5 reasons why the East has been worse than the West since 1998

#1. LeBron James

Lebron James is still dominating in his 15th NBA season

Since the day he burst into the NBA out of Akron's St. Vincent/St Mary's High School, LeBron James has been one of the most dominant athletes to have played any sport. He has been remarkably consistent and injury free throughout his career. Mind you, consistent over here stands for 'consistently at the top'.

He has won 4 MVP awards and has been in the conversation every year. He is the only non-60s era Boston Celtics player to have made it to seven straight NBA Finals. Aside from the seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers in 2012, he has made his march to the Finals look like a cakewalk. Every year, the team which features LeBron James in the East is the prohibitive favorite to reach the NBA Finals.

Regular season records notwithstanding, LeBron James has eaten teams up during the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The 60 win Atlanta Hawks team featuring 4 All-Stars in 2015, were swept 4-0 by the Cleveland Cavaliers while Lebron James averaged a triple-double. Even in the 2017 playoffs, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers only lost one game on their way to the NBA Finals.

Such extreme dominance of the other Eastern Conference teams has made the East look even worse than it actually is. It has also propelled the argument that LeBron James has just feasted on abysmal competition throughout his career. Now, there is no denying the fact that the East has objectively been worse than the West for some time now. Between 2000 and 2017, twelve Eastern Conference teams have made the playoffs with a losing record.

Within the same time frame, the number of Western Conference teams that have made the playoffs with a losing record, is zero. In the 2013-14 NBA season, the Phoenix Suns won 48 games and missed the playoffs in the West while the Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs by winning just 38 games in the East.

However, if you see the 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors, they swept through the Western Conference Playoffs with ease. They dominated the teams that they faced and went 12-0 to the NBA Finals. This doesn't mean that teams like the San Antonio Spurs aren't great. This just shows that if teams or players possess an extremely high level of talent, they can make their competition look much worse than it is.

Yes, the Eastern Conference is worse than the Western Conference, but LeBron James' other-worldly talent and abilities make the other teams look much worse. He is so much better than the other players that his impact on the Eastern Conference Playoffs dwarves the impact of other teams. In any other era, these teams wouldn't be so bad, in the LeBron James era, they look dreadful.