 Welcome to the complete collection of LeBron James' greatest stories told by NBA players and legends. This is part 1 of a 3 part series, because obviously LeBron James being one of the greatest players in NBA history has countless stories, and this video would be about 2 hours long had I not broken it up into 3 parts. So if you haven't seen any of the other episodes within the full series, there is a playlist link in the description box down below and on the top right of your screen, if you click on that you will find all the episodes within the series. Because this is such a long episode even broken up into 3 parts, it has taken me a long time to create and I would really appreciate if you guys could quickly hit that like button before the video begins. If you are new and you like videos just like this one, be sure to hit that subscribe button and hit that notification button so you are notified when a new episode drops. Lastly, I wish you all a very very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2022. Without further ado, here's the complete collection of LeBron James' greatest stories, part 1. We're playing different eras, he's an unbelievable player. He's one of the best players in the world, if not the best player in the world. When you start the comparisons, I think it is what it is, it's just a standard measurement. I take it with a grain of salt, he's a heck of a basketball player without a doubt. When God made him, he was like, I'm going to do all this, I'm going to take everything but I'm going to take one thing from him and I'm going to give you no lie. But I'm going to give you everything else, that's what I tell bro, I'm like he can't give you everything. And I remember, I don't know if I even told nobody else in my told circle. I remember it was a play we were trying to run and one of our teammates forgot the play and Bron told him the play. He said, if you miss these free throws, you know who's going to win it. All right now, what makes it worse, what makes it worse is this. Bron says, I'm going to get to this spot and shoot, but if I get here and any one of them is flinching off of their man, I'm beaming it to that man. We've been spoiled. It's just been remarkable what he's been able to do. I feel confident because I'm the best player in the world. For years, I always caught so much flack of us being the better team or whatever it was at one point in the Eastern Conference Finals and people not realizing it's tough to get past this motherfucker. I don't care who you are, you know what I mean? And see him come to the West and be able to do the same thing. It's a testament to his greatness and his IQ to the game when you go out there and play. I remember you said 16 when we went to the Eastern Conference Finals. We won game three and four and it was like a whole none of my set clicked for him. And the players to coach against and one most difficult and going through in the playoffs was LeBron James. This guy was looking in your mouth right there and just calling it. It was telling the players exactly what was going to happen on the play that you call. And I remember, I don't know if I even told nobody else in my close circle. I remember it was a play we was trying to run and one of our teammates forgot the play and Bron told him the play. But I was also in the gym when I watched him on the floor against Toronto. Tell Patrick Patterson where he was supposed to go on the play they had called out of time out late in the fourth quarter. He's like, no, Pat, you're supposed to stand over there and you're going to pin down for tomorrow over here. Wow. That's hilarious. That's who he is. It was some crazy shit. It was some like, it was some crazy stuff. We calling it a play. He was like what and Bron told him what our play was, you know, and it just shows you like how locked in his do be when it comes to that come the winning time, man. And you see it when he out there on both ends, man. But that change, and you know this, like we beat him a couple of times when he was in Cleveland. He was not that way. I've never seen a change in a player. I knew we were in trouble in Miami when we were coaching. When he was in Cleveland, he was just playing basketball. We get to Miami and he's in Miami now and he's calling our plays out. He's just staring over on our bench. He's reading stuff. And I remember saying, oh, this is not good. You know, there are a lot and Dwayne brings it up. When you're drawing a play and a time out, you know as an opposing coach that that one guy can screw things up for you. I know you know the famous free throw, LeBron, you know. So what did he say to you? And then how did you like, how are you to like maintain your focus when you miss them? We respect for there, but like, miss them, but like, how did you lose sight? Like for what you're trying to do? Like make the free throw and then... Okay, so we have to back up a little bit. Because I was balling. I was balling at fourth quarter and we, Miracle come back, you know, down three. I hit the, hit almost like a 30 footer to take us to overtime. Kind of got a little tired and, you know, in overtime, but got to the free throw line. You know, it's but a game's over. We have won. I'm about to hit these three. This is easy. And LeBron come by and taps you on the chest and whispers up to tell you, what did he tell you? He said, if you miss these free throws, you know who's going to win it. You know, and when he tapped me and he's like, you know, if you miss these, you know, that's game. And for that one second I became human and thought about it. All right now, what makes it, what makes it worse, what makes it worse is this. So because we gamble at LeBron's house, me, Damon Jones, you know, that was our group. Right. So Damon Jones was horrible. Horrible. He was horrible. Horrible cars. So he owed me money. So I always used to say, like every time we played them, I always used to