Big Game James might be one of the last players we profile whose career began before the Rewritten Rings timeline. James Worthy entered the NBA in 1982, meaning that other than his rookie season, virtually his entire career was rewritten in our universe.
Worthy was selected first overall in the 1982 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, thanks to a trade with Cleveland in 1980 that sent the pick to Los Angeles. The Lakers were already the defending NBA champions, and the addition of the talented young forward gave Showtime another weapon.
As we know, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals in Worthy's rookie season, but Philadelphia got its revenge from the previous year's Finals by sweeping the defending champions.
In reality, Los Angeles would return to the Finals again in 1984, this time falling to Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. That part of Worthy's story remained the same in Rewritten Rings.
Then came 1985, and the first major change to Big Game James' career.
In reality, the Lakers would finally get their revenge against Boston, with Worthy playing a major role in the championship run. In our universe, that rematch never happened.
Instead, Adrian Dantley and the Utah Jazz pulled off the upset, eliminating the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and preventing the Celtics and Lakers from meeting for a second straight year.
Worthy and the Lakers would get their revenge the following season.
In 1986, Los Angeles swept the Celtics, giving Worthy his first championship. In reality, Worthy would win two more championships after the one in 85, beating Boston in 1987 and Detroit in 1988. But in the Rewritten Rings universe, neither of those championships would belong to the Lakers.
In 1987, the Philadelphia 76ers defeated Mark Aguirre and the Dallas Mavericks after becoming the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
The following year, the young Washington Bullets, led by John Stockton and Clyde Drexler, made history of their own by coming back from an 0-3 deficit to defeat Worthy and the Lakers and steal the championship from Los Angeles.
The Showtime Lakers would eventually return to the Finals with Worthy, but the next championship opportunity wouldn't come until 1990.
That season produced the final showdown between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on the biggest stage, but it was another Laker who stole the spotlight.
Terry Cummings had joined Los Angeles during the 1989 offseason, and his addition helped the Lakers return to the top of the NBA. Los Angeles captured its 10th championship, while Cummings earned Finals MVP honors.
Worthy had another opportunity to add a championship in 1993, when the Lakers returned to the Finals against David Robinson and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Just like the Bullets five years earlier, Cleveland found itself making its first Finals appearance against a Lakers team that had built a commanding series lead.
Los Angeles took a 3-1 lead, putting Worthy and the Lakers just one victory away from another championship.
But once again, the lead wasn't enough.
The Cavaliers stormed back to win three straight games and steal the championship from Los Angeles. Game 7 was particularly painful for the Lakers, as neither of their veteran stars could finish the game. Terry Cummings played just 15 minutes before suffering an injury, while Worthy fouled out after playing 24 minutes.
That would be the final Finals appearance of Worthy's career.
The following season, the Lakers finished with the best record in the Western Conference, but they entered the playoffs without Magic Johnson.
Without their legendary point guard, Los Angeles was vulnerable, and Ralph Sampson and the Houston Rockets took advantage, pulling off the first-round upset.
Then, for the first time in his career, Worthy missed the playoffs entirely.
After spending his entire career with the Lakers, Worthy signed with the Phoenix Suns in the 1995 off-season. Even with the veteran forward joining the team, Phoenix missed the playoffs again, giving Worthy back-to-back seasons without postseason basketball.
Then came 1997, and Big Game James found himself on the other side of one of the biggest upsets of his career.
The Suns entered the playoffs as the eighth seed and faced the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics. Phoenix pulled off the upset, making the Suns fifth team in Rewritten Rings history to accomplish that.
Ironically the last time Worthy was in the playoffs, he had been on the wrong side of a 1-versus-8 upset.
The Suns weren't finished.
Phoenix continued its improbable run by defeating the former champion Los Angeles Clippers in the Conference Semifinals. By doing so, the eighth-seeded Suns made even more history, becoming the first eighth seed to reach the Conference Finals.
Waiting for them were Isiah Thomas and the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland ended Phoenix's magical run, but Worthy had once again helped create a piece of NBA history.
It would also be his final playoff run.
Worthy wasn't quite finished, though.
In 1999, the Boston Celtics signed the veteran forward. By this point, Worthy was at the end of the bench, but his experience and championship pedigree gave Boston another veteran presence during its own championship pursuit.
And it worked.
The Celtics captured title number 17, and Worthy retired at the end of the championship season.
When Big Game James finally walked away, his career looked very different from the one we remember in real life. He still finished with three NBA championships, matching his real-life total, but his championships came in very different circumstances. He never won a Finals MVP in Rewritten Rings, despite earning the award in reality during the 1988 Finals.
His individual résumé was actually stronger in our universe. Worthy became a nine-time All-Star, compared to seven selections in real life. In fact, he was still making All-Star teams after his real-life career had ended, earning his ninth selection in 1996, two years after he retired in reality.
Worthy also played six more seasons in the Rewritten Rings universe, extending his career all the way through 2000. His longevity allowed him to become part of playoff history long after his Showtime days were over, from the Suns' historic eighth-seed run to his final championship with Boston.
Like in reality, James Worthy is a Hall of Famer, and the Lakers retired his iconic #42.
But his Rewritten Rings legacy is more complicated than the one we know.
In reality, Big Game James is remembered as the perfect complement to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a three-time champion who delivered one of the greatest Finals performances of his era.
In our universe, Worthy spent much more of his career fighting to keep the Lakers on top as the NBA around them changed. He watched Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington, Cleveland, Houston, and others take turns challenging Showtime.
He still won three championships.
He still became a Hall of Famer.
But Big Game James' biggest accomplishment in Rewritten Rings may have been simply lasting long enough to see an entirely different NBA—and finding ways to make history long after the Showtime era had ended.
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