LeBron James has played with some incredible talents over the course of his illustrious career. That said, three players stand above all others: Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
James won a championship with all three and enjoyed a particularly unique relationship with each one.
This week, James compared two of the aforementioned players: Davis and Irving.
While appearing on the Road Trippin’ podcast with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, the Lakers star made an intriguing point that is sure to stir up conversation.
“You know we talk about Kyrie [Irving] as far as how gifted,” he said.
“AD is even probably more gifted than Kyrie in the sense of you add seven-eight more inches of height. His ability to dribble, shoot, three-pointers, mid-range, low post. His defensive prowess is uncanny.
“This year, no matter what injury he had his a** came back on the floor… He was dealing with a severe foot problem in the Bubble and he played through it every single moment. And he did not like the fact that they was out there or my dog who he called me is out there playing and I’m not out there.”
That was not the lone discussion point regarding Irving that came up during the interview.
Back in October, while doing Brooklyn Nets media rounds, Irving said something that was interpreted by certain folks as a shot at James.
“I felt like I was the best option on every team I’ve played for down the stretch. This is the first time in my career where I can be like ‘that motherf*cker can make that shot too,’” he said in regards to new teammate Kevin Durant.
James heard the comments. Recently, he admitted that they stung a bit.
You love to see it. https://t.co/Hyl0xwdJnc
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 11, 2020
“So, when I heard the comment Kyrie made, I wanted to find the whole transcript,” James said. “I was a little like, ‘damn.’ Once I got the whole transcript, I was like ‘damn.’
“The whole time while I was there (in Cleveland), I only wanted to see him be the MVP of our league,” he continued.
Yikes. https://t.co/FPN0pOZYH6
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 8, 2020
“I only cared about his success, and it just didn’t align. It just didn’t align, and we was able to win a championship. That’s the craziest thing. We were still able to win a championship, and we could never align, but I only cared about his well-being, both on and off the floor, and it kind of hurt me a little bit.”
James had a fascinating dynamic with Irving during their stint in Cleveland together, and it’s interesting to see how he took the lessons from that and applied them to his relationship with Davis.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