scream out. The landlord is here. The landlord needs to print money. Right. Like every time he came to town, shoot around, I'm yelling it. The game I'm yelling it. Like that's all I yell. So I told the coach, anytime you put Damon Jones in, I'm going one-four flat. He owes me money. Until he pays me my money, one-four flat. He's going to be a liability out on his court. And that's what I did every time he came in, one-four flat. So Dave wasn't, so he stopped playing. So he doesn't even play in game six. So when he whispers, you know who's going to hit it, everybody assumed it was him. I knew what he was talking about. You know, and it had me thinking about it. And I can even see it on my face when I watch, like, oh yeah, you're missing these, bro. And then I missed the first one. And I'm sitting like, how the hell did I miss that? That's just so off. Missed the second one. And I'm sitting here like, yo, did this just really happen? Where did I go? I don't miss free, I don't miss clutch free throws. And I think the thought went into my head. They really going to put David Jones in and let it hit a shot. And I just, I just missed. Like, it was, like, I was, I was balling that game. Just hit the three to get us in overtime, playing great in overtime. Very great battle. And then I see David Jones in there stretching and they really put the man in. And the fact that LeBron even passed him the ball is what hurt the most. David Jones in the corner just came in the game for the first time in two games and hit the shot. Who, who, who does that? That's what, that's what I said. I had to, that's what I said. I went to go, like, do mental stuff. Right. Like with the, with the mental training. Because I was like, this didn't just happen. You didn't tell me this man was going to come in and hit. And then he comes in and then you pass him the ball. Like, he's done hit five straight threes. I need to go season ill because I don't want to be the next Nick Anderson out here. LeBron is 36 turns 37. I believe in December. Yeah, man. How's he still, like, what makes him special? And even we talk about mileage and how, you know, how he's doing it night in and night out where you talk about usage rate. You talk about, you know, load management. He ain't doing what Kauai is doing. He ain't doing with these other KD. And I love KD. I love Kyrie, but, you know, KD just took off. And AD hurt. AD hurt. So LeBron got to take on more with LA right now. Right. So, like, what makes him special? You know, you had that incident. Yeah. It's dude up there. He left the hospital with more than everybody. Bro, bro, listen. Bro, Brandon, be more. It's dude up there. Out the womb. Bro, his shopping cart of talent when he was born was bigger than everybody's dog. He gave him everything. Dude behind LeBron? He don't have it. Nothing. Yeah, but you got to give me more, man, because we know what goes into it, the sports science, how we train, how we eat, how we sleep, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. What are we not seeing that you saw? Yeah. Right. You guys have a show for the show, right? We understand about putting your body. We understand about the training that you need as athletes, former athletes, we understand the training that you need. But ultimately, man, I've watched this guy and I see him take care of his body. I see him own it 100%. But I've also know that guys can row their ankle and be out four weeks. I've seen this guy row his ankle and come back and give you about 20 in the fourth quarter. I'm talking about a bad row ankle. And I'm like, oh, he done. He come right back. I'm out four weeks with this row ankle. He come right back fourth quarter to score 20. It's the, it was like when God made him, he was like, I'm going to give you all this. I'm going to take everything, but I'm going to take one thing for him and I'm going to give you no lining. But I'm going to give you everything else. That's what I tell bro. I'm like, he gave you everything. He gave him everything. He just said, I'm going to just take this one thing. But when is he going to let it go though? No, he listened. Lo is he got money. He ain't letting go. He too rich to let it go. Do you think he carry in his pocket the goat conversation? Does he want to be better than MJ? He said he's the goat. And then after I stopped, I was like, that one right there made you the greatest player of all time. You know, everybody was just taught how they were greatest team of all time. There was the greatest team ever assembled. 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. Like I said, man, bro, you buy a dog. You know this, though. Me and bro have been in arguments about this. Does he take that? Does he like, is he conscientious about that shit? Bro laughs at that shit, bro. He's like, I feel like he's in the conversation. Why the fuck does he hear? I mean, I feel like he is the conversation. He's getting compared to Michael Jordan, though. We have a real life arguments in barbershops about who's better between him and Mike. So let me ask you this, though. Fuck he go get bad for her. He don't get bad. Bro, that's what I'm saying about Bron. That's raw as fuck to me. Because me personally, I would be like, Mike got to play me one-on-one. Most people want to be the goat and you can't get there. Right? We fall short. We run out of talent. I ran out of talent. Injuries or whatever. LeBron is actually there. Do you think that takes away, do you think having this conversation sometimes takes away from what LeBron has accomplished? Yes. Because he's not done. We're talking about everything he's doing now. We talk about the goat, the greatest of all time. That's when a player is done. And now you can put the resume versus the next resume. Right now, we've been talking about LeBron as a goat since 2010. We're 2021. This man still got another five years of play. If he, you know, God willing, he don't get hurt. So like