At 33 years old and in his 16th season, LeBron James is already one of the best players of all time, but there are heated debates about who the greatest player of all time is.
Along with James, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are the most common players that basketball fans bring up in those conversations.
With James signing a four-year, $154 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, he continues to make personal history and is looking to further cement himself among his supporters.
While some believe James needs to win more championships, he made a bold statement about where he already ranks, via ESPN:
“That’s what I felt,” James told friends and business partners Maverick Carter, Randy Mims and Rich Paul during the episode that began streaming on ESPN+ Sunday night. “I was super, super ecstatic to win one for Cleveland because of the 52-year drought. … The first wave of emotion was when everyone saw me crying, like, that was all for 52 years of everything in sports that’s gone on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped, I was like — that one right there made you the greatest player of all time.
“Everybody was just talking — how [the Warriors] were the greatest team of all time, like it was the greatest team ever assembled,” he said. “And for us to come back, you know, the way we came back in that fashion, I was like, ‘You did, you did something special.’ That’s probably one of the only times in my career I felt like, oh, s—, like you did something special. I haven’t had, really had time, to really, like, sit back and think, but that … that was a moment.”
In the 2016 NBA Finals against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 series deficit. Highlighted by James’ chase down block on Andre Iguodala, it was an impressive accomplishment.
After eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances, there is no question James is the best player of this decade. If he is able to win a championship with the Lakers, he will be the third player in NBA history to win with three different teams.
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