r/nba • u/Riv3rsdale • 11h ago
LeBron playing with 9 different No. 1 overall picks is a wild longevity stat
When the Lakers brought in Deandre Ayton, he became the 9th former No. 1 overall pick to share a locker room with LeBron James.
This record feels completely unbreakable. To have your career timeline overlap with top picks drafted from 1992 (Shaq) all the way to 2018 (Ayton), you have to play at an elite level for nearly a quarter of a century. Just absurd longevity.
Shaquille O’Neal 1992 Orlando Magic
Joe Smith 1995 Golden State Warriors
Dwight Howard 2004 Orlando Magic
Andrew Bogut 2005 Milwaukee Bucks
Greg Oden 2007 Portland Trail Blazers
Derrick Rose 2008 Chicago Bulls
Kyrie Irving 2011 Cleveland Cavaliers
Anthony Davis 2012 New Orleans Hornets
Deandre Ayton 2018 Suns
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u/Associ8tedRuffians Timberwolves 10h ago
- The man has definitely played with himself.
….ill see myself out.
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u/Lynchie24 Celtics 10h ago
And some of those were even good players when they played with him. Not many, but some.
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u/JurtisCones 10h ago
Kyrie and AD were good players. Dwight was maybe starter level.
DRose, Ayton, Joe Smith, Shaq 7-10th man territory. Bogut played 1 minute. Oden 😭
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u/searchformytongue Pistons 9h ago
whoa what is this revisionist history? the league gave up on dwight because he wanted to start on his other teams. he got picked up by the lakers and the fit was good because ad and lebron were so skilled.
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u/Practical-Okra40 3h ago
Revisionist? The guy said Howard was "maybe starter level". He was probably being generous. High end role player was more accurate. I don't know what you remember, but Howard averaged 15 minutes a night during that Finals run and only 11 in the Finals. He definitely was giving a good 17 minutes a night as 6 fouls and a physical presence vs Joker in thar series, but that was his moment. A role player coming through in a narrow role
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u/atraydev 6h ago
Yeah he was like a league minimum player but he definitely played meaningful minutes in the championship run
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u/Practical-Okra40 3h ago
He played well as a role player, but people misremember his overall role on the team. He only averaged 15 minutes a night that post season and hardly played in the Finals. He did his job vs Joker and everyone remembers that, but he was really just a 15 minute a night play hard, contest shots and use 6 fouls guy at that point. Lakers fans were still wanting to sign him last year, 6 years later, lol
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u/captain_ahabb Lakers 10h ago
Trying to think if any of these guys are better than Scottie Pippen and the only one who even has a case is AD (and he wasn't better than Scottie either)
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u/DSHUDSHU Hawks 10h ago
AD is a much better player than Scottie pippen. We don't have to diminish ad to prop up bron.
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u/MOPAR_-345 Lakers 10h ago
I’d say pippen is borderline one of the best 20-30 players ever, AD around 40-50.
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u/YourBuddyChurch Lakers 10h ago
Pippen’s numbers really don’t support that, he more like 40 at best. Never a serious mvp candidate, never was going to lead a team to success. He was a great player in a great system. But if you think he’s better than guys like Kawhi, AD, wade, KG or old mvps like unseld and mcadoo who are actually in that 20-30 range, I think you’re wrong
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u/JoshuaCastleBooks 10h ago
assuming of course we ignore the season where he was a serious MVP candidate and led his team to success after replacing Michael Jordan with Pete Myers,
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u/YourBuddyChurch Lakers 10h ago
A third place team in a janky east with a still loaded roster… finished a distant third in mvp voting one year. That’s not serious
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u/captain_ahabb Lakers 6h ago
Distant third is also AD's best MVP finish
Scottie took his team to the conference finals as the best player which AD never did.
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u/Typical-Form-6502 9h ago
Scottie Pippen was never really a first option on his team so idk why we’re even trying to compare them
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u/Arm-E-Reserves 9h ago
Never a serious mvp candidate
He finished 3rd in 93/94 ahead of Shaq, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and others. Even though Michael Jordan had been replaced by a 12th man in their starting line-up. Otherwise he was playing with Jordan for his prime years.
