Category: Latest LeBron News

Which of LeBron James’ three Olympic gold medals does he love most?

LeBron James reflected on each of his three Olympic gold medals and said one is clearly his favorite.

Days ago, LeBron James helped lead Team USA men’s basketball to an Olympic gold medal in Paris. While teammates such as Stephen Curry may have been more impressive offensively, it was James’ all-around excellence on a consistent basis that earned him the MVP of men’s basketball competition.

It was James’ third Olympic gold medal, which is one more than Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant won. Those on social media who think James is the greatest basketball player ever have been pointing to that as part of their argument.

James was on the 2008 Olympic “Redeem Team” that won back the gold after only winning the bronze in 2004 during James’ first appearance in Olympic competition. He also won the gold in 2012 in London while playing a more central role than he did in 2008.

He said that his most recent gold medal means the most to him because it is his most recent one.

Via The Athletic:

“I mean, (this) is the best one because it’s the one that’s right now,” he said so diplomatically. “I mean, obviously the Redeem Team (in ’08) had a lot of — you know, we had to come back, because we had a couple years where we weren’t playing to our capability. So in ’08, we had the Redeem Team come back, and then in ’12 we played some good ball as well and were able to win that in London.”

In this year’s Summer Games, the 39-year-old Los Angeles Lakers superstar averaged 14.2 points, 8.5 assists and 6.8 rebounds a game while shooting 66% from the field. He led Team USA in assists and rebounds per game as well as shooting percentage, and he often assumed point guard duties while creating pace for the United States.

It was a reminder that, even after all these years and all the wear and tear, he is still one of the best basketball players in the world.

A young NFL quarterback says he could beat LeBron James in a dunk contest

A second-year NFL quarterback boldly asserted that he would best Lakers superstar LeBron James in a dunk contest.

LeBron James isn’t just one of the greatest players in NBA history — he’s also an outstanding all-around athlete and one of the greatest physical specimens in basketball history.

He did well as a wide receiver while in high school in his native Akron, Ohio, and of course, he continues to play basketball at a very high level, even at age 39. He just helped lead Team USA men’s basketball to an Olympic gold medal and was named the MVP of the tournament in Paris.

But Anthony Richardson, the incoming second-year quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, took a minor shot at James. While on “Up & Adams,” he said he could beat the Los Angeles Lakers superstar in a dunk contest.

Richardson, a dual-threat QB out of the University of Florida, was perhaps the most intriguing prospect in the 2023 NFL Draft. His rookie year ended after just four games because of a shoulder injury, and the Colts are hoping he will be their franchise signal-caller moving forward.

He previously played some AAU basketball, and his vertical leap was recorded at an excellent 40.5 inches.

Isiah Thomas: LeBron James is the best I’ve ever seen

Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas gave LeBron James some major props in a recent interview.

Sometimes it seems that the debate of whether LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of all time is divided in a generational manner. The easy temptation is to say that most who give James the nod in this debate are Millennials and members of Gen Z, while those who are older would vote for Michael Jordan or possibly someone such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But a growing number of elders are publicly coming out and saying that, in their opinion, James is the greatest of all time.

One of those is Isiah Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard from the 1980s and early 1990s who led the Detroit Pistons to back-to-back NBA championships. He revealed this opinion during an interview with Kory Woods of MLive.com (h/t Sports Illustrated).

“I think when you look at, like I say, he’s touched and he leads in almost every statistical category,” Thomas said. “He’s passed Kareem in scoring. I think he’s got the most playoff points. Not only that, when you look at the assist column, I know where I stand on the assist record. I think he’s passed me; I think he’s passed Magic [Johnson] on the assist record. I mean, so when you talk about passing, scoring, rebounding, we’ve never had a player in the NBA that has touched every statistical category and leads in some of these statistical categories that we’re talking about. There’s never been another player like him. Now, everyone has their favorites, but if the numbers don’t lie, the numbers don’t lie. And he definitely passes the eye test. So to me, he’s the best that I’ve ever seen from a team standpoint and also as a basketball player.”

It should be noted that Thomas and Jordan have had lots of bad blood between them for some 30 years. One has to wonder if that could be something that has colored Thomas’ opinion of who the greatest player in NBA history is.

On one hand, James is 4-6 in the NBA Finals, which is something his critics incessantly point to. But other than that, his resume stacks up favorably with the league’s other all-time greats, and it will make this debate very interesting for a long time.

Mario Elie implies LeBron James isn’t the G.O.A.T. because of his Hall of Fame teammates

Three-time NBA champion Mario Elie feels LeBron James isn’t all that because of James’ habit of teaming up with other superstars.

