A decision — a loaded word when it comes to James — to move to an ill-prepared Lakers team in the off-season has changed the calculus altogether. The team was predicted by most to struggle to make the playoffs in the West thanks to its collection of too-young players and veterans who do not complement James. Nevertheless, many have labeled the year a disappointment by virtue of the team’s struggles despite having James, a player whose presence has seemingly guaranteed a finals appearance for close to a decade.

As a result, James and the people around him have not been able to take much joy in his accomplishments. Just last week he passed Andre Miller to move into 10th place in career assists, thus making him the only player currently in the top 10 in both career points and assists. That feat — it had been temporarily attained by only a handful of other players going back to the days of Bob Cousy — was met with a collective shrug.

It is a reality of James’s life that he acknowledged on Wednesday.

“I haven’t really appreciated anything I’ve been able to accomplish because I’m so engulfed in what’s next,” he said. “How I can continue to get better; how I can help this franchise get back to where it needs to be.”

An occasional season of missing the playoffs is not unusual for most players — even the great ones — but to capture how truly rare it would be for a James-led team, consider that he has played double-digit playoff games in each of the last 13 years. He has appeared in nine N.B.A. finals — winning three — and as a result his career rankings among playoff performers come off as outrageous, even for someone as accomplished as James.