CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James is well practiced in the art of deflecting questions about his legacy.

Each time he leapfrogs another NBA great on the scoring list, after every never-been-done-before comeback in the Finals or hoisting of the Larry O'Brien Trophy, James reflexively says he hasn't given much thought to all that he's accomplished.

When he retires, James likes to say, he's going to sit back with his longtime friend and business partner Maverick Carter, uncork a bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet (a bottle from 2012, the year of James' first championship, costs about $700) and reflect on what is already one of the league's greatest careers.

But there is one way in which James has impacted the league so greatly, so obviously, that even he can't pretend to ignore it:

When the 2016-17 season opens in Cleveland on Tuesday, and Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah are wearing Knicks jerseys, he'll see one example of the wreckage he has caused across the NBA over the past six seasons.

While James has taken a team to the Finals each year, other franchises have built, torn down, and rebuilt themselves to try and stop him. And they've failed.

"I know teams switch and pick up new coaches or new players, and their whole goal is kind of they want to beat me," James told cleveland.com, in a candid discussion about the upcoming year and his place in the sport at age 31, in this his 14th season. "It's never just about me, but I always hear them saying, 'We gotta beat LeBron.' It's not just me on the court, but I understand that teams get together in this conference and across the league to try to beat me."

Michael Jordan reacts after hitting the game winning basket over Cleveland's Craig Ehlo in Game 5 of the NBA playoffs May 7, 1989.

LeBron vs. MJ

It's true, in Cleveland, James has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, who both played huge roles in pushing the Cavs to their first championship in June. And in Miami, he paired himself with perennial All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

But as soon as James left Cleveland or Miami over the last six years, the franchise spiraled downward. And when he returned to the Cavs, they were instantly great again.

With three titles, four MVPs and six consecutive Finals appearances to his name (seven total), James now talks openly of chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan.

Jordan's not dead, of course. He's alive and owns the Charlotte Hornets. He's also a six-time champion and five-time MVP whom many consider the greatest to ever play.

But not even Jordan went on a run like this. His Bulls teams reached and won the Finals from 1991-93, and again from 1996-98. In between, though, he took a year off to play baseball and when he returned, toward the end of the 1995 campaign, Chicago was eliminated in the conference semifinals.

There is no "in between" with James. His six consecutive Finals hasn't been done since Bill Russell's Celtics teams in the 1960s.

And most, if not all of the seismic shifts among other NBA franchises can be traced back to James' run. It's a trail of broken teams not even Jordan could claim.

"I don't know, I mean, if that's a story you want to tell and write, that's cool," James said. "I'm just, listen, I want to make a point in this league where guys look back at the run that I had and be like, 'Wow, what he was able to do was some good times, some good ball, and what he was able to accomplish was either something we've never seen before, or was one of a kind.'"

Atlanta Hawks' Thabo Sefolosha, from left, Paul Millsap and Al Horford react as Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, Kevin Love and head coach Tyronn Lue celebrate a 100-99 victory to sweep the series on Sunday, May 8, 2016, at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Winds of change

Consider the major changes across the NBA since James and the Cavs finished off their improbable comeback from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Warriors in the Finals:

* There's Rose and Noah, gone from the Bulls. Their old coach, Tom Thibodeau, is working the sidelines in Minnesota now. James eliminated the Bulls from the playoffs three times over the last six seasons; four if you count 2010, before James left Cleveland for Miami.

* Frank Vogel is coaching the Orlando Magic, not the Indiana Pacers. James' Heat teams booted the Pacers from the playoffs every year from 2012-14: twice in the conference finals, and once when Indiana was the No. 1 seed.

* Al Horford is a Celtic; Jeff Teague a Pacer. Both used to be Hawks. They were 0-8 against James and the Cavs in the 2015 and 2016 playoffs, and were the East's top seed when Cleveland sent them packing from the conference finals in 2015.

* Also, Kevin Durant is a Warrior now. True, Golden State is in the West, as is Durant's old team, the Thunder. They can't do anything to stop James' dominance in the East, but the Warriors - with Durant, and Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green - are built to string together championships, to stomp out James' rule over the NBA and keep him from stockpiling titles in Cleveland.

Only, that was the Warriors' plan before Durant joined them. James had other ideas. He still does.

"I think every team is put together for one reason and one reason only, and that's to try and win a championship," he said. "That's what Golden State wants to do. For me, I'm the same way. I don't like being stagnant, and we've got great guys in here, but I want to continue to get better in this league each and every year and have the opportunity to win a championship. That's what it comes down to."

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James reacts to the crowd during the second half of Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors in the NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals, Friday, May 27, 2016, in Toronto.

More than money

For the first time since he returned to Cleveland, James signed a multiyear deal last summer worth $100 million over three years. The first two seasons are guaranteed.

The structure of James' contracts is first and foremost about maximizing his earning potential. But, secondarily, James wanted to keep Cleveland's front office on its toes, ensuring that general manager David Griffin and owner Dan Gilbert (with his wallet) are always trying to improve the team around him so that the Cavs remain a perennial contender.

When the Cavs signed J.R. Smith to a four-year, $57 million contract on Oct. 22, it meant the team's core of Smith, James, Irving, Love, and Tristan Thompson was under contract for the next 2-4 seasons.

James is happy about that, but the moment this team becomes stale, or is shown to not be good enough to beat the latest Warriors iteration, James will want the Cavs' front office to react. It's why he said, "I don't like being stagnant."

You see, James has been on the other side of this equation, the victim of a superteam. It's true that he, Wade, and Bosh plotted for years to join forces as free agents in the summer of 2010, but at that time it was also clear to James he couldn't beat the Boston Celtics with his team in Cleveland.

The Celtics, with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, among others, knocked the Cavs out of the playoffs in 2008 and 2010. Boston won it all in 2008 and lost to the Lakers in the 2010 Finals.

"I understood at that point in time that in order for me to compete for a championship and get to that next level, I had to figure out and get with some guys that could be on the same level as Paul, Ray, (Rajon) Rondo, KG and those guys," James said. "I just didn't feel like ... to do it here, I was out calling guys in the summer time, trying to get guys to come here and guys just continued to decline offers from us.

"And then at that time we didn't even have any money to go get anybody. I knew personally that D Wade was a free agent, I knew Bosh was a free agent, I knew Amare (Stoudemire) was a free agent, I knew Carlos Boozer was a free agent, so I knew I had to try and get some guys to try and get Boston, man. That was my whole mindset."

Toronto Raptors center Bismack Biyombo fouls Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James hard in the second half. Biyombo was called for a technical foul. May 21, 2016.

Boulevard of broken teams

Before James left Cleveland in 2010, the Cavs had won at least 60 games in each of the past two seasons and reached at least the conference semifinals in every year since 2006. Without him, Cleveland posted seasons of 19, 21, 24, and 33 wins.

With James, Miami went to the Finals every year and won it twice. Without him, the Heat missed the playoffs in 2015 and lost Wade to the Bulls. Neither would've happened had James stayed.

In summary, James' boulevard of broken teams is long and distinguished. It's a road on which he intends to remain, having experienced what it's like to have to move cities to beat the best.

"Yeah, but I was just trying to get Boston," James said. "They're all trying to get me."