Do you think Lebron would have had the single greatest season in College history?

[Blame Rasho]

I've seen enough college basketball and know the benchmarks enough to say, nope, not even close

You know one of my first memories was 1991 Duke vs. UNLV game and that was a remarkable given that UNLV had some stupid 40 game winning streak. Most people had not seen in their lifetime a team that good and Christian Laettner just was a beast that game and overcame their talent. Context needs to be added because that unlv team, beat them the last year by some unholy amount and had three legit 1st rounders and were playing at a level above everyone else.

Less a a percentage of ppl are old enough to have seen the UCLA teams with all of their HOF players.

[Bank Shot]

No chance. His rookie season isn't even close to being the best rookie season we've seen, so I'm not sure why he'd be the best college player ever as a freshman. For that to be case, college basketball would need to be a significantly better fit for his game, and that's a hard argument to make given the lack of spacing and the state of teenage LeBron's jumper.

[DirtyDez]

College basketball used to be more popular than the NBA. Stars stayed in school 3-4 years with the exception of Magic (2 years):

Russell
Oscar
West
Kareem (Alcindor at UCLA)
Walton
Maravich
David Thompson
Magic
Bird
MJ
Sampson
Ewing
Robinson
Danny Manning
Laettner
Shaq

[balrog27]

I highly doubt he can do as well as melo did in college.

[picko]

There have been a lot of great college seasons over the decades and many of them have occurred in a player's second, third or fourth seasons. So it's highly unlikely that he'd have the single greatest season in college history, but I think it's conceivable that he may have had the single greatest season in the past three decades (the period during which the best players started leaving college early or skipping it altogether).

[Ito]

Prolly no to his standards he made a huge jump from year one to year 2 in the NBA.. he prolly would have stayed a PG longer if he woulda worked out in college and would have affected his game until they noticed enough to make a change.. all that matters

[Ito]

Wemby woulda been krazier averaging 10 blocks a game

[Ito]

Wemby woulda been krazier averaging 10 blocks a game

***15

[Coach Carter]

We didn't really need another LeBron thread

[Optms]

Possibly.

But you all are talking nonsense with the flat out no's. All this about College being a different animal. Lebron shooting poorly. Joke posts everywhere. Borderline trolling. Like we didn't see an 18 year old LeBron come in and be a Borderline all star in year 1 while massively making a dumpster team in Cleveland better.

[BruttoNostra]

Another LeBron thread, how refreshing. Anyway, more thread ideas:

Do you think Lebron would have had the single greatest season in the Squid Game?
Do you think Lebron could eat a pint of Ben&Jerry's after a whole pizza - all without hating himself the next morning?
Do you think Lebron would have defeated Lance Armstrong in Tour de France had he switched to cycling?
Do you think Lebron would have defeated 100 gorillas?

[TheCage4]

He'd be too busy transferring between programs and having coaches fired.

[Hair Jordan]

Hell no

[DimesandKnicks]

I heard Ron Artest tell a story about having to throw LeBron on the ground to stop him during a fast break to keep him from scoring. LeBron was 15 at the time. If not the greatest, certainly one of them

[tsherkin]

I don't know about "the single greatest season in college history," but he certainly would have had a dominant run.

We've seen some pretty remarkable college performances over the years, especially from guys who matured and developed beyond their first season. Think of Kareem, Wilt, etc. Hell, Pistol Pete scored over 44 ppg with no 3pt line. Etc, etc.

So I think it's probably a little aggressive to say it would have been the single greatest, but yeah, James would have been among the monsters.

[Billl]

I mean, pistol pete put up 45/6/5 one year and that was before the 3 point line and shot clock. Wilt put up a 30/19 season. Big O had a 33/7/16 season. I'm sure Lebron would have been a dominant college player, but I don't think he would have been scoring 45ppg.

[Roger Murdock]

No because LeBron at 18 wasn’t as good as guys like Kareem were at 21

In addition, LeBron needed a lot of work on his shot at that stage of his career, and was probably a better passer than scorer at that point, meaning he’d rely on spacing and finishing from his teammates

The best college freshmen of the last 25 years are Zion, AD, KD, Melo, and Beasley. If you compare LeBrons 19YO season to their rookie seasons in the NbA, LeBron is head and shoulders above all of them. Hell, his rookie year 18YO season is better than all of their 19YO seasons. So he’s almost certainly easily the best freshmen of the last 30 years.

But Kareem and Bill Walton and Pete Maravich played several years in college and were MVP level players from day1. Same with Duncan.

[HMFFL]

What college would Lebron get in?

Ohio State

[tsherkin]

No because LeBron at 18 wasn’t as good as guys like Kareem were at 21

In addition, LeBron needed a lot of work on his shot at that stage of his career, and was probably a better passer than scorer at that point, meaning he’d rely on spacing and finishing from his teammates

Better passer than shooter at the time, yes. Reliant upon spacing, not so much. He was just too large and too fast, so it wasn't nearly as big a deal.

He'd be better than Melo and Beasley, though, that's for sure. Probably Zion as well.

But yeah, the earlier eras with the dominant bigs, particularly in their junior and senior seasons, hard for those to be topped. And while Maravich fell a lot flatter than his numbers suggested in the NBA, he was a monster in college.

[Johnny Bball]

Not a chance. There were guys that were forced to stay in for 3-4 in College in the past before they could be drafted.