 Welcome to the complete collection of LeBron James' greatest stories told by NBA players and legends part number 3. This is a 3 part series, so if you have missed the first 2 episodes of this series, there is a playlist link in the description box down below that not only has this 3 part series, but also all the other players within the entire series. Without further ado, these episodes take me a long time to edit and produce so if you could quickly hit that like button before the video begins, that would be incredible. Subscribe if you are new and you enjoy NBA content and hit that notification button so you stay notified when a new episode drops. I won't keep you waiting, welcome to the complete collection of LeBron James' greatest stories told by NBA players and legends part 3. LeBron James is by far the best player in this league. I don't think there's really anyone next to him, I think he's there when you go down the list. You know, LeBron is, you know, my goat. Is he? Let's talk about that. The number's on the line, he's right there, he's probably here with Jordan. I get asked all the time about MJ, LeBron, and it's such a difficult question to ask, all I know is they're the 2 best players that I've ever witnessed. You got to put magic in Scottie and Pitty Hardaway. No, you got to put Jordan and magic together and Pitty Hardaway and LeBron. And that's every day, like every day that you're totally focused on this and he's gone past that 8 straight times, it's ridiculous. LeBron is not as good as Michael Jordan, come on. What do you think? LeBron is in a class by himself. You know, LeBron is, you know, my goat. Is he? Oh, let's talk about that. So you got, give me your top 3. LeBron, Mike, probably like Shaq. LeBron is the best player because I feel like just because you talk about the best basketball player, not the best killer instinct, you understand what I'm saying? The fact that he can play all 5 positions, the fact that he's done this shit for 17 years consistently, no drop off at any time. Got a killer the whole time. We've been saying, well, not we. You're getting excited. You big teething right now. Like you really feeling this. But I'm serious. He's the best all around player of all time. He's not 4. Oh yeah, there's no question. All right, do me that. I'll give him that. Scotty Pippen. You would know Lois is LeBron to catching Jordan. The numbers don't lie. He's right there. He's probably here to Jordan. Oh my God! Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play in a game. But I may go as far as to say LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he's so potent offensively that not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved and you have to be on your peas and queues on defense because no guy on the basketball court is not a threat to score when LeBron James is out there. I saw there was this big debate on Twitter about Kobe versus LeBron, who was a better technical player. Better skilled player. LeBron better skilled, but Kobe's a better player to me. I think Kobe better skilled and I think LeBron a better player. Really? This overall, yeah. Just because LeBron just his ability to play with anybody and make anybody better than LeBron. I think LeBron is a better skilled player because he could do more. You know, he a better passer than Kobe. He a better rebounder. I mean, he's ambidextrous. He could use either hand. True. He jumped just as high as Kobe in his footwork. I mean, his footwork. I think Kobe footwork. You'll never see, but the thing is, think about this. We've seen Kobe before or we've seen Jordan who Kobe emulated. Yep. We haven't seen him. You've never seen LeBron? No, for sure. No, I'm saying. The greatest I think Kobe Bryant is. I never said he's not as good as Michael Jordan. Man, this guy LeBron James. You think he could be better than Michael? I do think he can. I throw this water on you right now. Listen, I'm electrocuting twice tonight. I always look at guys from my era like I thought I would never compare somebody in Michael Jordan. But this guy LeBron James from a basketball like he does everything well. There's always been a player who you can compare somebody to. LeBron James is the first player that I've never seen another player that I can compare to. You know, there's always been six, eight guys who were super talented, who were terrific players, but always like 220, 30 pounds. I don't think we've ever had a guy, you know, who, you know, Tracy, Scottie Pippin, who are all guys six, seven, six, eight great defenders, great scores, very athletic. But LeBron outweighed those guys by 30 pounds. And we talk about it all the time like, oh man, this is a freak of nature. Like he does everything well. Like what did Michael do well? He did everything well. LeBron James just bigger, stronger, faster. That's the only difference. Like I said, Michael Jordan always said, Michael Jordan had the perfect body, 6'6", 225. Can I run? I'll jump, tough, everything. I said, there's other