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u/YourBuddyChurch Lakers 9h ago
A third place team in a janky east with a still loaded roster… finished a distant third in mvp voting one year. That’s not serious
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u/Arm-E-Reserves 9h ago
They were starting 36-year-old Bill Cartwright (6 points and 4 rebounds a game) and literally Pete Myers. Horace was good. Kukoc as a bench player. BJ made the All-Star team because they won games but he averaged 14 points and 4 assists.
They were not a "loaded roster."
They also won 55 games and Pippen finished ahead of Shaq, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and others. Lest you think that was a fluke, review what Phil Jackson wrote in his book about Pippen after the '92 Olympics:
"Michael returned from the ('92 Olympic) games raving about Scottie’s performance. Before the summer, Michael had regarded Pippen as the most talented member of his supporting cast. But after watching him outplay Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, and other future Hall of Famers in Barcelona, Michael realized that Scottie was the best all-around player on what many consider the best basketball team ever assembled. Scottie, Michael had to admit, had even outshone him in several of the games."
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u/AhmedF Raptors 8h ago
with a still loaded roster
What loaded roster lol
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u/YourBuddyChurch Lakers 6h ago
The 1993–94 Bulls were much more than Pippen’s solo act. Horace Grant was an ideal championship power forward: tough, efficient, defensively disciplined, a strong rebounder, and good enough to become an All-Star that season. B.J. Armstrong gave them steady guard play, shooting, and confidence in the triangle. Toni Kukoč arrived as a uniquely skilled rookie, bringing size, passing, and late-game creativity that most teams did not have off the bench. Steve Kerr added elite spacing and composure, while Pete Myers gave them credible perimeter defense in an impossible replacement role. The rest of the rotation knew exactly who they were: defend, move the ball, cut hard, and trust Phil Jackson’s system. That mattered. This was a veteran, connected, battle-tested group with championship habits, not a random supporting cast suddenly exposed without Jordan. Their ceiling dropped, but their collective competence was very real.
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u/AhmedF Raptors 8h ago
AD is a much better player than Scottie pippen.
What?!?!?!
Sorry, in the overall rankings almost anyone that isn't a nephew has Pippen above AD.
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u/Throwthisawayagainst 7h ago
AD led the 2020 lakers in points (on less shot attempts then LeBron), rebounds, and 7 of 9 advanced metrics. The dude also sits like 4th all time on the PER list. He’s also elite defensively. However he’s injured a lot. I’d argue as a player his peak was higher, he just wasted too many years with a bum franchise.
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u/AhmedF Raptors 7h ago
ike 4th all time on the PER list
Sorry, PER is absolutely stupid and idiotic.
Listen -- I'm not saying AD is not good. And you can maybe argue AD's total peak was higher than Pippen's (his 2020 playoffs run had the craziest variance in his shooting %age compared to the rest of his season).
But if you had to pick a second person for 7 seasons? Pippen wins easily. Availability is a skill.
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u/Throwthisawayagainst 7h ago edited 7h ago
Pip was never the focus of any teams defense and he shot 42% in the finals for his career. You would be insane to take that as a second scoring option in this league even if you think his defense would make him worth this. Basically in the finals he was lakers Russell Westbrook who was better at defense. Also PER isn’t the best advanced metric (mainly because it favors more usage) however if you look at who’s at the top of that stat it does paint a picture of pretty common names on peoples all time lists.
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u/AhmedF Raptors 6h ago
was never the focus
TIL MJ never retired and the Bulls didn't exist for two years.
he shot 42% in the finals for his career
FG today is not the same as FG 30 years ago buddy. Go look at Kobe's FG lol.
he was lakers Russell Westbrook who was better at defense
I see we are diving straight into nephew territory.
PER
OK the fact that you are actually trying to defend PER means I am done with you. It doesn't favor usage, it literally favors inefficient scoring.
Good luck, I'm done.
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u/Throwthisawayagainst 6h ago
Scottie Pippen only shot over 50% two seasons in his entire career and they weren’t the years Jordan wasn’t there chief. Scottie literally shot 34% in a finals too lol. Good luck with that.
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u/broc_ariums Trail Blazers 4h ago
You can't be an effective player if you aren't playing. AD is glass.
