What made LeBron such a “can’t-miss” prospect in high school?

[Wingy]

The eye test?

It took about a minute or two watching him and you knew it was a different kind of special.

[cgf]

I don't think anyone thought he would be as good as he turned out. I remember at the time some saying Carmelo might be better because he was only one year older and coming off an insane run as a freshman at Syracuse. Nothing is ever guaranteed with any pick. Hell look at same draft where Darko went 2nd right after Lebron. Slam magazine had Lebron and Sebastian Telfair on same cover. Both of those guys came right out of high school and Telfair had a solid career, but never made an Allstar game.

I mean, maybe not the durability, but the expectations were for him to pick the mantle from MJ in a way Kobe never managed to.

Yeah... I'm just saying there have been others who were hyped to be all time greats and it didn't work out.

True, but Wemby is the only prospect I've seen even come close to LeBron's expectations as a prospect and I've been a fan since the 90s. The talk wasn't just this kid could be an alltimer if he didn't get derailed, the expectation was that he would actually challenge Jordan.

[dhsilv2]

Over MJ, Barkley, and Hakeem? Stop it
You must not have understood the league back then

You're clearly not understanding how athletic Lebron is/was coming in. And since we're talking "the league back then", leborn would have played college ball for 2 years. A 6'8 250 pound Lebron is going first.

It's amazing here we are with Lebron at 40 and people are still not grasping just how much of a unicorn his genetics are. Not to mention at the time the two best players were Magic and Bird.

The comp would be something like Magic if he had wilt's strength if people were writing about Lebron in the mid 80's.

That’s exactly the point, LeBron was drafted straight out of high school in 03, you’re now moving the goal post and saying “LeBron would have played college ball for 2 years”. He didn’t, he played in high school and that was it. Say we go based off of your argument, do you understand how coveted big men were? The league wasn’t what it is now. Big men were extremely coveted in the league and thats why they continually went #1 overall from Kareem, to Hakeem, the Ewing to Shaq. You’re looking at LeBron now and making comparisons, and further moving the goalpost about what LeBron is now. Sorry to break it to you, but no one cares what he is now, because the original argument by you, was that LeBron would go first overall in the 84 draft. What he looks like now at the age of 40, has no bearance on what he looked like at the draft and as a 18 or 19 year old.

An 18 year old LeBron, or even a 20 year old LeBron WAS NOT BETTER than Hakeem, Michael or Barkley in that draft. Whereas Hakeem In his sophomore and junior years at he Univ. of Houston helped the Cougars advance to consecutive NCAA championship games, and was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1983. He was also named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year. That’s just Hakeem, that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of MJ or Barkley. You don’t understand how prized of a player Hakeem was .

If you’re under the age of 35, there’s no possible way you could understand what the league was then compared to now. SEVEN out of ten first overall picks were CENTERS. We aren’t talking about comparing LeBron to Magic, or bird, because again, your original argument focused on if he would have went #1 overall in that 84 draft, and that just goes to show, back then you always took size first. Why do you think Bowie was drafted over Jordan? The team had Clyde already, they didn’t want another sf, of or sg. The league coveted CENTERS, which was why TWO CENTERS went first and second overall.

You can make an argument that 18 year old Lebron doesn't go first because teams would have been scared of him coming in as a high school kid. But that's where the argument ends.

The very fact you're even bringing up Chuck tells me that you're likely just a troll as there's no world a 6'4 Chuck goes over Lebron in terms of athletic ability.

Now our age has no bearing on if we're able to understand the value placed on big men in the 80's. I'm obviously over 40 and certainly 35 (as nearly everyone on this board is). So this weird stuff is seriously sad.

Lebron was simply the most athletic player in NBA history by a margin, with perhaps the exception of Wilt. And we knew it coming in. He was an absolute monster at 18. Lebron was 2 inches taller than MJ with 45 pounds on, and has nearly the same speed and quickness, while bring stronger than Chuck and likely nearly as strong already as Dream was. Oh and he just so happened to be one of the most gifted passers coming into the draft we'd ever seen.