guys, 6'8", 260. I mean, we've never had a guy like you mentioned Scottie. Scottie, yeah, Scottie could guard a point guard. But Scottie was 6'7", 220. This other guy is 6'8", 260. He guards power forward. He plays power forward. I mean, this guy has the most unique body sets. He's kind of like Magic playing the point. I'm like, wow, this is 6'9", point guard. Magic, you don't think Magic? No, I mean, Magic wasn't this athletic freak. Magic wasn't doing it like that. You know, he wasn't jumping. Is that against LeBron, the whole pack? Scottie Pippen? Hell no, if you... I mean, if you put them together... If you put them together... You put Magic and Scottie and Pitty Harderwaite. No, you have to put Jordan and Magic together. And Pitty Harderwaite. And then you get LeBron. You know what I'm saying? We playing Miami. I'm like, yeah, I had a thing. If a team cut me, I was gonna have a good game against them because I'm like, I'm gonna make y'all. Make them pay. So I was playing good. Then the play happened. I know where this is going to go. In the play-hat. So Rip Hamilton. I'm like, Rip, back-screen coming. Like, get through. Back-screen. Like, because, you know, Tiz with a defensive team, so we know somebody, you gotta fall back. So I'm like, back-screen. Back-screen coming, back-screen coming. So he don't move, he stops. So, okay, of course, I got a backbuck. Take away, you know, that. So we boom. I'm like this, I'm backing up. You know, guard you man, I'm doing this. I'm like this, they throw the ball up. I was like, hmm. Who is that for? You know what I'm saying? So he, you know, go low. I didn't know he jumped over me at the time. He's dunking. Boom. He go crazy. You know what I'm saying? He said I didn't know he dunked you up over me. I didn't know. So my whole thing was like, oh, shit, you don't give me, let me go get a bucket real quick. So I'm like, take the ball out. So I'm rushing down court. Tiz called timeout. Ooh. So you gotta sit there a little bit. So now, they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's like just going crazy, you know. Playing on the replay. Oh, everybody got right on in there. It looked like you had a. So we on the bench and like, I'm like, this, I'm looking at circle thing. And like Joe Kim and Tiz, we are like, this is quiet. Like, you know, the coaches huddle up in the middle before they come give you the game point. Right. So we are like, oh. Like this and Joe and like Tiz gave me this thing. Like, mm-hmm. Like, yeah, that happened right there. So I give they to far turn both my phones. I had two phones at the time. Both them off. I'm like, I ain't wanted nobody. What do you remember about that play? What do you remember about that moment? I don't want to say it's one of the lowest moments in my career, but at the same time, I mean, I'll forever go down in history. Like you got dunked on by the kids. Every camp, every clinic around America, I go and talk to kids. They don't ask like, man, how did it feel to play 19 years? How did it feel to play with Dirk or win a championship? Yeah. How did it feel to run a dunk on you like that? Oh, come on, man. Get out of here. Was it a fast break? It was a fast break, but what happened was I turned the ball on. So it's just instinct for me. When you turn it over, I got to get it back. So I might have chased the whole team and the coach trying to get the ball back. I got Chalmers coming at me, and then LeBron's coming down the middle. Took my off LeBron for one second. Chase Chalmers turned back around and he was already in the air. Slow motion. What made me jump is what I'm trying to figure out. Like even if you did jump. You're not going to touch that, man. Touching that. Oh, and I jumped, man. And he lifted me on his knee and I was still going up with him. Like LeBron just bang, bang. It was over. Elevated. I was in the rim. Hit the ground, man. I didn't hop up quick. I laid there for a minute. And I think that's the picture, the meme that's out. Like I'm laying there with my arms purple like me in the funeral, man. I can't front, bro. I was one of those people on social media just die laughing at this moment. For three weeks, I was checking my phone and people were sending me a message, man, you okay? Numbers, I haven't heard in eight years I'm seeing numbers pop up. Jets, you are, you good? You good? You good? I don't know what these people are talking about. David said in Wikipedia, they said that was my death date and I had to date and everything on it. That's crazy, man. Michael Jordan. I don't think there could be a comparison to him in the story, farm above everyone else only because he's a mold breaker. Like, you can't, you're not going to be Muhammad Ali. You're never going to be Ali. You can be a great fighter. You can be the best at what you do. You can have a heck of a knockout punch but you're not Ali. You're not Jordan because you can't break a ground that hadn't been broken yet. I don't see that LeBron is going to break a ground