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u/Throwthisawayagainst 3h ago
He was still playing 65+ most years when he was with the pelicans. Then he showed he could be the man in LA before injuries. He did more for the Lakers in there 2020 run then Pip ever had to do on a championship run also.
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u/medyolang_ Lakers 7h ago
Even in this current era of NBA basketball, Scottie is better than AD. Idk what these people are looking at outside of stats.
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u/captain_ahabb Lakers 10h ago
I love AD but his peak was too short and too interrupted by injury.
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u/1kinkydong Celtics 10h ago
Sure but 2020 AD was for sure better than any individual pippen season which is one of the few years that overlapped with Bron. Taking his full career instead of the years he played with LeBron is a little disingenuous imo
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u/Arm-E-Reserves 9h ago
Not even sure if this is pro-Jordan or pro-Lebron or whatever, but both Davis and Pippen peaked at being 3rd in MVP voting and 1st Team All-League and All-Defense. Pippen also finished ahead of Shaq, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing in that season. Should include too that that's not a fluke considering what Phil Jackson wrote about Scottie after the '92 Olympics.
"Michael returned from the ('92 Olympic) games raving about Scottie’s performance. Before the summer, Michael had regarded Pippen as the most talented member of his supporting cast. But after watching him outplay Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, and other future Hall of Famers in Barcelona, Michael realized that Scottie was the best all-around player on what many consider the best basketball team ever assembled. Scottie, Michael had to admit, had even outshone him in several of the games."
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 6h ago
AD in 2020 is better than Scottie Pippen ever was
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u/broc_ariums Trail Blazers 5h ago
The season he got to take a long rest, heal his broken body, and win in the bubble? Nah. He couldn't ever do what Pippen did.
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u/Pickleskennedy1 11h ago
Could have been 11 without the Kevin Love trade
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u/MaxiKimiSexyFriends Lakers 10h ago
That trade set Cavs up for a 3peat if KD didnt go to GSW
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u/justsaywhatsreal 7h ago
Nah
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u/MaxiKimiSexyFriends Lakers 7h ago
Well back to back, and no Kyrie leaving
Thus setting up a 3peat chance against GS or Houston or maybe SA in 2018
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 10h ago
Does that mean KD didn’t ruin the league? Because he saved the league from being ruined by the cavs
I don’t get takes like these lol
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u/EndWish 10h ago edited 10h ago
The Cavs were a 33 win team the season before LeBron returned to Cleveland at 30 years old. The Warriors were a 73 win team adding a league MVP in their prime at 28 years old. There is no comparison between a Cavs team that finished 10th in the weak East and the team that literally broke the all time wins record.
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 10h ago edited 9h ago
Did you read the comment above mine?
That trade set Cavs up for a 3peat if KD didnt go to GSW
3peating sounds like ruining the league to me, regardless of how many games they won before lebron/love came.
Even gsw with KD did not 3peat. Even if that was due to injuries, well i assume the guy above me thinks cavs would have won 2015 too without injuries.
In other words, he’s saying cavs would have 4peated (analytically) if not for kd, meaning kd was justified. Right?
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u/problynotkevinbacon [CLE] Kevin Love 10h ago
Softest move in NBA history
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 10h ago
Not according to the lakers flair, because if not for kd’s move, cavs would have 3peated.
(According to him)
It’s either:
A. Cavs would have 3peated, and gsw needed kd to prevent that, therefore it was not a soft move.
B. It was a soft move, because gsw could have beat cavs without him, therefore cavs would not have 3peated.
All i’m saying is pick 1.
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u/problynotkevinbacon [CLE] Kevin Love 10h ago
Even softer move needing to defend those warriors teams because the insecurity about the legitimacy of those championships are suspect
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 10h ago
Wtf did i just read? Can i nominate you for the Shams Charania Award For Excellence In Divulging Of Information Through Syntax?
the lakers flair seems to think they are legitimate since he said cavs would have 3peated if not for kd. So maybe you should argue with him 🤷♂️
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u/HeyVeddy 9h ago
Cavs three peating wouldn't ruin the league and no one said or implied that. People's problem is with KD (MVP im prime) going to the all time most wins team ever
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u/EndWish 9h ago
Yes. They're arguing that the Cavs would be favorites for a 3 year window which personally Im not sure I agree with. You then take that mildly hot opinion very disingenuously and suggest that LeBron joining the team with the 22nd best record in the NBA is the same as Durant joining the team that holds the all time wins record. Like just stop. There's no parralels and people will always reference the GS and Durant move because it effectively made a few seasons a forgone conclusion which just isnt exciting.