In the 1990s, Mario Elie was a valuable role player for several NBA teams. He won back-to-back NBA championships as a member of the Houston Rockets in the middle of the decade, and he added a third ring in 1999 while with the San Antonio Spurs.

These days, many basketball fans see the 1990s through rose-colored glasses. They feel that decade was a hallowed golden era when the game was played perfectly, players didn’t play for big money and superstars wanted to compete against each other rather than team up.

There is plenty of hyperbole in that assessment of the NBA of the 1990s, as the league had some real issues during that time. But the reality of what that era was like didn’t prevent Elie from attacking James’ argument as being possibly the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.) while on “Willie D Live”.

He implied James isn’t as great as some claim because of the superstar’s habit of teaming up with other elite players and stacking the deck in his favor (h/t Lakers Daily).

“All these guys wanna join each other…and play with each other,” Elie said of today’s NBA. “No, I wanna beat you. I wanna beat you. LeBron, you say you the G.O.A.T. — why you joinin’ [Chris] Bosh and — you know what I’m sayin’? We wasn’t doin’ that in the ’90s. Like Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon) callin’ [Michael] Jordan, ‘You wanna link up?’ And callin’ [Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson] up, ‘Y’all wanna link up and play?’”

Elie took it a step further and claimed James’ habit is a generational habit.

“These boys want it easy right now,” he said. “It’s the AAU era right now. … Everybody want it easy. LeBron want Anthony Davis. Who else you want, LeBron? You talkin’ ’bout you the G.O.A.T. Come on, man. … Great player, love him, but everybody wanna play buddy ball.”

The other side of this argument is that all-time great players have always needed help from at least one other Hall of Famer to win championships, especially multiple championships. Kobe Bryant needed Shaquille O’Neal and Pau Gasol, Magic Johnson needed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy, Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen and so on.

The one possible exception may have been Elie’s Rockets teammate Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon won it all in 1994 without any Hall of Fame teammates, or even one other player who made the All-Star team that year, albeit in a very watered-down NBA. However, the following season, he had Clyde Drexler by his side when Houston won another world title.

Devin Booker: LeBron James, Stephen Curry made his Team USA experience different

It sounds like Suns guard Devin Booker appreciated the opportunity to be LeBron James’ teammate on Team USA this summer.

In 2021, Team USA men’s basketball finally took the court in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, which had been delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker didn’t shoot particularly well, he started in five of the six games played and earned a gold medal.

This year, he was again in uniform for Team USA, this time in Paris for the 2024 Summer Games. He played somewhat better, and he scored 15 points in the 98-87 win over France in the gold medal game.

This summer’s iteration of Team USA had two big members it didn’t have last time: LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Booker admitted that the two made his Olympic experience different this time around.

James was named the MVP for men’s basketball at the Olympics, as he regularly filled up the stat sheet in multiple categories and played unselfishly. In the six games played, he averaged 14.2 points and led the United States with 8.5 assists and 6.8 rebounds a game and a 66% field-goal shooting accuracy.

His experience playing on two other iterations of Team USA that won the gold in 2008 and 2012 no doubt helped with this group, which featured several players who were appearing in their first Olympic Games, including Curry, Joel Embiid, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton and Derrick White.

Stephon Marbury: [LeBron James] shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as MJ

Former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury threw some serious shade at LeBron James on social media.

Although his accomplishments speak for themselves, LeBron James has become something of a polarizing figure over the last several years.

A look at social media will reveal ardent fans of his who claim he’s by far the greatest basketball player ever and will even attack the legacy of Michael Jordan to be emphatic about their claim. There are also, of course, James haters who claim he’s vastly overrated and that if he had played in the 1980s and 1990s, he’d be just another good player and not a superstar.

Stephon Marbury, a somewhat forgotten star guard from the 2000s, responded to a social media post that highlighted Jordan’s record 10 scoring titles by saying James “shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath” as the Chicago Bulls legend (h/t Lakers Daily).

James isn’t quite known as a scorer as much as Jordan was, and he has just one scoring title, which he won during the 2007-08 season. But he is the NBA’s all-time leading career scorer with 40,474 points, which is over 8,000 points more than Jordan put up.

Marbury also claimed James didn’t see him after Team USA men’s basketball won the gold medal on Saturday when asked by Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson why James didn’t speak to him then.

The guard even turned things up a notch by claiming James isn’t “strong enough to say something.”

Marbury made two NBA All-Star teams during a career that lasted 13 seasons (he later spent several more years playing pro ball overseas). Since his career overlapped a bit with Jordan’s, perhaps it is somewhat understandable why he would think Jordan was a much better player than James.

LeBron James hopes Team USA will ‘inspire people all over the world’

LeBron James wants Team USA’s run to the Olympic gold medal this summer to have a lasting effect on people.

