Could LeBron James make the playoffs with any team? Here’s what ‘NBA 2K’ says.

LeBron James has conquered nearly all of his mountains. He took his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals after they drafted him first overall. He won his first two championships during a pilgrimage in Miami before returning to the Cavaliers in 2014. Two years later, he was hoisting the franchise’s first title there, too. Only a few people will say he has surpassed Michael Jordan, but he’s certainly drawing closer than anyone previously has ever been.

But what if there was something even more challenging James could do to prove himself as the NBA’s greatest player? What if we put him on the roster of all the other 29 teams and said, ‘Go make the playoffs?’ What if James even won a championship with the ... Knicks?

No, really. The Knicks.

It was a surprise in late September 2016 when the Knicks showed up for the first day of training camp and LeBron James was already on the court practicing free throws, but they quickly got used to it. Ron Baker even tried to get James to autograph his framed photo of a perm that he carries with him at all times, and Courtney Lee had to pull Baker back, apologizing about how he didn’t know any better.

You can imagine that Carmelo Anthony didn’t like the idea that he would come off the bench as a super sub at first, but he finally came to peace with it, winning Sixth Man of the Year. Willy Hernangomez instead started next to Kristaps Porzingis and James in the frontcourt, blossoming like a beautiful Spanish flower.

New York finished 56-26 as the first seed in the Eastern Conference with James in tow, and not even James Dolan kicking out Charles Oakley could slow down the Knicks. They swept through the first three rounds of the conference playoffs. Pundits overwhelmingly picked the Warriors in the finals, the newly formed superteam that now boasted Kevin Durant as well, and that pick looked good when the Warriors won Game 1.

After that, it was all Knicks. They won the next four games and James was named series MVP. How could he not be? After all, he had done the impossible. He had won the Knicks a championship for the first time since 1973.

We traded James for the worst rotation player on all 29 teams in the league (excluding the Cavaliers) and simulated the season on NBA 2K17 to see what happened. In each instance, we recorded the team’s record and its playoff success or failure.

One long-running theory is that you could put James on any team in the league, and he’s good enough that they would at least make the playoffs and probably the finals. Look at the roster he dragged to the finals in 2007, after all, or consider how bad the Cavaliers were for four years when James went to Miami.

Here are the results. Record is the 2K simulation record, improvement is how many wins better the team is with LeBron James than its real-life record this season, and playoffs is what happened in the 2K simulation playoffs.

Record: 50-32

Improvement: +22

Playoffs: Loses to Warriors in finals in six

Reaction: LeBron trusted the process so much that the 76ers went to the finals in their first season with him on board! Joel Embiid won Rookie of the Year, and a healthy Ben Simmons (who 2K thinks is extremely good) helped a lot.

Record: 54-28

Improvement: +12

Playoffs: Lose to Warriors in finals in six

Reaction: Giannis moved to shooting guard so that James could slide to small forward. It (mostly) worked!

Record: 63-19

Improvement: +22

Playoffs: Lost to Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals in seven

Reaction: This was tied for the second most wins any team had in the regular season. My guess: 2K overrates Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo because of their star pedigree, causing Chicago to be overpowered.

Record: 58-24

Improvement: +5

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in Finals in six

Reaction: If Boston’s only five wins better with LeBron, will the Celtics improve at all if they sign Gordon Hayward this summer?

Record: 58-24

Improvement: +7

Playoffs: Lost to Spurs in Western Conference semifinals in seven

Reaction: CHRIS PAUL STILL CAN’T GET TO THE CONFERENCE FINALS

We’re actually kind of sad for him. :’(

Record: 53-29

Improvement: +10

Playoffs: Lost to Rockets in Western Conference semifinals in seven

Reaction: They did finish as the No. 2 seed, for what it’s worth.

Record: 55-27

Improvement: +12

Playoffs: Lost to Knicks in first round

Reaction: The lost to the Knicks in a 1 vs. 8 upset. Yeesh.

Record: 38-44

Improvement: -3

Playoffs: Missed

Reaction: This is my favorite simulation. We originally messed up and didn’t turn off injuries for some of these, meaning James broke his leg or had other season-ending injuries that messed up the results. In our first Heat simulation, Hassan Whiteside broke his arm and only played 35 games. That team finished 38-44 and missed the playoffs.

We resimulated it with injuries turned off, and that’s the record you see up there: still 38-44 and still three games under the 41-41 record that the Miami Heat actually finished with this season.

The Heat were so unpredictably good this season, finishing it on a 30-11 run, that even adding LeBron James to their roster couldn’t duplicate the actual season they had. All we know is that Erik Spoelstra must be a miracle worker.

Record: 45-37

Improvement: +9

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in Finals in five

Reaction: They were the No. 7 seed and still made a finals run.

Record: 50-32

Improvement: -1

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in Western Conference semifinals in six

Reaction: So not much different than their actual season.

Record: 43-39

Improvement: +11

Playoffs: Lost to the Warriors in the first round

Reaction: Sacramento made the playoffs!

Record: 56-26

Improvement: +25

Playoffs: Beat the Warriors in the NBA Finals

Reaction: As discussed above, the Knicks are the first team to win a championship with James joining their roster. This is only a video game simulation, and we’re actually feeling emotions for them right now.

Record: 48-34

Improvement: +18

Playoffs: Lost to Thunder in first round in seven

Reaction: Russ played like an MVP!

Record: 42-40

Improvement: +13

Playoffs: Lost to Celtics in the first round

Reaction: Orlando doesn’t deserve LeBron.