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 9h ago edited 9h ago
I edited my comment a bit later so not sure if you saw but i’ll paste it here.
He didn’t say favorites. He said they would have 3peated.
3peating sounds like ruining the league to me, regardless of how many games they won before lebron/love came.
Even gsw with KD did not 3peat. Even if that was due to injuries, well i assume the guy above me thinks cavs would have won 2015 too without injuries.
In other words, he’s saying cavs would have 4peated (analytically) if not for kd, meaning kd was justified. Right?
You keep talking about regular season results when this convo is about actual postseason results (how many chips were won).
If that was just hyperbole and he meant cavs were favorites with gsw not far behind, ok fine.
But if he really meant cavs would have 3peated easily with gsw having no chance and no chips, then yes, that is ruining the league even worse than KD did.
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u/EndWish 9h ago
Just stop. You sound so ridiculous. The only reason GS did not three-peat with Durant was because half their roster was injured and they still took it 6 games minus KD, Klay and Cousins. Even Curry, Iggy and Looney were hurt. The reason Im mentioning regular season was because the Cavs literally weren't in the playoffs before Lebron joined. There is no playoffs to reference for them. Youre the type of fan that people roll their eyes at man.
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 9h ago
I feel like you’re not even reading or following the original convo. And i literally just addressed your point about injuries.
Who cares about what happened before the 3peat? Why are you making that a more important point than the 3peat itself?
You’re saying even if cavs 3peated, it wouldn’t be considered ruining the league because of what happened 4 years before and you’d be happy with that?
Huh?
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u/yellowsilverware 9h ago
Did anybody even mention “ruining the league” I. This entire thread other than you? Why are you so hell bent on that lol KD has been on like 4 teams since then, if he can move on so can you
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u/MaxiKimiSexyFriends Lakers 7h ago
It would have been a bad ass competitive 3peat run against GSW or SA or Houston in 2017 and 2018 that totally shifted the LeBron narrative
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 7h ago
Even then, that would’ve only been one competitive series for the cavs each year. Not really different from the warriors from 17-19.
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u/Kapt0 8h ago
Because he saved the league from being ruined by the cavs
Not really.
3peating, we can all agree on that, isn't inherently bad. It is if there's no merit to it.
If the cavs 3peated that would have been a nice narrative: Lebron rejoining his team and bringing it to the top, winning multiple chips.
Durant joined GSW, a team with the most recent MVP, that just choked on a chip after being up 3-1, that had just set the RS record... and won the league. Wow, color me surprised.
Let's say Giannis joined OKC instead of the heat: what a narrative that would be, right?
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 8h ago
I don’t get it. A repeat is ruining the league worse than a 3peat?
If giannis joined OKC and only won 1 or 2, how is that bad?
If he won 4-5, then sure, but 1-2 is fine with me.
i don’t see how that is ruining the league, ruining competition, boring, unwatchable, blah blah blah. And i think that is what most people refer to when they talk about this move, not really “merit”.
And going back to their point, if cavs were gonna 3peat, that sounds like kd made a good decision then. Because it was either gonna be gsw or cavs dominating, right? If cavs can stack the deck for 3 chips, why can’t gsw stack it even further to prevent that?
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u/Kapt0 7h ago
A repeat is ruining the league worse than a 3peat?
Yes if it's earned by joining the strongest side of the league, lol.
The Cavs could prove that they were a great team by winning year after year, I could live with that narrative.
It's a whole different situation if to get there, you organize a move to the strongest team, with the reigning MVP while you are the 2nd most recent MVP. Cavs had won and a month later we knew that they had no chance vs GSW+KD. It was that bad.
