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USA Today via Reuters

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USA Today via Reuters

NBA superstar LeBron James became a national sensation when he was just a teenager. The five-time champion caught the eyes of many with his performances for St.Vincent?St. Mary in Akron, Ohio. Ever since he broke out, he was compared to legends of the game like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. He compared with Jordan his athleticism and was compared with Magic for his style of play. Over the course of his high school career, James has dominated many opponents including this future teammate.

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James was a rival for A. J. Price during their high school days. James dominated him during their high school matchup and then embarrassed him when they played against each other in the NBA. Price then played with the four-time champion during his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Recently, Price opened up about his time with James as a teammate.

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A. J. Price on LeBron James

A. J. Price recently made an appearance on the Culture Shock Podcast. During the show, the NBA veteran talked about a variety of interesting topics about his career. He also talked about his former teammate LeBron James. Price played against James during high school and then played against him during his time in the NBA. The point guard played for the Indiana Pacers and admitted he looked at James as a rival and disliked him without knowing him.

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Price stated, “Coming up around him originally like rivals, I was on the Pacers he was on the Heat. We didn’t get past them for many years. So at the time I kind of despised him without even knowing him.” He added, “So he’s kinda like a rival to me. I kinda don’t like the guy without even knowing him.”

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Price then noted when he joined the Cavs, he finally understood James was very team-oriented. He said, “So then I end up on the Cavs towards the end of my career and now I get to play with them, go through training camp, going through just watching this guy and you really see this guy is like super team-oriented. It’s all about the team and he just wants to win.”

Price played for the Cavs during the 2014-15 season and played 11 games.

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James embarrassed Price with a huge block

A. J. Price recounted the time he played against LeBron James during a high school national tournament in Delaware. He was playing for Amityville Memorial. He added many high school stars like Kendrick Perkins and JJ Reddick played in the tournament.

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In the game against James, he was matched up against the superstar, and James dominated. However, Amityville came away with the win. Interestingly, James dominated when they played against each other in the NBA as well. When James was playing for the Miami Heat, he had a huge block against the backboard on Price who was playing for the Indiana Pacers.

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Written by

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Bagavathi Eswaran

1,520 Articles

Bagavathi Eswaran is a senior NBA writer at EssentiallySports, having a strong passion for the sport since the age of ten. As a former college player, Bagavathi has been following the NBA for more than a decade and has found his calling in writing about the sport. He has used his expertise in covering the NBA, as well as other arenas of the sport, to write more than 1400 articles at ES. Bagavathi's pieces on the increasingly dominant presence of European basketball and those following the journey of women-ballers are particularly noteworthy. Along with being a full-time writer, he is also a part of a group of young coaches groomed as trainers by Junior NBA. Bagavathi has trained players from schools and colleges, as well as underprivileged students who can attend the camps for free.

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Jayant Chhabra

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