Just under a year ago, Team USA men’s basketball was in trouble. It failed to medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and while it had few of the NBA’s best players on hand, its prospects for winning the gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics were looking a bit bleak.

Almost immediately, a number of NBA stars and superstars pledged their commitment to making the trip to Paris for this year’s Summer Games in order to help Team USA win back the gold medal. That included the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

That cadre of luminaries did their job, and now Team USA has its fifth consecutive gold medal. James, who was named the MVP of men’s Olympic basketball competition this year, said he hopes its run inspires people.

Via The Athletic:

“We got our moment,” said LeBron James, 39, the second-oldest player at the Olympics, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, and now, MVP of the 2024 Olympic tournament. “It’s a basketball world. Everybody loves the game. We just hope that we continue to inspire people all over the world.”

The United States’ most inspiring game during its run this summer came in the semifinal round versus Nikola Jokić and Serbia. Down by 17 at one point and trailing by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter, it came back to win behind some hot shooting from Stephen Curry and a triple-double from James.

This iteration of United States basketball featured the trio of James, Curry and Kevin Durant. Davis played a key role off the bench, and the immense level of talent it boasted has people debating whether it is the most talented version of Team USA ever, which includes the 1992 “Dream Team” of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.

Steve Kerr: ‘I’m a LeBron [James] fan for life’

Steve Kerr has gained a new appreciation for LeBron James after coaching him and winning a gold medal with him in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

For the last several weeks, a large number of NBA stars and superstars came together and put their egos and individual agendas aside for the good of their country as members of Team USA men’s basketball. Coached by Steve Kerr, they looked vulnerable at times during some exhibition games, but they got the job done when it mattered and left Paris with an Olympic gold medal.

LeBron James was named the MVP, and it was because of his all-around play rather than some dominant scoring performances.

Kerr had coached against James’ former NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the NBA Finals four times, as well as the Los Angeles Lakers, James’ current team, twice in postseason play. He said that being on the same side as the future Hall of Famer gave him a new appreciation for the 39-year-old and that he’s now a “LeBron fan for life.”

“What a blessing to coach him finally after all these years of coaching against him and trying to figure out how to beat him,” Kerr said. “To watch him up close. . .just to see his approach, to see his professionalism, how coachable he is, and then of course how gifted he is, everything, every part of the game he seems to have mastered. I’m thrilled to be able to coach him the last six weeks and I’m a LeBron fan for life.”

James’ 14 points, 10 assists and six rebounds helped Team USA get past France 98-87 in the gold medal game on Saturday. In the prior game, he posted a triple-double and helped the United States overcome a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit versus Serbia.

Even after all these years, he is still an elite basketball player and is showing no real signs of slowing down. A lot of that is no doubt due to the professionalism Kerr mentioned, which includes how diligent he is about taking care of his body.

LeBron James on whether he may play in 2028 Olympics

Could LeBron James decide to go for a fourth Olympic gold medal in 2028?

LeBron James enhanced his overall basketball legacy a bit on Saturday. With 14 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot, he helped Team USA men’s basketball finish off France in the gold medal round of the Olympics. In doing so, he earned his third Olympic gold medal, and he was named the MVP.

This was his fourth appearance in the Summer Olympics (he won a bronze medal in his first Summer Games in 2004), and at age 39, he is still a stupendous basketball player, even though he likely isn’t the best player in the world anymore.

But it looks like this was his Olympics farewell. He said he cannot see himself playing in the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles.

James would be 43 years of age by then, and his basketball career will almost certainly be firmly over at that time. On the other hand, one can never quite know what to expect from him.

LeBron James wins the MVP of men’s basketball at 2024 Olympics

LeBron James was an indispensable part of Team USA men’s basketball march to the gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Many people have felt LeBron James doesn’t need to add anything to his resume. Others feel his resume falls considerably short of some of the other all-time greats in basketball history.

Whichever is more true, he did earn another notch on his belt on Saturday. With 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, he helped lead Team USA men’s basketball to an Olympic gold medal with a 98-87 win over France in the final game.

This was James’ third Olympic gold medal (he also won a bronze medal in the 2004 Summer Games), and even better, he was named the MVP of basketball in this year’s Summer Olympics.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar has essentially taken on point guard duties throughout Team USA’s march to the gold, scoring when he has needed to but generally looking to simply run the show.

In six total games, including group play and the medal rounds, he averaged 14.2 points on 66% field-goal shooting, 6.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 24.5 minutes a game. In the semifinal round versus Serbia, he had a triple-double, giving him his second career triple-double in Olympic competition and two of the only four ever recorded in the Olympics.

Even though he’s just over four months away from turning 40 years of age, James continues to be a truly elite basketball player.