LeBron James went viral recently for his remarks about his sensational on-court encounter with Michael Jordan as a high school teenager.
In his recent appearance on the New Heights podcast, LeBron James recounted the unforgettable experience of facing basketball legend Michael Jordan during a pick-up game.
In a meeting between two of the best ever, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar dropped a massive claim by noting that he was “unguardable” when he got into the game against other NBA stars 25 years ago, when he was just 16.
While the majority are astounded and unsurprised by this revelation, Stephen A. Smith meanwhile imposed an intriguing claim to match James’s notion.
In the latest segment of First Take, Stephen A. Smith candidly reacted about the comments offered by James around his well-known pickup match against Michael Jordan.
While he acknowledged that LeBron was indeed phenomenal already at that time at age 16 and the legitimacy of the story which was previously narrated, the renowned ESPN analyst still offered interesting words about the event and the pressure that James felt.
“I’ve heard the story on multiple occasions, I’ve heard it was absolutely true. He was unguardable.
“I saw a video of Metta World Peace talking about it, he was in attendance he said it was absolutely true as well. LeBron was phenomenal and he was the chosen one. We all know that — the cover of Sports Illustrated at 17,” Smith said.
“The only critique I heard years later was, of course, he did that. Was there pressure? Would it have been a little bit different if there was?
“In the younger part of LeBron James’ career, pressure was an impediment.”
“It’s not that way now”, he added respectfully.
This is a wild take from Smith. But at the end of the day, this shouldn’t distract us from the fact that James managed to live up to all of the hype and expectations even before he entered the NBA in grand style.
His major pickup against Jordan definitely added a huge burden and pressure to his name. Yet in the end, James ultimately managed to carry all of these en route to being a superstar and one of the game’s greatest to ever play.
As LeBron is now 40 and heading on the final remaining years of his career, we can only appreciate and celebrate the greatness he has personified since Day 1.
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