that hasn't been, you can't be magic. You're not going to be the first six nine guard that come into the league with the dynamic of what a point guard is. So he will never be that. He will be a great player but he'll never be a ground breaker. I disagree. I agree that Michael is above and beyond everybody but LeBron is breaking new ground with the way he's playing, I think. I don't even know what position he plays but he can guard all five spots. He's really the point guard but then he plays power forward sometimes. I was going to ask you, Steve. Sometimes you hear guys, well, I think LeBron redefined the power forward position. Charles redefined the power forward position. Exactly. So what has LeBron redefined? I think the point that Steve was trying to make. Like, if you remember last year in the playoffs, he guarded Derrick Rose. We would never let a six eight guy guard the MVP in our sport. I disagree. I mean, Scotty Pippen did that. But Scotty Pippen would never play power forward. But meaning, like, okay, his greatest Shaq was, he's never, everyone always says, well, Will. Now Shaq, greatest player we've ever seen at his position, but he's always, because Will was the ground breaker, so he never gets that all the credit he probably deserved because he can't break through that Will comparison. Well, that's on the people. But I think that's what we're talking about. So I think that's the same thing with LeBron. He'll never be in that Michael category because he could never meet up to that. Maybe that's next though. Maybe that's the next step for him. He's got to win four or five more titles, and then people will talk about him in that kind of new role. He's added the three-point threat. You know, when we came here three years ago in the first meeting, we weren't fearful of his shot. We were fearful of his power and his penetration and his passing. But now you fear everything. And I think maybe the greatest testament to LeBron is that five years ago he was one of the top five players of all time. And from five years ago until now, it seems like he's ten times better because he's added so much skill to his game. I get asked all the time about MJ, LeBron, and it's such a difficult question to ask. All I know is they're the two best players that I've ever witnessed. They're very different, but however you want to rank them, they're right there together. I'm shocked at LeBron that he's been able to do it for this long. And we're talking about him going to potentially his seventh NBA final. He's dominated this era of basketball that he's played in. And to be able to do it consistently at this level in these many places Cleveland, Miami, back to Cleveland. He's been the guy which is head-wise. Had to figure it out. He's got to be a basketball savant genius just totally on another different level that arguably we haven't seen in this league. Shot the LB in your greatness, bro. He's been consistent. He's never hurt. You never hear anything in the news about him. He's a great, I mean, great hereditarian. So on and so on with the ETC when it comes to LB. You know what I'm saying? He's starting schools. He's going 25 and the fourth against the Pistons. What else are you going to do, bro? He's unbelievable. And I think we've played now until May 25th and May 27th the last two years. And we started on September 25th and that's every day. Like every day that you're totally focused on this. And he's gone past that eight straight times. It's ridiculous. And does it at this level and with the pressure, with the scrutiny doesn't matter. It's just unbelievable. Our goal going into the series was to make him exert as much energy as humanly possible. And try to be as good as we can on everybody else who are good players. And for the most part I thought we were pretty good at that and multiple games now in TD Garden, held them under 100. Three games in the 80s but he still scored 35. It's a joke. Woodla Braun gets the super status of the NBA if he came into the league in the 90s. I think he's an athletic Oscar Roberson. If you look at that 60s every day. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player. He's a great person. If you look at that 60s or 70s or whatever that way. But three inches bigger. If you look in the 80s he's an athletic Magic Johnson. And in this era he's himself. But you add the athleticism that the other guys that had 10 players all the time. Who's the player that's playing in the NBA today, Elgin Baylor, that could have held his own in the league while you were playing and with the rules that you were playing? Oh, well, you were talking about it, LeBron James. I mean, he's like a freak of nature. I mean, this guy, man, he's built like Hercules. I mean, he's six, eight. And to think he weighs like 275 or 280, I mean, he should be out there playing football too. But I mean, he is one heck of an athlete. As far as playing basketball, you've got to enjoy this guy. If you're a basketball fan, you've got to sit back and go, wow, how