“LeBron James isn’t f**king 6’8 when playing us!”: Gilbert Arenas describes the sheer dominance Cavaliers superstar put on display against his Wizards

Gilbert Arenas breaks down how LeBron James felt much larger than 6’8 after he signaled to Mike Brown to take out his center. 

LeBron James burst onto the scene as someone who most certainly could live up to the moniker ‘The Chosen One’ that was bestowed and later on tattooed on him. He beat out Carmelo Anthony for Rookie of the Year honors and by the time his sophomore season had come to a close, he was averaging 27.2 points, 7.2 assists, and 7.4 rebounds a game. 

His third season in the NBA saw him have his first ever Playoff series where his Cleveland Cavaliers faced off against Gilbert Arenas and his Washington Wizards. The 2006 first round series between the two squads was quite the hard fought one as the Cavs won Games 5 and 6 by one point each. 

That Game 6 at Washington was one of James’s defining moments of his career up until that point as it famously showed him baiting Gil into missing two straight free throws that would’ve put the Wizards up 3 with 15 seconds left in OT. 

Instead, Damon Jones would hit a corner 2 to put them up by one and a missed 3 from Caron Butler led to LeBron James winning his first ever postseason series.

Also read: LeBron James went from 6’8″ and 240lbs breaking the youngest ever records to 6’9″ and 250lbs breaking the oldest ever records!

Gilbert Arenas on playing LeBron James. 

Agent 0 got quite a bit of experience in playing against LeBron James as he would face off against the Cavs not once, not twice, but three times in a row in the Playoffs from 2006-08. That first series saw him average 34 points a game but by the time ‘08 came around, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler had become the focal point of the offense. 

When talking to ‘Forgotten Seasons’ of ShowTime Basketball, Gilbert revealed that those series against James showed just how dominant the Cavs stud could be if the paint was freer. 

“When LeBron wanted to get to the basket and take over, he would give coach a look and that look was to take out the big-man. Once they take out Ilgauskas, we take out Brendan. Our backup big at the time was either Etan or Michael Ruffin. Well, at that point, LeBron is not 6’8 anymore like the f**king piece of sheet says.” 

 

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Essentially, LeBron James abused the Wizards for having smaller and more inexperienced big-men guarding him on his drives to the baskets. Even at 21 years of age, James had begun his transformation into the calculating, basketball savant that he is today.

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