“He Needs to Go and Do Some Research”: 6-Time NBA Champion Once Bashed LeBron James for His ‘Limited Perspective on the Game’

Published 08/13/2022, 11:30 AM EDT

In any sport, people tend to have biases towards their favorite athletes or teams. It applies to fans as well as the players themselves. There have been countless debates on who are the best players of all time. The ‘Mount Rushmore’ debate is another instance where people choose the best players based on their own opinions. LeBron James has also chimed in on this debate before.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is widely considered to be the greatest player of his generation. So it is even more intriguing when someone of his caliber joins the debates on the greatest players of all time. However, the 18-time All-Star was criticized by one of the greats of the game for his ‘Mount Rushmore’.

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Back in 2014, LeBron James revealed his ‘Mount Rushmore’ of the greatest basketball players of all time. The four names he included were Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Oscar Robertson. However, six-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bashed LeBron James for his picks.

Abdul-Jabbar said, “I don’t know what LeBron was thinking. He didn’t even see Bill Russell play. He has no idea what Bill Russell did“. Abdul-Jabbar took issue with James only naming fairly recent players.

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He continued, “Eleven championships in 13 years? Eight in a row? LeBron isn’t going to get anywhere near that. I don’t get it. And here he didn’t want Bill Russell on his Rushmore. I think today’s players have a very limited perspective on the game.”

Abdul-Jabbar suggests LeBron James to do some research

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ripped James’ list and suggested that the King needs to look up some of the former players before coming to a decision. “He needs to go and do some research and watch some old film, and hopefully he’ll be impressed“, he suggested. While LeBron James didn’t necessarily make bad choices, however leaving greats like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar out of his ‘Mount Rushmore’ was certainly going to get ‘The King’ some backlash.

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Meanwhile, LeBron James mentioned during his interview back in 2014 that he expected himself to displace one of the names from his ‘Mount Rushmore’. “Somebody’s gotta get bumped, but that’s not for me to decide. That’s for the architects“, James declared.

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The Los Angeles Lakers star has certainly staked a claim to be in anyone’s ‘Mount Rushmore’. He is still going strong and he’ll be hoping to add at least one more championship to his already legendary career.

Does LeBron James make it into your ‘Mount Rushmore’? Let us know in the comments below.

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Written by:

Pragya is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Having completed Masters in Sports Management from the International Institute of Sports Management, Mumbai, he has been a passionate fan of the NBA since 2010. Pragya is a massive supporter of LeBron James and just wants to enjoy the twilight years of his Hall of Fame career.

Edited by:

Veer Badani

“He Needs to Go and Do Some Research”: 6-Time NBA Champion Once Bashed LeBron James for His ‘Limited Perspective on the Game’

Abdul-Jabbar suggests LeBron James to do some research

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