 What's the word y'all? It's very rare that I come onto this channel and I talk about someone else's take slash opinion about the game of basketball, because at the end of the day it's all subjective. It doesn't really matter. It's an opinion about a game. It's a kid's game. So I don't really come on here and be like, ah, this guy was bugging and this is why and I hate this. That's not something I normally do. But I saw something already first and I went on to listen to it myself and it is a take or opinion from somebody that has a big old voice and the sports media realm and I thought it was kind of crazy. So I'm here to talk about it. Yeah, because I legit can put on like 50 hours of content if I was just going to other people's takes that have crazy takes in sports media. Let's talk of heads on TV. Y'all know they be kind of crazy with it. But this take comes from Bill Simmons. It was on Zach Lowe's podcast. Like I said, I read it on Reddit first and I went on to listen to it and again, it got me to make this video. Here's the quote, full of bronze year 19. I think he's top 10, but it's crazy to say he's on the level of Yanis slash Durant. Could he have carried like Durant deal last year where Yanis did the last two rounds? I don't think so. Again, that's Bill Simmons on Zach Lowe's podcast. I would recommend you go and listen to it yourself. And I think this take is kind of crazy. Now, there are certain things about Bill Simmons that I admire if we're keeping it black and white. I don't want to get to the weeds of everything, but the fact that he left like traditional media brands and created his own media conglomerate is something I admire again, black and white. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. What I kind of do know what's going on behind the scenes. Regardless, just that itself is something that I strive to do one day and I can admire for that. But I stopped listening to Bill Simmons himself or Bill Simmons' podcast because it seems more likely than not, he's, I'm not going to say he's lost it when it comes to the basketball realm, but his takes slash opinions don't feel as genuine in what they did five years ago or maybe a little bit deeper than that. He also has a track record of kind of bashing LeBron's. He's given him his roses on certain terms of his career. Like when LeBron got a championship for Cleveland, there's nothing negative that you can say about LeBron bringing a championship to Cleveland. So he had to give his roses, but he's also been on TV and other places and kind of talked down to LeBron about his game or stuff off the court. So he's always had a opinion about LeBron that feels more harsh than what it actually is. Now, I personally have to take a step back, not from this, but over the last couple weeks or the last couple months of the NBA game and try to figure out, okay, LeBron again in year number 19, where does he rank in the NBA? Where does LeBron James rank? And I came to the personal opinion that I do not believe LeBron is the best player in the NBA anymore. Whoa, Kenny, that's a crazy, I don't think it's crazy. I think he's still on the level of the best players in the NBA, but he might not be number one. You gotta think about how long he's been in the league and all this stuff. The last two years, he's definitely dealt with injuries and stuff like that. He might not be the best player in the league, but to me to say he's not on the level of the best players in the league is kind of crazy. And for the most part, it might be strictly recency bias because the last taste of LeBron that you got is him losing to the Suns when he's coming back from injury and the second best player was injured. You know what I'm saying? And the last thing you know about Yannis is, oh, he rose the trophy. The last thing you know about Kevin DeRay is he dropped 50 and he played every single minute in the game and went to overtime. So like the last moments of those top two players are sunshine and roses, while the last memory of LeBron maybe not so much. I do believe that this tag might be recency bias. I do believe that LeBron is still on that level. And even in saying that, it's crazy because he is in year number 19. He is in year number 19. He has been in the league longer than some of y'all have been on this earth. And I still consider him one of the top tier players in the NBA. Last year for LeBron James was definitely a weird one. They won a championship the year before in the bubble and they proceeded to have the shortest off season in NBA history. And you know LeBron, he spends over a million dollars a year on his body and every single off season. That's one of the reasons why he's a robot. We don't know what type of technology he's doing in the off season, but he's spending millions of dollars to stay at this peak performance level. And he didn't have that much time this year, but he came out in game number one. He's like, okay, we got another season. I feel like we're still a good team. They made some changes to the roster that a lot of people believed that they were gonna go in to repeat and they didn't get to do that. And even with that being said, shortest off season in NBA history for a guy at that point was, how old was he at this point? 36 years old. Shortest off season NBA history for the first half of the year, he was still in MVP conversations. Yoke is deserved to win the MVP award, but LeBron was right there on his tail for the majority of the season. Then what happened? A literal freak accident. Solomon Hill dies into the floor for a ball, hits LeBron and now LeBron has a high ankle sprain. I know two years ago he had the groin injury, but this one was more of a freak accident than anything. It wasn't his body giving out on him. Somebody literally dived into his body. And until that point, he was an MVP candidate. I wanna go get some receipts for y'all that don't remember. So this was February 11th. LeBron ended up getting a high ankle sprain a little over a month after this, and this is from Bleach Report. A somehow improved LeBron James remains king. Do you hear that? Now again, Yoke is deserved this MVP award. And honestly, if LeBron was still playing on the pace that he was playing with and he didn't get the high ankle sprain, I still believe that Yoke is deserved the MVP award. But still, this is just proof that LeBron James, before the high ankle sprain, was still on top of the entire league. Honorable mentions have some players. Oh, Kevin DeRene is the honorable mentions right here. You have Yonahs F5. We have Kawhi F4. Yoke check three. Joel at two. And then LeBron James was number one. This wasn't even one calendar year ago, y'all. He was looked at as the MVP of the league. And it wasn't just like, ah, LeBron is old and because he's still good, he deserved one more ring. There were actual numbers to back up the fact that LeBron deserved to be in the conversation for MVP at this point. So saying that he couldn't do what Yonahs did or Kevin DeRene did is kind of malarkey if you ask me because he was still doing that type of thing. No, he didn't get to do that when they went against the Suns because the man was still fighting the high ankle sprain. I just think it's recency by his bill. That's exactly what it feels like to me. And listen, I do believe that LeBron is declining but it's not that he's not good anymore. Like I said, I still think he's a top tier player. He just might not be number one anymore. And that's a testament to how good he actually is or how good he was just like two years ago he was a finals MVP. Oh my God. So two years ago finals MVP, last year MVP until an injury and you're saying that he's not top tier anymore, that is, oh my God, come on, come on, Bill. Come on, Bill. And that's one of the reasons why I stopped listening to Bill because it feels like saying words without thinking about it. And then when someone pushes back on it, it's like, oh, he said in here, oh, LeBron James being an MVP candidate is purely media narrative. That's what he said. Purely media narrative, which wasn't the case, Bill. Come on, man. I know Bill Simmons watches as enough basketball to know that LeBron was actually doing that thing last year and he probably is gonna do the thing this year. Now hopefully he won't have to do it in the 82 regular season games because well, he's got Russell Westbrook and he's got Anthony Davis next to him. I don't want LeBron to be an MVP candidate no more because I think that's gonna take a toll for him when he gets to the playoffs. I would ride the LeBron James, coast his butt off, then gets to the playoffs and then turn back into peak Bron. And I'm not even a Lakers slash Super LeBron fan. I just gotta keep it a buck. LeBron is still in year number 19, one of the top tier players in the league. And I think it's crazy to say otherwise.