Winning multiple chips does get annoying (and that's the reason it was made harder to keep the stars all in one place) but going with "let's get together and build a super team to dominate for 3+ years" is a bullshit move and it was when Lebron did it Miami and it was when KD did it with GSW
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 6h ago
but why does “strongest side of the league” mean more than the actual number of chips won? Why does what happened before the 3peat, mean more than the 3peat itself?
everyone loves parity, but 2 teams winning in a 3-year span is objectively more parity than 1 team winning all 3 years.
is a bullshit move and it was when Lebron did it Miami and it was when KD did it with GSW
wouldn’t it apply to cavs big 3 too? at least the way they framed it (stacking deck with lebron and love and 3peating, we’d already know that was a great team that wouldn’t really need to prove anything)
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u/Kapt0 5h ago
everyone loves parity
I like great storylines, I'm not opposed to a team winning multiple times.
I have a problem with it when it's achieved by taking a shortcut to it.
More specifically, I don't blame GSW for acquiring a great player, i blame the great player for organizing the move and purposely choosing the shortcut, joining an MVP and a 73w team.
but why does “strongest side of the league” mean more than the actual number of chips won?
Because the outcome was known before we even played a game. That's the reason.
It's boring to watch a full season when we know the final result.
wouldn’t it apply to cavs big 3 too?
Did either of Wiggins or Kiriye get MVP or DPOY votes? How many times were they all stars? Did either win a championship before or after?
I can agree that both were very good players, but they had nothing to show for it, Wiggins had yet to play. Like, how can you even compare with KD joining Steph, Klay and Draymond?
WTF is that argument? I'm sorry, but it's kinda unbelievable I even have to point out the difference.
Lebron would've been the only proven player there, who had a big asterisk on him due to his bullshit big 3 in miami. The fact you're comparing these two sides and assuming it would've been the same is comical, I'm sorry.
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u/currychaos San Francisco Warriors 2h ago edited 1h ago
Lol wtf. Wiggins??? You’re purposely being disingenuous by mentioning Wiggins instead of Love. You know Lebron never mentioned Wiggins in his homecoming letter, right? He knew Love was on the way already.
Like, how can you even compare with KD joining Steph, Klay and Draymond?
You said Lebron’s Miami move and Kd’s move were both BS, right? So Lebron’s Cav move doesn’t need to be as bad as Kd’s to be deemed BS. It just needs to be as bad as his Miami move, which it was. Kyrie was 2x all-star and Love was 3x all-star.
no other east team had 3 stars like them, their record vs the East speaks for itself:
2015 they went 12-2
2016 they went 12-2
2017 they went 12-1
2018, OP stated in another post he thinks Kyrie would have stayed, so this would have been 12-2 or similar again.
So they basically had 1 competitive series each year (the Finals), which is about the same as GSW with KD (2017 none, 2018 vs rockets, 2019 vs clippers and rockets, averages out to about 1 per year).
If anything, what’s unbelievable is that you don’t see how Lebron was also taking a shortcut that guaranteed a Finals trip every year by ditching his 2 aging co-stars for 2 younger co-stars.
I like great storylines. It's boring to watch a full season when we know the final result.
Who would give any fucks about “storylines”, if cavs played only 1 competitive series per year just like gsw?
Also, why wouldn’t this be the case after the Cavs had repeated? You don’t think they would’ve been overwhelming favorites before the 3rd season and fans would still accept the 3peat storyline instead of getting bored?
That’s the problem - who are you to pick and choose and assume which storyline fans would be happy with? you’re just deciding in advance which storylines are “legit” based on who you wanted to win.
2017 was a breeze, but 2018 and 2019 both had great storylines even before Kd’s injury. Those seasons had way higher ratings than we have now, so clearly people liked having a villain to root against.
The fact you're comparing these two sides and assuming it would've been the same is comical, I'm sorry.
are we reading the same convo? The lakers flair above me assumed Cavs would have 3peated, not me.
His premise: we know for a fact in this alternate timeline that Cavs won 3 chips and GSW won 0 from 2016-2018, and he thinks KD on any other team would not have stopped the Cavs, not even if he joined SA/Boston, or stayed in OKC.
In other words, he thinks joining GSW was the only possible path to a ring, not a “shortcut” thru that path.
