He didn't play like the best player this past year, so... there's that.
Yes he did. Guys LBJ's age aren't usually as motivated to win regular season MVP as a younger or less experienced guy such as KD or Curry is. When it was game time (the playoffs, and particularly the Finals) LeBron showed that he was still far and away the best player. It's not really close. Put LBJ on the Pelicans in place of Anthony Davis (at worst the 3rd best player in the league) and the Finals would at least go to 7.
You mean, the Anthony Davis that averaged 31 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks? All at 54% shooting with a 61% TS? All of this is in his first playoff series? While LeBron averaged 42% from the floor on with a 48.7% TS?
Now there's no doubt in my mind that LeBron can do more with less than anyone in the league mainly because he can assume many roles on a team particularly because of ball-handling duties. Pelicans weren't a team that was particularly deficient on that regard.
But if you're going to draw me a comparison between LeBron vs. Davis this year, it's Davis and easily.
Sadly, LeBron's worth is left in a hypothetical... if only he had the help he needed...well he didn't have it and his scoring was a let down.
Well, you know who else had a very poor supporting cast? Dwayne Wade in 2010. What a terrible team he had, yet he managed to go for 56% FG, 65% TS 33 points per game against our very own Boston Celtics.
LeBron did a lot for his team, but he really has no excuse for his inefficient performance particularly with all the strides he's made in the past few years with his shot AND when even with his poor teammates (he had Kyrie through most of the playoffs even so, and Thompson playing very well, as well as Mozgov), he was playing against single coverage through pretty much the full playoffs from all that I could see.
All this to say, that LeBron should be the best player... I think he fell short last season.
He's in the West with a poor supporting cast, he doesn't make it past the first round and this discussion wouldn't be happening.
Heck, look at what Blake Griffin (and I dislike him) did during the playoffs with a severely depleted Clippers team. That was impressive.
This is another thing that gets me... you realize that LeBron was taller than everyone in the Golden State starting line-up? I mean Cleveland had the biggest 3 players on the floor to start the game. And the way Thompson and Mozgov have played in the playoffs, the lack of usage they got is something to ponder...