I said, he will be a goat. Someone's going to say LeBron's my goat hands down nothing else. Just like I say, Jordan's my goat. It's generational goats. That's what people got to understand. It's a lot of great players that play sports. But it's eras of goats and everyone want to make one goat. It's impossible to make one goat because as great as LeBron is, it will be another. This is just the way the game is. This is the way the world works. It will be another person that come in and become someone's goat. I can swim, but I'm going to tell you some real shit. I can survive. OK, that's important. That's what you mean. So we in here and we trying to get back. Everybody's swimming back to the boat. But I'm snorkeling too. We snorkeling on the way back. And my head is in the water and I'm snorkeling and I look up. Every time I look up out the water, the boat gets further and further away. And I'm getting pushed by the current. By the under telling current. And I'm like, yo, yo. I think it's looking at me like I'm joking. I'm like, yo, I need help like this. I'm swimming like this. I'm trying to hold on to a rock. It was exhausted. I was exhausted. I'm like, I ain't going to fight that current like that. So the one guy was like, just don't fight it. You know what I'm saying? Let it just go with it. Go with the flow. And I see Brian jumping in the water. Aquaman. Aquaman jumping in the water. I was because D-Wave was right in front of me. D-Wave, I don't write before me. So I'm thinking D going to come back. But I know D ain't rocking with the water like that. He's like, yo, go get him. And I just see Brian, Brian just coming. I got you, champ. I got you. I got you. Grab me. We went back. We went back to the boat. All purpose. The run is all purpose. Light guard. All kind of shit. But it's crazy because he can really, he's very good at a lot of shit. Like I don't get for what it is. He's going to be successful at that. He's going to figure it out. He's going to figure it out. He's one of them people. He's just one of them natural freaks, man. You just, I call him a lab baby, man. He was building it out. What? Watching LeBron. And we've all been pampered, if not, spoiled to the fact that he's been consistent every year to come out with a certain level. But we forget that LeBron is great while he's playing the game. Let's just talk about his progression. I'll tell you, you played him. I mean, moments where he was over the top, great. Talk about just his greatness and how we are spoiled as fans and his greatness and what he's putting on the game. You know what? From the time that he first came in the league, his debut in Sacramento, where he was attacking the rim with ferocity and finishing. As you can see here, when he had that phenomenal second half against us, it's like he just hit a turbo. You know, we in quicksand. You know, we went to fifth straight conference finals at that moment. You know, we didn't play 500 games in five seasons. We in quicksand. My man putting the turbo button on and he's still doing that. It's like he's hitting the R1 on you. He's still hitting the turbo button to this day. There's no reason for us to be here if we weren't confident. May 31st, 2007 was the Eastern Conference Finals. The series was tied two to two. Being in the Palace of Auburn Hills in the playoffs, that's one of the most hostile environments to be in. You just feel like it's just U-12 against the whole city of Detroit. The night at the Palace of Auburn Hills when LeBron went nuts in the fourth quarter and overtime, and I always have to look back and say, now what was it? It was like 25 straight points and 29 on a 30 or something like that. But it was one of those times where we're doing the show from the arena because it was the conference finals and we're on the set and Kenny and Chuck are there. And it was the only time I've seen him speechless. I wanted to put the responsibility on myself and have me answer the call. Here's James, yes, and it counts. The Cavaliers down by one. Axel defending on James. The defense was flat. Basically just gave him one of my left to right cross overs. Once I seen I had him off balance, I wanted to try to be aggressive as I could to make Tay not even thinking about, you know, coming over and trying to block the shot. He has been spectacular. As the fourth quarter started running down and got to a point where I said, you've come this far. There's no looking back now. As the leader, I can allow my team to fail. This has been some kind of performance by this young guy. You start to notice that you're in the zone. All you're thinking about is your next make. Here's James. He scored 15 of the last 16 points. You know, everything is working, so now you have the difference off balance. They don't know if you're going to pull up and shoot a jump shot. They don't know if you're going to shoot a fade away. LeBron James, he has scored the last 20 of the Cavs last 21 points. I think we've gone from having a winner in this game to having a survivor. It's one thing to leave a fan speechless, but when you leave a player speechless, because they've been there, they know what it takes to play in a playoff game, what it takes to win, and when they see a player doing it to that level that LeBron did that night, and they're just like, I mean, I was getting that look. But as we were watching it, it was just like shake your head, jaw dropping, wow. It was like, who's going to dig down to win this basketball game? Top LeBron, behind the back dribble, fourth, filled it up. I don't believe it. He scored the last 24 of the last 25. He jumps up a three, gets through. 46 points for LeBron James. He has scored the last 27 of the last 28. 