Over the last couple of days, people have been talking about 17-year-old Cooper Flagg and the show he put on as a member of the Select Team while scrimmaging against Team USA.
The 6-foot-8 forward, whom many believe will be the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft and will be attending Duke University in the meantime, dominated the grown men who are preparing to head to Paris for this year’s Summer Olympics.
Yet, there was still no doubt that during Team USA’s training camp, the best player was a familiar name who has dominated the NBA for long stretches over the last 20 years — LeBron James.
Via The Athletic:
“Seventeen-year-old Duke phenom Cooper Flagg might have been the surprise star of Team USA training camp, but the real plot twist was that an NBA legend more than twice his age, 39-year-old LeBron James, was the best,” wrote Joe Vardon and Sam Amick.
“James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer who is months away from the start of his 22nd season, was voted the top national team player in camp in a straw poll of Olympic camp participants conducted by The Athletic.”
At least one teammate was amazed that after all these days, James still seems to be at or near the top of his game.
“That’s what I told my brother after the first day, I was like dude’s 40 and he’s the best player on the court,” said Amen Thompson, a forward for the Houston Rockets and a voter in the poll, due to his participation in camp as a select team member.
This past NBA season, James put up 25.7 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds a game while shooting 54% from the field and 41% from 3-point range for the Los Angeles Lakers. He has shown little, if any, slippage, and armed with a new two-year contract, he could very well continue to be an elite player for one or even two more seasons.