Now I get Hakeem was a huge deal. Bowie a bit less so. But the league wasn't nearly as obsessed with big men as your claim. Mark Aguirre, Magic Johnson, and James Worth had all been recent first overall picks.

[jokeboy86]

Combination of Magic and Jordan(minus the shooting) in Karl Malone's body. I dont think people will fully comprehend how much of a physical freak Lebron was/is until years from now. There's a reason 20 years later we still havent said any prospects remind us of Lebron. I know people wanted to say Simmons but he didnt have Lebron's athleticism and unlike in the case of Lebron not being a good shooter, Simmons had no jumpshot whatsoever.

[foreigngrammar]

Watch the full game vs Oak Hill Academy and what Dickie V says about him as a prospect.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUcbGVicm9uIGhpZ2ggc2Nob29sIGZ1bGwgZ2FtZQ%3D%3D

Were you born in 2000?

[Dan33185]

Watch the full game vs Oak Hill Academy and what Dickie V says about him as a prospect.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUcbGVicm9uIGhpZ2ggc2Nob29sIGZ1bGwgZ2FtZQ%3D%3D

Were you born in 2000?

Ha, I was going to say, this is pretty standard quality for that era, people nowadays are spoiled by HD everything.

[reddyplayerone]

I mean LeBron was basically the same size he is now in high school

It looked a lot like those highlights of Zion in HS where he's just a lot bigger than everyone else on top of being way way way more athletic than just about anyone anywhere

And then he was seen as a pass first guy who everyone was comparing to Magic constantly. Go back and watch clips of his HS games and the commentators are making that comparison all the time. His NBADraft.net prospect page is still up and their comp for him is of course Magic Johnson.

So it was the passing and the playmaking that had everyone REALLY excited about him coming into the league

And it's kind of sad actually that the shape of his career is more like that of an MJ clone, albeit like the best version of that we've seen.

But we've seen a lot of MJ clones, and we'll keep seeing MJ clones. We don't get any Magic clones really

[Bolivar]

Were you born in 2000?

Ha, I was going to say, this is pretty standard quality for that era, people nowadays are spoiled by HD everything.

I'm 40+ just like everyone else here No reason to pretend that everything in 2002 was like this. Here's one from 1946 that's higher quality:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2448787

[The KnicksFix]

You're clearly not understanding how athletic Lebron is/was coming in. And since we're talking "the league back then", leborn would have played college ball for 2 years. A 6'8 250 pound Lebron is going first.

It's amazing here we are with Lebron at 40 and people are still not grasping just how much of a unicorn his genetics are. Not to mention at the time the two best players were Magic and Bird.

The comp would be something like Magic if he had wilt's strength if people were writing about Lebron in the mid 80's.

That’s exactly the point, LeBron was drafted straight out of high school in 03, you’re now moving the goal post and saying “LeBron would have played college ball for 2 years”. He didn’t, he played in high school and that was it. Say we go based off of your argument, do you understand how coveted big men were? The league wasn’t what it is now. Big men were extremely coveted in the league and thats why they continually went #1 overall from Kareem, to Hakeem, the Ewing to Shaq. You’re looking at LeBron now and making comparisons, and further moving the goalpost about what LeBron is now. Sorry to break it to you, but no one cares what he is now, because the original argument by you, was that LeBron would go first overall in the 84 draft. What he looks like now at the age of 40, has no bearance on what he looked like at the draft and as a 18 or 19 year old.

An 18 year old LeBron, or even a 20 year old LeBron WAS NOT BETTER than Hakeem, Michael or Barkley in that draft. Whereas Hakeem In his sophomore and junior years at he Univ. of Houston helped the Cougars advance to consecutive NCAA championship games, and was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1983. He was also named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year. That’s just Hakeem, that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of MJ or Barkley. You don’t understand how prized of a player Hakeem was .

