Before he embarked on his one-of-a-kind Hall of Fame career, LeBron James became the talk of the town as a teenager for his incredible athleticism and otherworldly skills. He’d get invited to play in scrimmage games against the best NBA players and leave them in awe, as Tim Hardaway Sr. testified.
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During an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast, the Hall of Famer reminisced about playing against a young James for the first time during a practice run hosted by Michael Jordan in Chicago. Hardaway recalled one moment from that day that brought the entire gym to a standstill. He said,
“I ain’t know Bron at the time and they say he just came off an injury, took off his cast or whatever. And we playing and he ain’t showing nobody nothing. And he just coming on a fastbreak. That motherf**ker just took off. Like at 16-17 (years old). That motherf**ker took off from the free throw line… He missed it but he was way up there.”
The Hall of Famer claimed it was James’ second game after recovering from an injury and he was visibly hesitant to play at full speed or showcase his athleticism to avoid aggravating his ailment. However, his failed dunk after taking off from the free-throw line is etched in his memory. He added,
“It was like a cartoon. And everybody was like, ‘Whoa.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ That’s the first eactime I saw Bron.”
James had enough explosiveness as a teenager to leave some of the best players in the world awestruck. However, he needed to show off his talent and earn his stripes at Jordan’s run in Chicago as the who’s who of the NBA were always in attendance.
Jordan’s runs featured some of the best players on the planet
When Jordan was filming Space Jam, the best players would come down to Warner Brothers studios to play against the Bulls icon and compete against each other to prepare for the upcoming season. Realizing how popular his runs were, the six-time NBA champion made it a tradition to host runs in Chicago every summer to get in shape for the forthcoming campaign.
The depth of talent that attended these runs ran so deep, that a player as talented as James would have to sit on the sideline and wait for his turn to play. Explaining how difficult it was to get game time at Jordan’s Chicago runs, Antoine Walker said,
“Everybody know that when MJ came, everybody was coming through man. I always tell a story. I remember LeBron came up there, he couldn’t even get in. He couldn’t get in the first round. It was that thick.”
But when the time came and James was finally on the floor, he made sure to leave his mark.
