LeBron James took a lot of hit to his image following the hype he unwantedly received after making it to the NBA
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People were, are, and will always be debating where LeBron James stands among the greatest players of all time in basketball.
For most he is just behind Michael Jordan, for some, he is even behind Kobe Bryant, and for the rest, he’s the GOAT. Every other year of his 19-year NBA career keeps on adding another perspective to that debate.
The man is closing in on his 38th birthday and 20th season in the NBA and is considering playing even 4-5 years more if his conditioning permits. That will surely strengthen his case even further.
But looking at 10 years back from now, it’s truly remarkable how the 4x champ has done what he has done, having won no championships until his 9 years in the league.
LeBron James didn’t mind Larry Bird preferring Kobe Bryant over him if winning was the factor
In quite a popular interview back in February 2012, Larry legend spoke to Bill Simmons on the BS Report and said James became his favourite player after years of Bryant occupying that spot and that The King was the best in the league by far.
But the proceeded to say that he would rather play with Kobe if he “wanted to win” over James because of The Mamba’s He did follow it up by saying he’d play with LeBron if he intended to have fun.
If you hear just the latter part of it, it’s pretty demeaning and that is what reporters presented to James. And even then, The King didn’t lose his calm and gave the most plausible response.
That’s how greatness speaks. Fast-forward a few months James lifted his first NBA championship in 2012, repeated in 2013, won another (in 2016) after going back to the Cavaliers in 2014, and another one in 2020 with the Lakers.
The 4x Finals MVP played in all the Finals (9) except for one in that decade and did live up to all the expectations people had from him since coming into the league as a high school kid in 2003.