If you’re under the age of 35, there’s no possible way you could understand what the league was then compared to now. SEVEN out of ten first overall picks were CENTERS. We aren’t talking about comparing LeBron to Magic, or bird, because again, your original argument focused on if he would have went #1 overall in that 84 draft, and that just goes to show, back then you always took size first. Why do you think Bowie was drafted over Jordan? The team had Clyde already, they didn’t want another sf, of or sg. The league coveted CENTERS, which was why TWO CENTERS went first and second overall.

You can make an argument that 18 year old Lebron doesn't go first because teams would have been scared of him coming in as a high school kid. But that's where the argument ends.

The very fact you're even bringing up Chuck tells me that you're likely just a troll as there's no world a 6'4 Chuck goes over Lebron in terms of athletic ability.

Now our age has no bearing on if we're able to understand the value placed on big men in the 80's. I'm obviously over 40 and certainly 35 (as nearly everyone on this board is). So this weird stuff is seriously sad.

Lebron was simply the most athletic player in NBA history by a margin, with perhaps the exception of Wilt. And we knew it coming in. He was an absolute monster at 18. Lebron was 2 inches taller than MJ with 45 pounds on, and has nearly the same speed and quickness, while bring stronger than Chuck and likely nearly as strong already as Dream was. Oh and he just so happened to be one of the most gifted passers coming into the draft we'd ever seen.

Now I get Hakeem was a huge deal. Bowie a bit less so. But the league wasn't nearly as obsessed with big men as your claim. Mark Aguirre, Magic Johnson, and James Worth had all been recent first overall picks.

From 1969 - 1999, out of 30 first overall picks, 16 of them were centers …….sure the league wasn’t obsessed with big men back then

He wasn’t going over Hakeem in that draft man, say what you want about MJ, or Barkley, he wasn’t going over Hakeem
You do realize that Bowie went over MJ in THAT SAME DRAFT because of how much teams wanted talented bigs, and not forwards or guards

[Raps in 4]

His combination of size, skill, and athleticism. That was the only time I'd ever watched a prospect and knew instantly he'd have a chance at becoming the GOAT. I was 12, and certainly less discerning, but I was completely blown away by what I saw.

[JonFromVA]

Were you born in 2000?

Ha, I was going to say, this is pretty standard quality for that era, people nowadays are spoiled by HD everything.

Looks like it might be broadcast TV recorded to VHS then digitized and copied up to YouTube. Cable and satellite had varying compression levels too, so, whole lots of ways for the original video to become degraded. But it all starts with the source which just wasn't any good which became painfully obvious to anyone who owned a DVD player and a big screen TV back then.

Yes, some TV programs and movies were recorded on film which is much higher quality than the video recorders of the time, but basically there's a 30+ year period where a whole lot of media and sports were committed to low quality video tape.

The NFL was pretty smart to create NFL Films back in 1962 to properly document, archive, and preserve their game.

Maybe we'll patch it all up with AI one of these days.

Technically it didn't suck nearly as bad if you were watching the games on a 15" TV...

[dhsilv2]

That’s exactly the point, LeBron was drafted straight out of high school in 03, you’re now moving the goal post and saying “LeBron would have played college ball for 2 years”. He didn’t, he played in high school and that was it. Say we go based off of your argument, do you understand how coveted big men were? The league wasn’t what it is now. Big men were extremely coveted in the league and thats why they continually went #1 overall from Kareem, to Hakeem, the Ewing to Shaq. You’re looking at LeBron now and making comparisons, and further moving the goalpost about what LeBron is now. Sorry to break it to you, but no one cares what he is now, because the original argument by you, was that LeBron would go first overall in the 84 draft. What he looks like now at the age of 40, has no bearance on what he looked like at the draft and as a 18 or 19 year old.

An 18 year old LeBron, or even a 20 year old LeBron WAS NOT BETTER than Hakeem, Michael or Barkley in that draft. Whereas Hakeem In his sophomore and junior years at he Univ. of Houston helped the Cougars advance to consecutive NCAA championship games, and was named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1983. He was also named the Helms Foundation Player of the Year. That’s just Hakeem, that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of MJ or Barkley. You don’t understand how prized of a player Hakeem was .

