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Where does Lebron rank all time in NBA?
PatsGuy5000
Posts: 671 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Seems many folks in the forum are not real fond of Lebron. Thoughts on where he ranks among the greatest. I have MJ number 1, but could go many ways with Wilt, Jabbar, Russell, Bird, Magic, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Robertson, West, Lebron, all up for consideration. Tough to compare players that play different positions/eras. Where do you rank Lebron as an all time NBA great and who do you have ahead of him?
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Certainly behind the aforementioned players.
I actually have him outside my top ten. I'm sorry Lebaby, you'll never catch MJ.
Have LeBron as co GOAT with Wilt and MJ and Magic.
Four different players all were game changers.
Somewhere in the mid-lower top 10.
I am looking forward to seeing James play against Zion some time this year.
I hope that they guard each other the entire game.
As far as GOAT goes, if one's measuring stick is rings, the Le Bron does not crack the top ten. If your measuring stick is other than rings, then at the end of his career Le Bron may have the stats and track record to warrant being proclaimed the GOAT (until he is eventually unseated by a future player who may not even be born yet).
Le Bron has definitely been an iron man since he joined the NBA out of high school (in 2003?). Whether he can put in another 4-5 years of playing without suffering from injuries in his late 30's (i.e. like Kobe) is unknown. This season will be telling for him (how well has he healed from last year's injury that caused him to miss many games). If he does play like he has in the past and avoids injuries I can see him getting to the top of multiple stat lists, including games played, minutes played and points scored.
If there was strict PED testing in the NBA I would think Lebron would not even be in the conversation. How he puts on so much muscle in such a short period of time is just not doable. I know it's off topic here but it just bugs the hell out of me that he and his agent Rich Paul were customers at the same lab where Arod was busted but no one cares to pursue it. Just Youtube it and it will come up where RP would pick up roids for LBJ at that lab (Biogenesis). I think this guys skills are a complete fraud and I can only cringe every time I look at the guy. The fact that he actually gained 7lbs. during a game just shows how much gear this guy is on. Again, hate to go off topic with this rant against him, but he is nothing but a fraud to me and cannot wait till he's retired. Been around juicers my whole life and he is the poster boy of what you can do with them.
No one - no one - has ever been an inner circle elite player for a longer period of time than Lebron. From 04/05 to 17/18, he was AT LEAST top 2 or 3 in the league, usually #1. 14 straight years. No one else can match that.
Doesn't make him the all-time best, just means he had the longest run at the top of the league.
Jordan lead the league in scoring 10 out of 15 years he played...……..Le Baby...…..1 year. This is only one stat, but is the one you brought up. Jordan is the GOAT !
Who mentioned leading the league in scoring? I sure didn't. You're refuting an argument I didn't make.
Did someone make an argument about the only players to win the scoring title and defensive player of the year awards? (i.e being a complete player at the top of their game) If not, the answers are Jordan and David Robinson. Jordan won both in the same year. Imagine doing everything at one end of the court to score the most points, back in the day you earned it from driving or shooting instead of whining your way into foul shots, and then racing back to play shut down defense? Lebron has been a great player for a long time and certainly in the top 5 with an argument to be either 2 or 3 when all is said and done. But what Jordan did in a shorter period of time makes James' career pale in comparison.
Jordan never disappeared in the big moments, like Lebron has on more than 1 occasion.
Imagine doing everything at one end of the court to score the most points, back in the day you earned it from driving or shooting instead of whining your way into foul shots, and then racing back to play shut down defense?
Wilt Chamberlain
The paucity of centers who could effectively guard Wilt contributed to his outsized numbers.
The paucity of players who could effectively guard Lebron contributed to his outsized numbers.
If you want it put more bluntly, the percentage of white players in the NBA was higher during Wilt’s record setting scoring years, as professional sports still was not comfortable with a predominately African American league. Players who would not have the skill level to compete in later decades were still playing in early 60’s.
I am sure there is some truth to that statement, but both Wilt and Lebron are/were bigger, stronger and more athletic than many/most of their opponents.
I think rebounds are important and Wilt and Jabbar were the two guys in history that dominated on both ends of the court. For me these two are the best basketball players of all time, judging by the numbers.
Jordan and Lebron and a few others are great scorers, but don't pull down many rebounds. Bill Russell was a great defender, but whether or not he was asked to do so, he didn't score enough to be the GOAT.
Since when is rebounding more important than defense? Jordan was a great defender and the best scorer.
And the GOAT !
On more than one occasion I've witnessed Lebron shy away from taking the final shot. It makes me sick. Although it doesn't make me as sick as accidently kissing our family cat when the power went out, thinking it was my wife. I think most people don't realize how hard it is to get fur out of your mouth.
JMHO, but Lebron James will need a few things to happen before he receives his just, honest and unbiased appraisal from fans. sadly, he will always be compared to MJ and always be criticized by Jordan loyalists who don't want that player's legacy threatened, that's just a reality of sports. what that means is that in the coming decades he will be seen differently by fans who didn't see Jordan play and then subsequently by fans who saw neither play. that doesn't mean that MJ will be seen as any less of the a player, only that both will be seen through the same lens and seen more objectively.
as can be seen at this tiny forum of fans, some "hate" so fiercely that they are just irrational and absent any sense of objectivity.
I have Jordan, Wilt, and Jabbar ahead of Lebron.
I don't know about the rest, but I am basing it on stats and accomplishments...…..not my dislike of "some" of his antics. He is/was a great player......Jordan was just greater!
Maurice Cheeks was underrated.
Lebron is 3rd or 4th IMO.....
Other than MJ, who do you have higher?
For me, Kobe beef and Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi wins his third this year and likely another or perhaps more....
@ScoobyDoo2 said:
Kawhi Leonard ahead of LeBron all-time? Say what?
No such thing as a fluke championship in basketball. You gotta win 15 games. And to beat a 70-win team, on the road, in game 7 to do it? Not a fluke.
LeBron is polarizing so he won't be fully appreciated as the GOAT until 5 years after retirement.