First lottery pick I’ve ever seen look scared during the summer leauge.

I had him on my myteam in 2k22 . He had a 99 overall card lmao

Dude. I was playing pick up with Johnny less than a year before he started the summer league. Ik dudes like that dont go all out at the Ymca but I can’t believe someone took him in the lottery.

you’ve never seen more public glazing than that NBA 75 draft

3rd time this has happened. 1984 in the nba draft, 2011 ultimate fantasy draft on tnt, and again 2022 in the 75th anniversary ultimate draft.

I saw a clip of Kevon Looney giving KD all sorts of buckets and tough fadeaways when they played 1 on 1 during practice. They’re in the NBA for a reason

Which is why it is so weird when people act like Paul Pierce was so completely delusional for picking himself over Wade. It’s not like he was some fringe player comparing himself to MJ. He was a Top 50 player comparing himself to a Top 25 player. It was a perfectly valid for a highly competitive athlete, a 1st ballot HoFer, and a champion to believe that he was better than a peer.

This is why I don’t have a problem with any current top 10ish player saying they think they’re the best player in the league. You need a crazy level of self-confidence to become that great in the first place. So while I would say that any fan or commentator who thinks that, say, Ant is the best player in the league is woefully wrong, if Ant himself thinks that and says as much, I’m not gonna knock him for it.

100%.

IIRC Barkley talked about when he realized MJ was better than him and it wasn’t until the 93 finals. It was a story on open court I think, basically he was talking to his daughter and he was distraught because it was the first time he ever thought anyone was better than him and he thought that they were going to lose the series because of it.

They did the lose the finals, 4-2, and MJ averaged 41ppg on 50% shooting from the field.

Yeah, while I do think there are SOME players in the top 50 who are dumb, I also think a lot of them are good enough to recognize when somebody is just flat out better. I do think their bias tends to prioritize players they played against themselves because they witnessed MJ’s greatness in person on the other side of the court, not to argue that lebron or Jordan is better, but I think in 15-20 years when the debate is still raging on, you are going to see the stars of today talking about Lebron like Bird and pals did with Jordan. You can protect your ego by saying the guy who clowned on you only did so because they were the best to ever do it. It’s like losing to the champs, you can cushion the blow of losing by saying “we woulda won against any other team”.

Meanwhile, Lavar Ball is like “Nah”

I need this level of belief in myself

I know Jake LaRavia isn’t a very good NBA player. I’ve never seen 27Yosh in the NBA, so who knows about him. I’m seeing pure upside

WHO IS NUMBER 12

Nobody is going to give Chuck the first pick.

Or the 167th best 

i played against current and past nba players in aau, and it wasn’t until i got into the college circuit did i realize i was indeed, not the best player in the world. or the country. or the state. or the city.

but damn up till college, i was nice, but not D1 or NBA nice.

It’s not delusion in LeBron’s case though.

Or even remotely good at anything. People often show outward humility, but it takes a specific kind of person to suck at something and yet still come back day after day to improve at it.

What about us who are bad at sport AND didn’t take offense?

Caveat. Played a sport in P.E. And was bad at it. Not even recreational or organized leagues. These cats just straight up sucked ass in gym class.

https://imgflip.com/i/atyabv

As a Martian with a death beam, I’d have to agree

Thanks to Max Kellerman, we got this all timer of a quote

It was pretty similar. LeBron had Mateen Cleaves, Jeff McInnis, and Kevin Ollie for PGs. Wemby has Fox, Castle, and Harper. The similarities are striking!

(I was gonna make this joke with Larry Hughes and Eric Snow but turns out they weren’t even there yet)

Imagine 42 year old LeBron on this Spurs team.

Imagine 26 year old prime Lebron with Wade and Bosh… wait

Idk how people can say he needed 2011 to improve his game but also swear he would’ve won with Wemby’s team at 22

Tbf LeBron couldn’t shoot consistently til Miami the spacing is already terrible with Fox, Castle and Harper lol

they would be worse. lebron can’t anchor a defense the way wemby can. lebron also wasn’t a good shooter until much later in his career so it affects both the spacing and defense

there are definitely some lineups where you’d take lebron over wemby but this isn’t one of them

offense would be better but holy fuck their defense would be ASS. their non wemby minutes are horrific to watch

They wouldn’t get past OKC.

In this hypothetical non-Wemby scenario, you really think they can beat teams in the mid 2000s with Kornet as their starting center?

You McCan’t pass him up at that point

What 81 you talking about?

And his ability to work with multiple coaches and costars. Almost every other Top 20 player (besides Wilt, Kareem, and Shaq) won all their rings with one team, usually with one coach.

And no major injuries

And being the best player

too many people genuinely underrate lebron’s peak, it’s him and jordan, then everyone else at their best

Ignoring a ton of context there. The year after he left the Cavs the first time, they had a lot of turnover and injuries and intentionally went into rebuild mode on top of having a new coach. The year after he left the Heat, Wade was injured and missed a bunch of games, Bosh missed half the season due to illness, Ray Allen/battier left. The year after he left the Cavs the second time they fired Ty lue early in the year, love missed like 60 games JR smith left, Kyle korver and George hill were traded.

in his defense that draft happened All Star weekend and he thought the point was to draft an all-time team for an all-star game, not starting their own franchise.

AI would be near the top of my list for guys i want in a no-defense all star exhibition game lol

Dominique picked himself. Understandable because he was upset that he was left off the previous all time anniversary team, but still.

Didn’t Bird say LeBron is the GOAT?

Edit: I checked, and he did call LeBron the GOAT, but he has also said MJ is the GOAT, so it’s unclear.

“I’m not in the GOAT conversation. Listen, it’s only three people in the greatest of all time conversation. Listen, I’m arrogant, but I’m not dumb. It’s Kobe, Bron, and Mike, okay, that’s it.” - sounds like Shaq doesnt say the same thing. He also said he’s only the 3rd greatest center behind Kareem and Wilt.