If you’re under the age of 35, there’s no possible way you could understand what the league was then compared to now. SEVEN out of ten first overall picks were CENTERS. We aren’t talking about comparing LeBron to Magic, or bird, because again, your original argument focused on if he would have went #1 overall in that 84 draft, and that just goes to show, back then you always took size first. Why do you think Bowie was drafted over Jordan? The team had Clyde already, they didn’t want another sf, of or sg. The league coveted CENTERS, which was why TWO CENTERS went first and second overall.

You can make an argument that 18 year old Lebron doesn't go first because teams would have been scared of him coming in as a high school kid. But that's where the argument ends.

The very fact you're even bringing up Chuck tells me that you're likely just a troll as there's no world a 6'4 Chuck goes over Lebron in terms of athletic ability.

Now our age has no bearing on if we're able to understand the value placed on big men in the 80's. I'm obviously over 40 and certainly 35 (as nearly everyone on this board is). So this weird stuff is seriously sad.

Lebron was simply the most athletic player in NBA history by a margin, with perhaps the exception of Wilt. And we knew it coming in. He was an absolute monster at 18. Lebron was 2 inches taller than MJ with 45 pounds on, and has nearly the same speed and quickness, while bring stronger than Chuck and likely nearly as strong already as Dream was. Oh and he just so happened to be one of the most gifted passers coming into the draft we'd ever seen.

Now I get Hakeem was a huge deal. Bowie a bit less so. But the league wasn't nearly as obsessed with big men as your claim. Mark Aguirre, Magic Johnson, and James Worth had all been recent first overall picks.

From 1969 - 1999, out of 30 first overall picks, 16 of them were centers …….sure the league wasn’t obsessed with big men back then

He wasn’t going over Hakeem in that draft man, say what you want about MJ, or Barkley, he wasn’t going over Hakeem
You do realize that Bowie went over MJ in THAT SAME DRAFT because of how much teams wanted talented bigs, and not forwards or guards

jordan was 190 pounds when he was drafted. You're not grasping how different level Lebron is here.

[The KnicksFix]

You can make an argument that 18 year old Lebron doesn't go first because teams would have been scared of him coming in as a high school kid. But that's where the argument ends.

The very fact you're even bringing up Chuck tells me that you're likely just a troll as there's no world a 6'4 Chuck goes over Lebron in terms of athletic ability.

Now our age has no bearing on if we're able to understand the value placed on big men in the 80's. I'm obviously over 40 and certainly 35 (as nearly everyone on this board is). So this weird stuff is seriously sad.

Lebron was simply the most athletic player in NBA history by a margin, with perhaps the exception of Wilt. And we knew it coming in. He was an absolute monster at 18. Lebron was 2 inches taller than MJ with 45 pounds on, and has nearly the same speed and quickness, while bring stronger than Chuck and likely nearly as strong already as Dream was. Oh and he just so happened to be one of the most gifted passers coming into the draft we'd ever seen.

Now I get Hakeem was a huge deal. Bowie a bit less so. But the league wasn't nearly as obsessed with big men as your claim. Mark Aguirre, Magic Johnson, and James Worth had all been recent first overall picks.

From 1969 - 1999, out of 30 first overall picks, 16 of them were centers …….sure the league wasn’t obsessed with big men back then

He wasn’t going over Hakeem in that draft man, say what you want about MJ, or Barkley, he wasn’t going over Hakeem
You do realize that Bowie went over MJ in THAT SAME DRAFT because of how much teams wanted talented bigs, and not forwards or guards

jordan was 190 pounds when he was drafted. You're not grasping how different level Lebron is here.

Right, but the main focus of my argument is the importance of centers then compared to now.

