not only did he win 11 rings, but he had pretty much the most difficult path possible to even attain all of those Finals appearances.

Of course, everyone is going to wonder how James' chief combatant in the GOAT debate, Michael Jordan, fares here. Well, His Airness reached the Finals coming out of the weaker conference just twice out of his six Finals appearances, meaning he had to come out of the stronger conference four times. Overall, for his career, Jordan played in the stronger of the two conferences nine times in his 15 seasons. For comparison, James has played in the stronger conference just six times in his 23-year career so far.

Meanwhile, the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reached 10 NBA Finals in his career, winning six championships out of 10 chances. For eight of those 10 Finals appearances, though, Abdul-Jabbar came out of the weaker conference.

And finally, an underrated player historically, Dirk Nowitzki, not only had one of the toughest paths ever to a championship when he won his ring in 2011-12, but he also had a tough go of things in his career, as Nowitzki is the player with the most seasons playing in the better conference in league history at 19. That, coupled with the lack of All-Star help he received in his career (Nowitzki is one of just 14 players ever to win a title without an All-Star teammate), really puts the big German's career into perspective.

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: LeBron James reached the Finals from the weaker conference nine times. That's more than any other player in NBA history