Post#46 » by Roger Murdock » Wed Mar 27, 2024 5:02 pm
There’s a chance that LeBron isn’t viewed as a top 10 player in 30 years but if it happens it means that we have an *explosion* of NBA talent starting basically right now, that pushes everyone down.
LeBron has a top 3 peak and top 2 longevity in NBA history. His career overlaps directly with the wave of social media. Jordan, Bird, Magic, etc have romanticized careers because they played when sports coverage was handled by analysts and broadcasters. At the start of LeBrons career, social media, message boards, and blogs were in their infancy. Sports coverage went from analysis to hot take culture led by Skip Bayless. Fast forward a few years, Twitter, podcasts, everyone has a voice and the more critical and negative voices get more clicks. Negativity sells considerably easier than positivity and LeBron has been the post boy for hot takes because he was pegged as the chosen one.
LeBron has been in the league for 20 years. Nobody that has joined the NBA has been anywhere even close to usurping him as the next GOAT level player.
-KD, Wade and Steph - worse peaks, worse playoff performances, less longevity
-Harden - lol
-Davis and Zion failed to live up to the hype
-Jokic and Giannis are the surprise superstars but both peaks hit too late and Giannis already has more playoff failures than LeBron and a worse peak. I can’t see Jokic getting there
-Doncic looked like the next guy but hasn’t had same trajectory as LeBron
-Maybe Wemby?
That’s 20 years and 0 players with comparable peak or longevity. You need both.