[runtmc]

From 1969 - 1999, out of 30 first overall picks, 16 of them were centers …….sure the league wasn’t obsessed with big men back then

He wasn’t going over Hakeem in that draft man, say what you want about MJ, or Barkley, he wasn’t going over Hakeem
You do realize that Bowie went over MJ in THAT SAME DRAFT because of how much teams wanted talented bigs, and not forwards or guards

Bowie going over Jordan wasnt because teams were center-obsessed. Centers were absolutely more highly valued back then than they are now, but:
a) Bowie going over Jordan was controversial even at the time -- it was generally thought of as a mistake even then, as most considered Jordan the much better prospect than Bowie
b) Portland had Drexler, a future HOFer in his own right, at Jordan's position and they needed a big, not another wing -- a huge, huge part of that selection was about Portland's positional need, rather than taking the BAP
c) It says a lot more about Jordan as a prospect than it says about Centers vs other positions -- it simply wasnt the case that Jordan was considered a super-hyped, cant-miss prospect coming out of college and Houston/Portland took a center anyway. James Worthy for example played with Jordan at UNC and was viewed as a better player than Jordan in college. Jordan was looked at as a great player, no doubt, but nowhere near -- nowhere near -- the hype or prospect of a Wilt, KAJ, Lebron, Wemby, etc.

And Lebron 100% would have gone #1 over anyone in basketball history except perhaps Wilt or Kareem, and I honestly think there's a *very* good chance he goes over both of them as well. He certainly goes before Hakeem/MJ. MJ and Hakeem were not even in the same galaxy at 16/17/18 that Lebron was at. I dont think its a stretch to say Lebron was the best 16/17/18 year old prospect in basketball history, and without question the most hyped, including Wilt/KAJ/Wemby. And I say that as someone thats not a particular fan of Lebron. To put it in perspective, Darko and Anthony were *both* considered #1 picks in any other draft/borderline generational talents -- as in multiple AS/HOF level prospects in their own right -- and there was zero consideration that either of them would go before Lebron. Zero.

It was clear that Lebron was not only a supernaturally gifted physical specimen, but the crazy part was he was physically mature far, FAR younger than I think any player ever. A lot of times you can see the athleticism/jumping ability/explosiveness but a guy will need time to grow into their body and mature physically, usually that happens in their early 20s, even for the unicorns/freaks. The thing about Lebron is that Lebron looked like a physically ready to go HOFer by the time he was 16-17, and definitely by the time he was 18 -- it was just unheard of (and still is) to have his combination of speed/size/explosiveness/athleticism. People seriously talked about him saying he would have been a HOF receiver/TE in football if he had decided to play, and there was even some talk about a football team (particularly the Browns) drafting him anyway, just in case -- not in a joking way, but a dead serious sort of way.

You can speculate how or why he matured physically so early -- I personally am quite convinced he was on PEDs of some sort (I remember the scouting reports of him from his early HS days, and one of the main knocks was he needed to fill out his frame) -- but it doesnt really matter. I can tell you in my 40+ years I have never seen anyone that was as physically mature as he was at the age he was. Amare is maybe the only other guy I can remember that came anywhere close to being *physically* as dominant in HS as Lebron, but Amare was held back a year or two and was much older than Lebron -- I think Amare was 20 as a rookie despite being drafted out of HS. Even Shaq for example, one of the few other guys that were physically dominant like that, I dont recall hearing much about him until he was in college, and even then he wasnt really talked about that much until he went viral for shattering a backboard in a tryout before the draft. But nobody has ever had the sort of hype as a 16/17 year old except Lebron that Ive ever seen (with the caveat Im not old enough to have been around for Wilt/KAJ).

The *floor* on Lebron coming out was considered to be something like Magic because he had a very questionable shot, and it wasnt clear how well he would be able to score at the next level, while the ceiling was the runaway GOAT -- a bigger, stronger, more talented MJ, depending on his work ethic/drive etc. There were also some serious questions about his maturity and if the hype would go to his head. It was big news when he got a hummer for his 18th bday for example, and whether it was tampering/improper as a HSer.