Record: 54-28

Improvement: +21

Playoffs: Lost to Thunder in first round in seven

Reaction: The large wins improvement makes sense because Dallas struggled with injuries all season. When the Mavs finally got healthy, they weren’t bad! And then you add LeBron to the mix.

Record: 34-48

Improvement: +14

Playoffs: Missed

Reaction: No one can save the Nets, not even LeBron.

Record: 49-33

Improvement: +9

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in the conference semifinals

Reaction: 2K probably hasn’t recognized exactly how good Nikola Jokic is yet.

Record: 54-28

Improvement: +12

Playoffs: Lost to Celtics in seven in the first round

Reaction: Here’s another 1 vs. 8 seed upset with Indiana going down. Isaiah Thomas sent them home in Game 7 with a 45-point game. Clearly, 2K simulations allow more variance than you’d normally expect from real-life basketball.

Record: 50-32

Improvement: +16

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in the Western Conference finals

Reaction: It turns out that DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, and James is a frontcourt that works quite well. Still, they can’t beat Golden State.

Record: 55-27

Improvement: +18

Playoffs: Lost to Cavaliers in Eastern Conference semifinals in four

Reaction: Cleveland gets its revenge against Detroit for stealing LeBron!

Record: 59-23

Improvement: +8

Playoffs: Beat the Rockets in the finals in seven

Reaction: We had been surprised at how few teams had been winning the finals with LeBron, but here’s a quick course correction. First, the LeBron-led Raptors beat the Rockets.

Record: 57-25

Improvement: +2

Playoffs: Beat the Raptors in the finals in six

Reaction: Then the LeBron-led Rockets beat the Raptors.

Record: 59-23

Improvement: -2

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in conference finals in six

Reaction: San Antonio, along with Utah and Miami, got worse when you added LeBron to the roster. Again, this is more about 2K underrating the actual roster compared to how it performed in real life, not James making them worse.

Record: 35-47

Improvement: +11

Playoffs: Missed

Reaction: Devin Booker didn’t drop 70 points enough times.

Record: 63-19

Improvement: +16

Playoffs: Beat Raptors in the finals in five

Reaction: This is the strangest simulation. First, Oklahoma City was really absurdly good, tying Chicago for the second-highest regular season record achieved by this simulation. Second, Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double. Third, James also averaged 10-plus assists, his highest of any simulation, with a final line of 23 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 10.5 assists.

We can’t tell you how the Thunder possibly could have one player average a triple-double and the other one come with 0.5 rebounds of it, but we swear to you it happened. We’re still shook.

Record: 50-32

Improvement: +19

Playoffs: Lost to Thunder in first round in five

Reaction: 2K also may have expected Minnesota to be better this year, thus the huge win increase.

Record: 49-33

Improvement: +8

Playoffs: Lost to Warriors in semifinals in four

Reaction: Portland losing to Golden State is required in every NBA season by law now.

Record: 59-33

Improvement: +10

Playoffs: Lost to Cavaliers in Eastern Conference finals in five

Reaction: Cleveland with a revenge series yet again. For shame, Washington, for shame.

Record: 68-14

Improvement: +1

Playoffs: LOST to Raptors in finals in seven

Reaction: From an early age, my parents taught me the dangers of gluttony. Yours might have done the same thing. If you overeat, even if the food’s really good, you might feel bad. It’s the only explanation I have for this.

We took Ian Clark, replaced him with James, and simultaneously made perhaps the best team we’ve ever seen better while removing its greatest challenger. The Warriors were so good, they brought Kevin Durant off the bench!

And they lost in the finals to Toronto.

This should not have happened. Injuries were turned off, so it wasn’t a fluke thing where Draymond Green and Klay Thompson both got injured to start the series. Even if they did, they’d still have three players who have won MVPs.

Ban real basketball. Let’s just simulate every season on 2K now.

Let’s start with just the stats.

This isn’t a criticism — in fact, we prefer it this way. But when you simulate 29 seasons in NBA 2K17, some weird things are going to happen. Clearly, between the Knicks winning the championship and the Warriors losing it, they did.

Some of it can be explained. 2K, like your average fan, will slightly overrate players who have superstar pedigree in the past. That helps explain why a team like the Knicks, with Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, or the Bulls, with Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade, will fare better than they actually did this season. All four of those players must have been more productive in the game than they actually were for a full season, and little things like that matter.

The other thing is that 2K simulations appear to inherently swing slightly toward the non status quo. While the NBA has never really had parity, something that hasn’t hurt the league at all, it’s a little more fun to have random upsets when you’re playing sports games. That’s what 2K has allowed us to have, and that’s why the best team in the league can add James and still fall to ...

OK, we’re laughing again. They added LEBRON JAMES and still lost to TORONTO.

This had less to do with the simulation itself and more to do with how the actual players were programmed. Mostly, San Antonio and Utah both fall into this category — two teams that were expected to be good coming into the season and then ended up being even better.

In this exercise, James made the playoffs with 26 of 29 teams, went to the finals with nine of the 29, and won it all with four.

That still might not actually show how good he is.

On average, teams improved by 11.3 games in the 2K simulation, but James’ win shares this season — a statistical look at how many wins he was responsible for each season — was 12.9. Last season, it was 13.6, and on average throughout his career, it’s about 15 wins per season.

We also know that James is usually even better in the postseason, something the game didn’t reflect, in part because it didn’t have his minutes played climbing into the low 40s.

Video game LeBron James is the best player in 2K — impossible to guard, unstoppable at the rim, and able to guard virtually any player in the game. Just by joining a team, he earned them more than 11 extra wins.

And even then, real life LeBron might still be better.