do you do that? I always say, boy, I wish I had his speed. But some of the stuff that kid does out there, he's my far. Kobe was always my favorite since I got out. I don't like that, by the way. But LeBron James is, by far, best player in this league. By far? I don't think there's really anyone next to him. I think he's there. Then you go down the list. Being a small forward, understand what type of player he is. Like, again, like Charles said, he's a player of six, eight, 260, 270 with unbelievable speed and athleticism. You can't wait, where have you ever seen him? He actually could have been better in the night. And I'll tell you something. If he ever really learns how to play on the post and adapt that as part of his game, you think he's unstoppable now? He might have played better. He might have played better than a 24. Falling away, got it. Start looking to go now. Trying to get it in the fridge. LeBron, tough shot. Nothing too tough for the king tonight. LeBron, baseline, jump shot. Gavin, another opportunity. LeBron, tough shot. He's two of three, five points, consecutive wins. And this is something they want to hang their head on. Oh, my goodness. Minute 20 to play here in the quarter. LeBron turns, confronts two players. You just said it in our era. Better players than guys. Better players. And I think you've been posting up more than also because the way we filed in the 90s, he'd have developed the jump shot even quicker. All right, unanimous yes to that. And Steve Kerr getting testy. And we'll be back with a little bit more. Open court on NBA TV. Aren't you going to come up with a question? LeBron would have been horrible tonight. He would have sucked it in the 70s. He would have been brutal in the 70s. I'm not even major team. It's not a bit like Darryl Walker said. Tracey was going to go play for three years. Darryl Walker would have cut him. Matt made a really good point, Sean. Do you think that LeBron James is still the best player in the league at 36? He's always been the best player. He's probably been the best player in the league since his third or fourth year in the league. It seems to me that the media, they like to outsmart themselves and try to figure out a different MVP every year. Oh, we like this guy. This guy's had a better year, blah, blah, blah. That to me is kind of like the Michael Jordan effect, if you will, where you know who the best player in the league is, but you want to prove that you're smarter than everybody else by electing somebody else's MVP. LeBron James has been the MVP basically every year. He's been in the league. I know that we like to compare other players to him and say, this guy is good. No one in this league right now has done what he's done, taking three different teams to the finals. And some of those teams, the Cleveland team that he won with, they had no business winning the NBA finals if it wasn't for him. So to me, he's still the undisputed king. Yeah, and you think about King James, he's played basketball so long that he actually played when Matt Bonner was playing. So Matt, do you have any special stories going up against LeBron in your years? Oh, a ton. But one that particularly sticks out in my mind was one time I was the lone person back on defense and he was coming at me like a freight train. So I'm like, all right, I'm just going to wrap him up and make him earn it at the free throw line. And right there, you see how strong and powerful he is. He went right through my arms and somehow finished that basket. And I remember looking at Coach Pop after he hit it and Coach Pop just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders like, hey. He's LeBron James. That's what makes it difficult to guard. Anybody else? That's LeBron James. What do you want from me? If you could have picked any current player right now to play with for an entire season, who would you have picked? Probably Kobe, because the fact that he's, well, of course he wouldn't have been shooting as much as he does now. Yeah, you wouldn't have had to talk with him. His desire to win, his dedication in all season to get better. And he just, he's just tough. He's just a tough cat. But if you want to have fun, like I did with Bill Walton, you play with LeBron. Really? He'd be probably more fun to play with LeBron. But if you want to win and win and win, it's Kobe. If he wants to win, he'd like to play with Kobe. If he wants to have fun, he'd like to play with you. Everyone interprets. How did you interpret? Well, I mean, it's simple. Kobe has fire rings and I have none. So it's easy to say that. If I got fire rings and Kobe has none, then it'd probably be the other way around. So, you know, I'm an easy target. Let's say that. Okay? If someone wants to get a point across, you just throw LeBron's name in there. You could be watching cartoons with your kids. If you don't like it, you say, blame it on LeBron. Go to the grocery store and they'll have the milk that you like. You say it's LeBron's fault. I'm easy