I was in college when Lebron was drafted, and was closely following basketball at the time -- the hype was unreal to a level thats hard to describe. I remember there being *serious* conversations about whether he would be the future GOAT and surpass MJ, not just among my friends, but the wider basketball/sports world -- and this was when MJ was still god of the sports world. He had NBA players showing up to his games as a 16 year old, his games were being shown on national TV and were getting huge ratings -- it was must see TV. I personally watched a bunch of his HS games on ESPN. He had a 100m+ shoe deal offered before playing a single game, and something like a dozen different endorsements that totaled something like ~150m (and this was 20+ years ago), I forget the exact figure -- Gatorade, Coke, Upper Deck, Bubble gum, Nike, etc. He had more endorsement money before playing a single game than all but a handful of athletes on the planet. Theres not a sports prospect in any other sport, ever, that I can think of that comes anywhere remotely close to the level of hype he had. The local news would report on his games -- he was everywhere. He was like a Kardashian/MrBeast/Jake Paul level of fame at their height, but as a HSer. It was genuinely crazy.

Even setting aside the talent projections, just based on an interest/ratings level, no team would have ever passed on the potential sales/ratings etc that Lebron brought to the table, and certainly not for Hakeem.

[heatwillbeback]

Unreal athleticism mixed with special ball handing/passing.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

I don't think anyone thought he would be as good as he turned out. I remember at the time some saying Carmelo might be better because he was only one year older and coming off an insane run as a freshman at Syracuse. Nothing is ever guaranteed with any pick. Hell look at same draft where Darko went 2nd right after Lebron. Slam magazine had Lebron and Sebastian Telfair on same cover. Both of those guys came right out of high school and Telfair had a solid career, but never made an Allstar game.

Nah, Lebron always had the all time great potential right from the get. I don't think you're remembering clearly or were around back then or something. Could I be confused? No the children must be wrong.

[The KnicksFix]

From 1969 - 1999, out of 30 first overall picks, 16 of them were centers …….sure the league wasn’t obsessed with big men back then

He wasn’t going over Hakeem in that draft man, say what you want about MJ, or Barkley, he wasn’t going over Hakeem
You do realize that Bowie went over MJ in THAT SAME DRAFT because of how much teams wanted talented bigs, and not forwards or guards

Bowie going over Jordan wasnt because teams were center-obsessed. Centers were absolutely more highly valued back then than they are now, but:
a) Bowie going over Jordan was controversial even at the time -- it was generally thought of as a mistake even then, as most considered Jordan the much better prospect than Bowie
b) Portland had Drexler, a future HOFer in his own right, at Jordan's position and they needed a big, not another wing -- a huge, huge part of that selection was about Portland's positional need, rather than taking the BAP
c) It says a lot more about Jordan as a prospect than it says about Centers vs other positions -- it simply wasnt the case that Jordan was considered a super-hyped, cant-miss prospect coming out of college and Houston/Portland took a center anyway. James Worthy for example played with Jordan at UNC and was viewed as a better player than Jordan in college. Jordan was looked at as a great player, no doubt, but nowhere near -- nowhere near -- the hype or prospect of a Wilt, KAJ, Lebron, Wemby, etc.

And Lebron 100% would have gone #1 over anyone in basketball history except perhaps Wilt or Kareem, and I honestly think there's a *very* good chance he goes over both of them as well. He certainly goes before Hakeem/MJ. MJ and Hakeem were not even in the same galaxy at 16/17/18 that Lebron was at. I dont think its a stretch to say Lebron was the best 16/17/18 year old prospect in basketball history, and without question the most hyped, including Wilt/KAJ/Wemby. And I say that as someone thats not a particular fan of Lebron. To put it in perspective, Darko and Anthony were *both* considered #1 picks in any other draft/borderline generational talents -- as in multiple AS/HOF level prospects in their own right -- and there was zero consideration that either of them would go before Lebron. Zero.

It was clear that Lebron was not only a supernaturally gifted physical specimen, but the crazy part was he was physically mature far, FAR younger than I think any player ever. A lot of times you can see the athleticism/jumping ability/explosiveness but a guy will need time to grow into their body and mature physically, usually that happens in their early 20s, even for the unicorns/freaks. The thing about Lebron is that Lebron looked like a physically ready to go HOFer by the time he was 16-17, and definitely by the time he was 18 -- it was just unheard of (and still is) to have his combination of speed/size/explosiveness/athleticism. People seriously talked about him saying he would have been a HOF receiver/TE in football if he had decided to play, and there was even some talk about a football team (particularly the Browns) drafting him anyway, just in case -- not in a joking way, but a dead serious sort of way.

