The mantle of the greatest basketball player of all time is still up in the air. However, the Chosen One, LeBron James, over the years, has presented his case for being the greatest ever. Several players, even outside the NBA, have kept the King atop their all-time lists. And NFL star Jaylen Waddle is the newest addition to the long list of LeBron’s admirers, to the extent of cheering for whichever team LBJ joins.
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On the ‘OG’s Podcast’, with NBA legends Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, the 26-year-old phenom revealed that, in his opinion, LeBron James is the greatest of all time,
“I think Bron [LeBron James] is the greatest so where Bron go I go.”
When asked to name a few NBA teams he actively follows, apart from the Lakers, Waddle replied, “I ant going to lie, I watch the Heat…ant going to lie…”
Despite naming LBJ as his GOAT, Waddle mentioned that, currently, Devin Booker is his favorite player to watch in the league. Another player he looked up to was Allen Iverson, mainly due to his impact on the culture,
“I like Allen Iverson. He Just elevated the game. Bought that culture, that swag to the game.”
Besides Devin Booker and LeBron James, Waddle also mentioned Anthony Edwards and Ja Morant as the two other NBA stars he likes. The 26-year-old revealed having high hopes for the upcoming crop of players, even predicting a shift in power from the aging stars to the upcoming youngsters.
But, he isn’t counting out the veterans just yet, especially not his GOAT, King James. He isn’t the only star in the NFL fraternity who has declared LeBron as the greatest.
NFL stars give their two cents on the Jordan-LeBron debate
While a healthy majority of NBA fans still believe Jordan to be the greatest of all time, the scales are starting to tip in LeBron’s favor. A big part of his rising popularity has to do with the shift in the age of the average NBA fan, as only a handful of current NBA fans ever got to watch players like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan play live.
On the flip side, LeBron has been the face of the league for almost two decades now. A YouTuber, Gabb Goudy, recently went around asking NFL players to give their two cents on the Michael-LeBron debate, and the answers reinforced the rise in LBJ’s popularity. Beginning the video, Goudy asked NFL safety Terrell Edmunds to chip in, to which he responded,
“LeBron. Only because, you know, he was the dude of our generation. I know Jordan was great, but the things we see LeBron do, you know, it’s second to none.”
Next up was NFL linebacker Bud Dupree, who only chose LeBron because he never saw Jordan play live, telling his interviewer that “LeBron. I have never seen Jordan in real life.”
From the looks of it, King James has a stronger hold on the younger generation of basketball fans, as compared to Jordan. Even after the release of the ‘The Last Dance’ documentary, a majority of the younger generation still side with LeBron.