24 seconds to go with double O-T. Baseline left sheet, turn around, got blocked, no foul. Cavaliers at possession with 11.4 to go. Set it here. Bring LeBron to the top. Make sure he's driving. That's what I stay after practice for, and this is what I'm being a weight room for, that if it's that one game where you need to use every little bit of energy to help your team win. James working it down, five seconds, four, three, James scores. And the Cavaliers come away with an improbable victory here at the palace. He had a magical game against the Pistons. When you, because you played against Jordan, when he was, did you see the same velocity, you see similarities there? The difference is, you know, they're both equally great. LeBron James always came to the game with the same thing that you came to the game with, where he was concerned about others, right? Not only did he have to score, but he also had to make this one better, had to make, and he had the responsibility. Jordan, you know, Kobe, those guys, they come to the game and it's like, okay, how many points you need to win? 40, right? 41 good enough. All right, tomorrow I'm gonna get 50. Oh, 50 ain't good enough? Yeah, I can get 60. He had 48, he had 48. 48 points for LeBron James. He scored 29 of the last 30. One of the great performances of all time. Right here. And we've been spoiled. It's just been remarkable what he's been able to do. You know, and not only that, he came into the league with a lot on his shoulders. What's LeBron like? LeBron, he's a cool guy. He's a guy that actually, for me, when I was coming through college when I first met him, he came to a couple of my games. He's just real down to earth, approachable. Gave me a lot of mental nuggets that I could take with me as I started my own NBA career. And, you know, obviously as a basketball player, it was amazing. So somebody that has a lot of pressure on him and somehow seems to keep getting better. I know how we felt playing against Jordan. Like, Jordan was the most dominant player in our era. And we would talk for hours on the phone watching him play against another team. You know, just admiring him play. But at the same time, it was like there were things that he did in the air that we just couldn't do. And I look at LeBron James in this era, and I say he's doing things that, you know, y'all just can't do. How do y'all feel about LeBron? And then we can talk about how we talked about Jordan. I'd say in terms of, you know, one guy being able to change the course of a game the way he can. He controls the pace. He does things that kind of look like, how do you do that? It doesn't matter sometimes how great a defense you play on him. It's just strength and power to get to the basket. He's obviously developed that outside game that keeps you honest. It's something that you need all antennas up, all five guys every night. And you know, if you don't bring it, he's liable to try to expose you. So in terms of, you know, that first championship run, matching up with him. And some of the stuff that he did on a nightly basis it was spectacular. But you know, at the end of the day, that gives you even more kind of competitiveness and fire to try to figure out how to overcome it and still win. And it gives you a little bit more gratifying feeling when you do, too. You know, do you feel like a strength difference? Because we talk about it a lot on television when we say, oh, he's so much bigger and stronger. But I don't know what it's like to feel it. Can you describe it? I can feel it, especially on the block and transition. You're just in awe of like, I've never seen such a big human move so lightly on his feet. His steps are small, but they're so quick. You know, it's incredible. I remember one time in the finals, I got the ball on a break and Andre was behind me, Godalla, and the bronze chased me. He said, you better dunk it, you better dunk it. So I went up to flush it and I almost killed myself because I was nervous. The bronze had to come by and just, you better dunk it, dunk it because he was coming full speed. So almost, the landing wasn't pretty. I flushed that thing because I wasn't trying to see that ball go to half court. So that's just kind of the presence he has in the court. You know, he's at it all the time. He's great at playing free safety, kind of like Jordan was, and you're just in awe of the things you can do in the air. I mean, like you said, me and Steph could never do these things. No matter how much you work on our vert, how many squats we do, we'll never be able to jump 40 inches and all through our body like that. We got to get it fundamentally. We got to get it with skill, but those dudes blend it with skill and just sheer power. There's no nights off and that's draining. Yeah, I know he is. You know, he's part of the front office group. He was really excited about me missing, you know, that shot a little bit more extra than I would have liked. But, you know, he got a roof for it and for his team, obviously. And he was, you know, he showcased that. So, you know, I knew I had another quarter and the fourth quarter is my favorite. Read it perfectly. LeBron three on two. LeBron all the way. LeBron scores. Eight points. LeBron again. The deal all the way. LBJ. Throw it down. Time out. Cleveland. Here comes Bron all the way to score. Here we've only got three to shoot. Logo. Logo three for LeBron. It's LeBron. Just hit that big three. Down the middle he goes. Three. LeBron stepping back for a three. Off the court, two in this area. Three. Oh, now. Trying to get it in the fridge. LeBron tough shot. No, no. Nothing too tough for the king tonight. Nothing too tough. He was definitely the reason why LeBron went for 21 in the fourth quarter and outscored the whole Cavs team. So, you know, he looked for anything similar to what Cove did. Looked for anything for motivation and he definitely found it. The real part about it, look at the head snap. It was a quick head snap. Oh, no, you didn't. He knew the laugh. He knew who laughed. Exactly. Like, I heard that laugh before. I got you. You want to wake me up? I got something for you right here. And he went off.