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Forward thinking: Celebrating LeBron's greatness
May 2, 2010
How great is LeBron James? The back-to-back NBA MVPs speak volumes (LBJ joins Pettit, Bird, Mailman and Duncan as the only multiple winners in league history at the forward position) but so does the endorsement of legendary forwards as well:
"He's one guy in the league that I think he'll probably be better than all of us when it's all said and done."
-- Larry Bird
"LeBron reminds me of Oscar who controlled many facets of the game."
--Dolph Schayes
"His (basketball) IQ is one of the highest I've ever seen."
--Bernard King
"I don't know of any forward in the history of the game who has ever had his athletic skills and his attributes that he has."
-- Jerry Lucas
"His ability in the open court -- he reminds me so much when he goes to the basket of Julius Erving."
-- Billy Cunningham
"I haven't seen anybody like him. It's like Karl Malone out at the point running a team. Are you kidding? [laughs]"
-- Julius Erving
On the eve of LeBron's MVP announcement, some of the greatest forwards in NBA history -- Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Rick Barry, Billy Cunningham, Julius Erving, John Havlicek, Bernard King, Jerry Lucas, Kevin McHale, Scottie Pippen, Dolph Schayes and Dominique Wilkins celebrated LeBron's greatness through qualities that all winning players/MVPs must have -- leadership, physicality, basketball IQ, selflessness/sacrifice, competitive drive, versatility, dealing with pressure, will to dominate and the will to win.
LEADERSHIP "I love his leadership. The one thing that I am so impressed with him is his focus on the team and that he is not a selfish player. That's something that I'm very high on." -- Jerry Lucas
"LeBron has grown as a leader since his rookie year. He has a tremendous acumen of knowing exactly where all of the guys are on the floor and getting each of his teammates involved in the offense. His leadership skills are unparalleled and among the greatest who have ever played the game."
-- Bernard King
"LeBron displays the type of leadership that Oscar Robertson had. When Oscar was with Cincinnati, he took over the game. If they needed him to play forward he did. If they needed him to stop a guy on defense, he did. Oscar controlled the game, the action of his team and LeBron seems to do that as well as anybody I've ever seen.
"LeBron reminds me of Oscar who controlled many facets of the game."
-- Dolph Schayes
"He's a great leader. The thing about him and Kobe is that they show up every night. He's unselfish. He fits in the category of great players who make their teammates better."
-- Rick Barry
"He grew into a great leader."
-- John Havlicek
"He's a true leader. The floor general on the basketball court. To be as young as he is and to have everybody on the team look up to him and really to look to feed off his energy is pretty amazing.
"What impresses me the most is that LeBron wants to be the leader. He demands it. Not a lot of guys want that responsibility."
-- Dominique Wilkins
"He seems to be maturing into that leader that's going to be able to throw it out there, say this is what we got to do and then be able to do it. You have to be able to back it up but sometimes you also have to be able to say it, too. I think he's evolving into that."
-- Kevin McHale
"The attitude he brings to the game is great leadership. Watching LeBron play, you never feel like you're not getting a total effort. That's something your leader must be able to bring to the game, set a standard for everybody else.
"It looks like that there's a wonderful relationship between he and his teammates. The key is that he sets the tone for how the team is going to play and the type of effort that is going to be expected of everybody."
-- Billy Cunningham
"LeBron is the consummate leader. He was given the reins and the ball from Day 1 even though the Cavs had veterans on the team when he arrived. It's rare.
It's comparable to Magic Johnson. Magic at 19, had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes, the guys who were the captains. Magic wasn't the captain but he became the vocal leader in the playoffs."
-- Julius Erving
PHYSICALITY "He's the most unique player to enter the NBA in many, many decades. I've never seen a player who combines the power, strength, quickness and speed that he has in his game. It's simply amazing. And his ability to get from the foul line to the rim, the acceleration that he gets because of his strength and his size -- once he penetrates the paint, defenses aren't capable of handling him." -- Bernand King
"He may be one of the most physical forwards to play the game. I don't know of any forward in history of the game who has ever had his athletic skills and his attributes that he has. There's no doubt about that."