targets and I understand that. I mean, it's not, it doesn't get to me at all. Part of this vote or the thought process is always what is the good story? When Charles won the MVP, when Carl Malone won an MVP, they were a fresher story than Michael Jordan. I voted for Jordan every year because I just thought that he is the most valuable player in the league and he's going to win a championship. And I would vote the same way with LeBron. I always looked at him, he's like Jordan that he's the most valuable person in the NBA and he's going to play for a championship. Maybe that's not fair to do it that way, but I didn't go out of my way to go, boy, I'm kind of bored with voting for the same guy. How about, I mean, Greek Freak was a great story last year. He wasn't the same story this year. I thought LeBron was a better story. That didn't mean he was the MVP, but I probably would have leaned that way to vote for LeBron to do what he's doing. And he completely reinvented the roster, made Anthony Davis the focal point, led the league in assist, and he did it in the Western Conference where people said, well, let's see what LeBron would do if he played in the Western Conference. So from a storyline, that was a better story than the Greek Freak. And also Theodore, I think if you ask LeBron deep down, he's trying to do something that no one's ever done in the history of the game. And that's when three championships with three different organizations and winning finals MVP. No one's ever done that. He's done it twice, obviously with Miami and Cleveland, and he has a chance to do that with the Lakers. Obviously, he would probably be battling for that finals MVP with Anthony Davis, but he has an opportunity to do something Michael Jordan's never done, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which would be his fourth, but winning finals MVP as well. I think LeBron's at the redemptive stage. I think he's at the stage where he's put in the time, he's been proven who he was. He's been challenged by everybody. And the fact that he's stayed quiet and finished his goal kind of just puts him at the stage where I've done everything I've asked for, that you've asked of me. Now let me have the freedom to pursue and chase the rest of these championships. You know, I look at, I think he started not listening to all the critics. I think the one thing is I think he listened to everything. I think in the finals last, the year before against Dallas, he was up tweeting at three AM, you know, talking to fans. I think he finally started to say, let me just be myself. And whatever happens, happens, wherever the chips may fall. And he started to play the game a different way. For me seeing him post up, to me taking a challenge of garden force. He didn't do that in the Dallas series. He never really guarded a dirt and whiskey. I think now he'll accept the challenge right now to play center. So I think he accept now I'll do whatever it takes. I'm gonna play my way. And I think that's what he did is pretty much, you know, canceled out the noise and just started to play. What's scary is what lies ahead for him. He's already won three MVP's. He's considered by all of us as the best player on the planet right now. I think his best basketball is yet to come because of that one championship. And I think that's what's scary. The best basketball for LeBron James, I believe is ahead of him. Kind of scary, isn't it, Shaq? We haven't seen the best of LeBron James yet? It's very scary, but unfortunately for LeBron, now that the monkey is off his back, he's gonna be compared to two people. That's Covey Bryant and Michael Jordan. So now the question is, how many championships can he get? We all know he's a competitor, and he's gonna be going for that five and six mark. What do you think, Steve? Well, he's the most scrutinized athlete probably in the history of the world, given the amount of media these days. I thought it was just really cool watching him break through that wall, as Steve said. I mean, he had that moment this year where he broke through to the next level, not only because he got the ring, but the manner in which he did it. The Dallas series, you know, a couple of years ago, he struggled in the finals. This time he totally dominated. And I just think about the maturity. You know, you think back to his Cleveland days, pregame warm-ups, they're doing all the camera stuff. And you know, it was all fun. It started not being fun for him for a couple of years there. And then I think he just realized the only way that this is really fun at this level is to win and he got it done. And that concludes the complete collection series on LeBron James. If you enjoyed this series, be sure to hit that like button, subscribe if you are new for a new episode, and tell me which player you would like to see next down below in the comment section. Hit that notification button so you're notified when a new episode releases, and I will catch you guys in the next video. I am out, peace.