You can speculate how or why he matured physically so early -- I personally am quite convinced he was on PEDs of some sort (I remember the scouting reports of him from his early HS days, and one of the main knocks was he needed to fill out his frame) -- but it doesnt really matter. I can tell you in my 40+ years I have never seen anyone that was as physically mature as he was at the age he was. Amare is maybe the only other guy I can remember that came anywhere close to being *physically* as dominant in HS as Lebron, but Amare was held back a year or two and was much older than Lebron -- I think Amare was 20 as a rookie despite being drafted out of HS. Even Shaq for example, one of the few other guys that were physically dominant like that, I dont recall hearing much about him until he was in college, and even then he wasnt really talked about that much until he went viral for shattering a backboard in a tryout before the draft. But nobody has ever had the sort of hype as a 16/17 year old except Lebron that Ive ever seen (with the caveat Im not old enough to have been around for Wilt/KAJ).

The *floor* on Lebron coming out was considered to be something like Magic because he had a very questionable shot, and it wasnt clear how well he would be able to score at the next level, while the ceiling was the runaway GOAT -- a bigger, stronger, more talented MJ, depending on his work ethic/drive etc. There were also some serious questions about his maturity and if the hype would go to his head. It was big news when he got a hummer for his 18th bday for example, and whether it was tampering/improper as a HSer.

I was in college when Lebron was drafted, and was closely following basketball at the time -- the hype was unreal to a level thats hard to describe. I remember there being *serious* conversations about whether he would be the future GOAT and surpass MJ, not just among my friends, but the wider basketball/sports world -- and this was when MJ was still god of the sports world. He had NBA players showing up to his games as a 16 year old, his games were being shown on national TV and were getting huge ratings -- it was must see TV. I personally watched a bunch of his HS games on ESPN. He had a 100m+ shoe deal offered before playing a single game, and something like a dozen different endorsements that totaled something like ~150m (and this was 20+ years ago), I forget the exact figure -- Gatorade, Coke, Upper Deck, Bubble gum, Nike, etc. He had more endorsement money before playing a single game than all but a handful of athletes on the planet. Theres not a sports prospect in any other sport, ever, that I can think of that comes anywhere remotely close to the level of hype he had. The local news would report on his games -- he was everywhere. He was like a Kardashian/MrBeast/Jake Paul level of fame at their height, but as a HSer. It was genuinely crazy.

Even setting aside the talent projections, just based on an interest/ratings level, no team would have ever passed on the potential sales/ratings etc that Lebron brought to the table, and certainly not for Hakeem.

That’s great and all, but he was in no way going over Hakeem in the 84 draft see my previous posts as to why

[Son Goku 25]

The total package, pretty insane when you think about it.

[Black Jack]

Athleticism
Everything, strength, speed, agility, acceleration, body control was all off the charts………in a 6’8 defined frame.
Instincts and IQ- always made the right plays
Leader- he had clearly definable leadership traits that you don’t see until guys are usually upper 20s.
Aggression - He wasn’t timid or afraid of anything. Even his media scrums were polished and confident

He had it all

Forgot to add his drive. He was always about winning and basketball. Sounds cliche but think of a lot of guys who don’t reach their potential because they wouldn’t kill to win.

The above is why I was so excited about Zion, he had nearly everything LeBron had except for the height and beginnings of a jumper. But he let everything get to him and got fat(literally) and happy.

Zion didn't have LeBron's handle, passing. He was more of an LJ / Barkley type prospect, with better athleticism.

[NO-KG-AI]

He looked like all the Jordan wannabes the NBA was so in love with, but instead pf being 6’6, 210, he was 6’8 and 240 at like 17.

He was the versatile, multifaceted, super athletic wing scorer/ball handler everyone wanted, but in a Karl Malone frame.