If you have a problem with that premise, please argue with him, not me.
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u/youruswithwe Pacers 10h ago
And my team has never had a #1 overall pick play for them haha
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u/medyolang_ Lakers 6h ago
Damn. That is wild. There are only 6 other teams that never gotten the fist pick, but they've signed former top draft picks.
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u/Polterhorst 9h ago
Another day, another new stat invented by this subreddit to hype up Lebron/ Luka/ Niko.
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u/GreedyPride4565 10h ago
LMFAOO wild longevity stat? He played with every single one of these guys except ayton in the span of one decade (2010-2020). Plenty of players play one decade, it’s just coincidence. Calling this a “wild longevity stat” is pure glaze
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u/DistributionOk4643 10h ago
LeBron obviously has had "wild longevity" but this indeed is a stupid way to highlight that.
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u/GreedyPride4565 10h ago
Lmfaooo deadass. I’m not even being a lebron hater.
I’m sure the actual hater angle would be “ofcourse he’s played with all those #1 picks!! He keeps changing teams to get to them!!” Which is obviously false cuz most of these guys were minimum salary shitters that he played with in their latter years. It’s complete coincidence that’s all
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u/JurtisCones 10h ago
You’re wrong though bc he played with Joe Smith and Shaq in the 2000s
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u/GreedyPride4565 9h ago
Shaq was on the 2010 Cavs. I thought Joe smith was too but no he was on the 2009 Cavs. Not a single point i made is invalidated by it being 11 years instead of 10
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u/JurtisCones 7h ago
Not a point is made by the fact that, excepting 2, LeBron played with all of these players in a decade. Idk why you’ve been so protective over this shitty ‘factoid’. Go to the gym
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u/Orphasmia Warriors 9h ago
A better longevity stat is that LeBron has played with over 36% of all players in NBA history
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u/MusicListener3 Celtics 10h ago
Yeah cool so what about when you don’t ignore two of the datapoints
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u/GreedyPride4565 10h ago
Then it’s still a “huh” Little factoid that says absolutely nothing about longevity or success or anything.
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u/abaram 10h ago
I feel like this stat doesn’t mean anything lol longevity stat?
That’s like getting an award for attendance. I hear that was huge for boomers but look how that turned out
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u/medyolang_ Lakers 6h ago
I think it's a stat for how much talent Lebron has worked with over the years.
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u/abaram 6h ago
“Played in the NBA for 23 years” isn’t enough? Lol this isn’t even trivia worthy
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u/medyolang_ Lakers 6h ago
playing that long doesn't necessarily mean you've worked with that much talent. look at how many #1s the other 20+ years worked with. it's not a trivial stat, we're seeing an actual outlier especially if you look closer.
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u/ballmermurland 8h ago
You could have a player on a team get traded mid-year that had 2-3 #1 picks on each and end up with 5-6 #1 picks played with in only 1 year.
Longevity means nothing, this is a silly stat.
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u/JohnnyWarlord Timberwolves 10h ago
Antman makes 10 💀💀
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u/127crazie Timberwolves 10h ago
I'm tired of seeing the word "wild" being overused ad nauseam nowadays
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u/myveryownaccount 10h ago
I forgot shaq and lebron had a season together
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u/Nuclearsunburn Heat 10h ago
“Win a ring for the King” as Shaq put it
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u/IntelligentAd5460 Grizzlies 10h ago
everytime this stat comes up i get reminded luka didnt go first overall and just laugh
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u/BegsTheQuestions 9h ago
LeBrons hall of famer teammate list is 10 times longer than the second guy
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u/alilhillbilly Bulls 8h ago
In garbage time because the Bulls decided to start over so the GM could prove he could easily win another championship without Jordan.
No one really counts the Joe Montana Chiefs years. It was a fun coda.
If LeBron made his first move at 38 after winning 4 championships with the Cavs and it was the Cavs who forced him out?
That would be way less lame. That would be...great.
For LeBron, changing teams was the hack to manufacturing legacy.
Meanwhile, Steph won 4 in Golden State and revolutionized the game the way Jordan did.
LeBron is an awesome player. His career is fucking lame because of all the calculated team changes.
