Former LeBron James’ teammate, Mario Chalmers, recently made the headlines out of nowhere. The former NBA champion, who came into the NBA 5 years after The King and has now been out of the league for 5 years, went off on James.
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The former point guard of the Miami Heat said nobody feared LeBron like they feared Michael Jordan.
But being part of a ‘superteam’ he should know how super teams came into the picture. His steady dominance was one reason why super teams formed in the late 2000s and then in 2016.
Draymond Green’s recent revelation might just be a hint toward that.
Some Warriors players ‘feared’ LeBron James according to Draymond Green
The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers became one of the best rivalries in the NBA after James’ Miami stint ended. In his first year back in Cleveland, he faced a young Warriors side led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Green in the NBA Finals without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love available for the 2015 Finals.
The dogfight he gave the Dubs with Matthew Dellavedova as his #2, certainly made sure of a promising Finals next season. And when he defeated the 73–9 Warriors in 2016 to create probably the biggest turnaround and upset in sports history, the Warriors recruited Kevin Durant in the off-season.
Perhaps there were some of his teammates at the time who feared the 4x MVP which led to that. Green revealed it recently without naming names or the season particularly.
“I personally know people that were scared of LeBron James… I know a bunch of people who were and are in fact terrified of LeBron James. I’ve seen it. At times I’ve had teammates that were terrified of LeBron James.”
– Draymond Green
(Via @TheVolumeSports ) pic.twitter.com/L4wY3lb2RS— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 24, 2023
As he welcomed Tristan Thompson on The Draymond Green Show, who also said his piece on the Chalmers take, the 4x NBA champ went on to reveal that he had teammates who feared LeBron.
Even Kendrick Perkins, the man whose injury led to Kobe Bryant’s Lakers’ double as per some experts, has accepted to be petrified of facing James, as far as to hope that the Cavaliers star injure himself.
GSW didn’t form the first super team to stop James
The Warriors were not the first team to do so. The Boston Celtics didn’t hire Kevin Garnett in 2007 to beat Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol-led Lakers and win the NBA Finals in their 1st year.
They just wanted to make it to the Playoffs and go as far as they can after reaching there. And James’ Cavaliers, who had reached the Finals in 2007, would certainly be a problem in doing so.
Cs were no way close to qualifying for the Playoffs two years prior and had two first-round exits in 03 and 05. A loss to a young LeBron James, leading a bunch of role players and old veterans, would have dented the franchise badly.
This is why they brought not one but two superstars in KG and Ray Allen to a team that already had players like Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo.
