June of 2010 was a much different time in the world. We were fewer than two years into the first US presidency of a non white man, there was no such thing as South Sudan, and the world economy was beginning a slow climb out of "the Great Recession." Most importantly (for our story, anyway), this was the last month that an NBA Finals took place without LeBron James.

A lot of things have taken place since then. My goal here is to take a patently absurd look at some of those things. Hopefully they will help you realize just how ridiculous this streak of James’ is. Somethings will be about the world, others about me, and others about basketball. In the words of a bunch of Twitter users and people generally younger than me, let's goooooo.

Cultural Things

Pop culture has changed since the last time LeBron James was stopped short of the NBA Finals. Here are some highlights of what was going on or has gone on since that time.

1. The Despicable Me franchise did not yet exist. The first movie came out in July of 2010 - a few weeks after the 2010 NBA Finals. The world was only just beginning to hear about minions, and now we've seen four movies, which have grossed over $3.5 billion at the box office, 11 short films, three video games, and a ride at Universal Studios (both the Florida and California locations).

2. There had only been six Star Wars films. The original three, of course, existed, and then the "prequel" trilogy came out in the early 2000s. There have been four new movies since the last time LeBron James didn't make the NBA Finals.

3. Jennifer Lawrence wasn't really famous yet. Wikipedia says her "breakthrough role" was in 2010's Winter's Bone, which came out during the 2010 Finals. Prior to that, her biggest role was on The Bill Engvall show on TV.

4. The Owen Wilson-led Marmaduke movie came out during the 2010 NBA Finals. It was, by all accounts, pretty terrible. Ice-T, who was one of the originators of gangsta rap, voiced a character named Slick (a German Shepherd).

5. Kesha, Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Eminem all had number-one singles, which doesn't seem that much different than the musical landscape today, but they were like...eight years younger at the time and you just have to trust me that it was a long time ago.

6. The World Cup was beginning in South Africa and vuvuzelas became a constant din in the background of your everday life. They were amazing and continue to be. The "Dream Team" (the 11 best players, as voted by fans) from that World Cup include two retirees and three players who haven't officially retired, but haven't been signed by any clubs.

7. This one is wild: Bruno Mars had not yet released a studio album the last time LeBron James didn't make it to the NBA Finals. Bruno Mars had only reached the cultural zeitgeist through features on tracks like "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy or "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B." He has now performed at the Super Bowl twice, sold about 15 million albums, has released 10 top-10 singles, five number-one singles, and was the voice of what may have been the biggest song of the past five years, "Uptown Funk."

8. Lil Wayne was still (kind of) making music in 2010.

9. Five of the NFL's top-10 rushing yardage players have since retired.

10. The Chicago Cubs and all of Cleveland's sports teams were still mired in outrageous championship droughts.

11. Jay Leno took over as the once-again host of The Tonight Show after that weird thing where Conan O'Brien hosted it for like eight months and then didn't host it anymore because Leno was weird about all of it. Or maybe Conan was weird about all of it. It's hard to say. Either way, doesn't that seem like it was forever ago? It was.

12. "THE HILLS" WAS STILL ON THE AIR IN JUNE OF 2010 OH MY GOD.

Personal Things

Not everything is about me, I realize, but this section is about me and the things that have happened since the last time LeBron had the month of June off from basketball.

1. I have lived at nine different addresses since June of 2010. Nine. But that’s nothing compared to the list of job titles I’ve held since the latest time LeBron James didn’t reach the NBA Finals. Here’s a nearly complete list:

• Caddie
• Cavs team shop associate
• Shoe store clerk
• Aflac rep
• Bouncer
• Temporary marketing associate
• Temp (I don’t remember the job details but it was at Kaplan)
• Staffing coordinator
• Account manager
• English tutor
• Freelance writer
• English tutor again
• Dog walker/sitter
• Editor

There are probably one or two others hidden in the murky depths of my past that I can't think of right now. In any case, LeBron James’s job title over the same stretch of time has been “NBA Super-mega-star” and only once (in the summer of 2010) has that not included being an NBA Finalist. 

2. At the time of LeBron James's last playoff run that stopped short of the NBA Finals, I was one year removed from college, had recently broken up with a girl, had deferred my student loans, had a one-year-old niece, and a brother who had just moved to Wisconsin.

Since then, I dated a few other girls, got engaged to one of them, and have been married for 2.5 years. I have paid off my student loans in full. I have a niece who is about to turn nine, another who is six, plus the Wisconsin brother has now lived in Oregon for about five years, got married, and has two kids of his own (his daughter is about to turn four, and his son is almost two). 

3. By the summer of 2010, I had left the United States twice. One was in the summer of 1999 when my grandparents finally convinced my parents to take some combination of us to England (my grandparents were enormous Anglophiles) and it ended up being me, my mom, and my aunt and uncle. It was not ideal for a 12-year-old. The second was a few months earlier on our 8th grade field trip to Toronto. My passport was long-since expired in 2010. 

Since then, I have been to 23 countries on four continents. Things have changed.

Basketball things

This is the list we've all really been waiting for, right? Consider the following.

The last time LeBron James didn't make the NBA Finals...

• Jayson Tatum was in 6th grade
• Chauncey Billups, Brandon Roy, Gerald Wallace, and Chris Kaman had just made the All-Star game (so did Allen Iverson, but he was a weird fan-vote situation where he's already announced his retirement and didn't end up playing in the game)
• Shaq was still in the NBA
• Seven of that year's 15 all-NBA selections are out of the league as of game one of the 2018 Finals, and a few more are possible summer retirees (already gone: Amar'e Stoudemire, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Brandon Roy, Kobe Bryant, and Andrew Bogut. Possible retirees: Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson. Should retire but instead is going to miss shots and make $28 million next year: Carmelo Anthony)
• The Nets were still the New Jersey Nets. They also lost 28 of their first 30 games
• The Orland Magic set an NBA record by attempting 841 three-pointers in the 2009-2010 season. That number - an NBA record at the time - would have ranked 18th this season
• The 42-40 Houston Rockets missed the playoffs by eight games, thanks to four of the five teams in the Northwest Division-winning 50+ games
• Dwight Howard was one of the three best players in the NBA and nobody argued that
• Kyle Korver was making a crazy percentage of his three-pointers (OK this one's timeless)
• The Warriors finished 26-56, although their rookie point guard named Stephen Curry had a pretty good season
• Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton got suspended for bringing guns into the Wizards' locker room over, allegedly, a gambling dispute. What an amazing sentence
• Rasheed Wallace was about to retire for the first time
• Manu Ginobili was only 32-years-old
• Perhaps most notably of all, the only team LeBron had ever played for was the Cleveland Cavaliers

The world is a different place. And yet, LeBron James exists as a constant. His season stats from this year are remarkably close to those of the 2009-2010 season, and we know he's still got some gas left in the tan, as shown by, well, being in the Finals again.

With all this in mind, don't forget to take a minute and enjoy this guy. Kobe's career ended rather abruptly, and while we know that LeBron looks like he could play another 5-25 seasons, things can change. Have fun watching him in the Finals again, even if Golden State will almost certainly win.

Prediction: Cavs in 4.