50,000 points ago, an 18-year-old LeBron James was joining the NBA straight from high school. He was the most hyped prospect of all-time and with his status came the pressure of turning around his hometown team’s fortunes. James was clearly up to the task, though not all of his teammates believed in him.
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Before James’ NBA debut, the Cavaliers were interviewed about their perspective on The Chosen One. Several responses from the roster reeked of doubt about James’ capabilities.
“We have better players than him at his position already,” Carlos Boozer boldly stated. Among the small forwards Boozer was referring to was Darius Miles, the third overall pick from the 2000 NBA Draft.
“I don’t think you can really just bring a high school player in and really just think your team’s gonna turn around like that. If he come, you know what I’m saying, he can just hop on our bandwagon,” Miles said 22 years ago.
During his appearance on the ‘Out the Mud’ podcast, he expanded on his sentiments. “You know the media bro,” the 43-year-old began. “They’ll take a statement from you and they’ll make it out of something… If they really broke down the whole interview and seen every word I said, I was actually taking up for him.”
According to Miles, the narrative of insecurity and hate in the Cavs locker room was exacerbated by the media. He argued that, by sharing snippets of their interviews instead of the entire conversation, the news channels misrepresented his perspective.
“They was putting all this pressure on him… Bro we ain’t seen Kobe, we ain’t seen KG, we ain’t seen none of them just hop in and just instantly change the s**t around. They gradually got good and got better and been the franchise player. So, I’m just defending him,” Miles explained.
Whether the small forward was actually trying to reduce the pressure on James’ shoulder is hard to tell without the full interviews. However, his conversation with Zach Randolph certainly highlighted his respect for the NBA’s scoring leader.
In 2003, D-Miles admitted that LeBron was better than him
During his appearance on ‘Out the Mud’, Miles revealed that he and James already had a relationship before teaming up in Cleveland. He added that the Cavs even put their lockers next to each other so Bron would have a familiar face close to him.
The Illinois native admitted that teams gave no media training back then, leading to some poor choice of words from him and his teammates. But given the opportunity to correct himself, Miles spoke highly of James and his skillset.
Miles, by his own confession, was so impressed by LeBron’s athleticism and game, he told his boys, “‘Bro, there’s this dude in high school, bro. He might be the best high school player ever ’cause I seen him throw it between-the-legs in a game.’
But his friends couldn’t believe someone in high school was better than him. “Them boys like, ‘Nah, no it ain’t. He ain’t better than you.’… I’m arguing with homeboys about him being better than me,” Miles recalled.
Before James, Miles was the highest drafted player to come out of high school. He was also the first high school prospect to make the All-Rookie First Team, explaining why his friends didn’t want him giving that moniker to LeBron. Surely, James’ rookie campaign changed their minds.