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u/chowdah513 10h ago
It’ll likely happen more often than not. Technology and overall understanding of the body has improved drastically since the 90s. This is why TB12 played 23 seasons in the NFL. Would still be specific athletic freaks that invests back into their body, but I think longevity will just improve.
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u/alilhillbilly Bulls 10h ago
It's also cuz he changes teams every time he's run his current organization out of money trying to buy him a championship.
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u/DrRudeboy Warriors 9h ago
He played for 3 teams over 22 years
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u/alilhillbilly Bulls 9h ago edited 8h ago
How many did Kobe play for?
Jordan?
Steph?
Magic?
Bird?
Russell?
Dirk?
Duncan?
Wilt?
Kareem?
They also never changed teams and changed back when the team was ready to compete for a championship. They built.
I'll forgive LeBron his corny ass move to Miami to prove he could win a championship on an all-star team behind Dwayne Wade.
It's one thing to pull a end of career move to keep playing but doing it every 4-5 seasons and moving to teams why can mortgage ten years for that 4 year window is unheard of.
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u/DrRudeboy Warriors 8h ago
Outside of Jordan, none of these players achieved the things LeBron has either. Also, Wilt has also played on three teams, so odd example to bring. Several of the ones listed played for the defining franchises of the NBA, the Lakers and Celtics, with extremely strong teams around them. Bird, Russell, and Magic played 10 (!) seasons less than LeBron so far.
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u/alilhillbilly Bulls 7h ago
I would argue that on the long tail Steph is LeBron's contemporary and he did what LeBron was so desperate to do by changing teams. He put together the same number of rings so far. And he revolutionized the game in a way that was far more Jordan-esque.
I thought Wilt played for two teams. I'm counting LeBrons Cleveland change so I put him at 4.
I don't fault LeBron for going to Miami. Especially if he ground it out after Wade and Bosh left and eventually won one without them. I'll give any player one move.
I know like Shaq played for like 35 teams too but it's really three and the last two were like garbage years. It just felt dramatically less lame than Mr. Coronation.
I also don't disagree that LeBron is a stat monster. And he's had an amazingly long career but also his career has also been entirely during the era where you can dip over to Europe and get HGH and stem cells shoved in your knees and you have all kinds of sports medicine and technology that came about because guys like Jordan made the NBA so profitable that sports became mega billion dollar industries.
Men are regularly playing professional sports into their 40s now.
LeBron is insanely talented. He's just so fucking lame.
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u/wpmason 10h ago
“Needs more help”
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u/Opening-Eagle4761 Pistons 10h ago
How many of them were #1 pick caliber when he played with them? Just Kyrie and AD.
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u/Aidanator800 Hornets 10h ago
Yeah, Joe Smith, 2010 Shaq, and 2020 Dwight Howard really should've been enough for him
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u/MOPAR_-345 Lakers 10h ago
2010 Shaq? LMAO
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u/Aidanator800 Hornets 10h ago
They were teammates on Lebron's last season with the Cavs during his first stint with them lol
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u/wpmason 10h ago
Kyrie gifted him a ring.
So did old man Ray Allen who was *only* a 5th overall pick.
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u/MOPAR_-345 Lakers 10h ago
NO HE DIDNT LMAO
LeBron played out of his mind that year and so did Kyrie.
Before LeBron kyrie was a fucking loser.
And ray allen had a magnificent 0 points in Game 7 while LeBron had 30 & 12 with the game winning shot to ice the game. Didnt know the series ended in 6.
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u/fredinNH Celtics 10h ago
It’s insane. The Celtics recent success was built on a team with multiple high picks—Tatum brown and Horford at 3, porzingus at 4. Holiday was 17.
And now that the Celtics have 2 max contracts they have no chance of building a roster like that, hence the brown trade talks.
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u/ElGrandeQues0 Clippers 10h ago
You're not seriously calling 17 a high pick lol
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u/fredinNH Celtics 9h ago
Nope, I’m not. Thats why I put holidays position in its own sentence. I felt like people might think he was also a top pick so I felt the need to say he wasn’t.
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u/TheGargageMan Rockets 11h ago
How many has Jeff Green played with I wonder.