-- Jerry Lucas
"Physically, he's a monster. He's very strong, has great athletic ability, his quickness and his ability to see the open man.
"Physically, he's one of the most gifted athletes in the history of athletes -- whether it's football, baseball or hockey."
-- Dolph Schayes
"The sky's the limit."
-- John Havlicek
"The guy is a beast. Look at his body! I would pay to have a body like that when I played."
-- Rick Barry
"Phenomenal body. He's probably one of the greatest athletes to ever play basketball. His athleticism, speed, the jumping ability. He's among the best in those categories in the game."
-- Scottie Pippen
"At 6-8, 250, he looks like a freight train coming down the floor that can handle the ball. Reminds me of a lot of the small forwards back in my era that can do three different things.
They can put it on the floor, they can post up and they can shoot the ball from the outside. LeBron James is one of those guys that can do that on a consistent basis."
-- Dominique Wilkins
"He's outrageous. He's a big strong athletic guy. He's a very, very physical player. He's a unique blend of strength and athleticism, power and quickness. When that guy gets going in the hole, he's impossible to stop.
"He's very physical in an era right now that doesn't have a ton of physicality in the game with the way it's being called. On the perimeter, he's so strong that if he gets a half of step on you that there's no catching up to him."
-- Kevin McHale
"It's off the charts. It's hard for me to believe and I've never been in his company but people tell me he weighs in excess of 260 pounds. On TV, the closest I've seen, he looks like he weighs 225, maybe.
"His ability in the open court -- he reminds me so much when he goes to the basket of Julius Erving. There is just about nothing you can do once they get to a certain point in the open court."
-- Billy Cunningham
"I haven't seen anybody like him. It's like Karl Malone out at the point running a team. Are you kidding? [laughs]
"When LeBron moves around the court and attacks the hole, it's like the physicality of Malone coming at you except much more skilled."
-- Julius Erving
BASKETBALL IQ "His basketball IQ is on the level of Bird, Magic and Jordan and their basketball IQ was off the charts. He's developed a killer instinct. You see a certain fierceness, something he's developed the last few years. His IQ is one of the highest I've ever seen."
-- Bernard King
"LeBron understands the game, he knows the game. He sees the game developing in front of him. And as a result, he takes advantage of it."
-- Jerry Lucas
"Gaining perspective year by year, game by game where he will become a great player in analyzing what needs to be done." -- John Havlicek
"Phenomenal. He knows how to win and get things done. He's observant and he knows what's going on every second of the game and what is required to win."
-- Dolph Schayes
"Fantastic. He has a great, natural feel for the game, which all of the great players really and truly have. I think he has a terrific IQ for the game of basketball."
-- Rick Barry
"Off the scale. He's so far ahead of the game. Even before the ball is taken out of bounds, he's already anticipating what his attack is going to be. He already knows what the defense is going to do.
"He'so young but he's seen a lot of things and he knows how to react to them plus he has great anticipation. He has a phenomenal mind for the game and that is on both ends of the court."
-- Scottie Pippen
"He has an amazing basketball IQ. You look at what he does outside of his scoring. He makes everyone around him better. He's a great passer, a very, very good rebounder. From that aspect, he's got a great basketball mind."
-- Dominique Wilkins
"It's getting better. Sometimes there are too many people standing around, watching LeBron. I noticed him at times now getting his teammates involved in the situation, which I think is necessary because in the playoffs, teams are able to focus and have a game plan to limit the team."
-- Billy Cunningham
"He's at the top. LeBron has that gift. Like Elgin, Oscar, West, Russell, Bird, Magic, Michael. They know before a game starts that if the game plan presented on the board isn't going to work to perfection, then they'll tweak it.
"They're ability to tweak it and tweak it quickly reflects a high basketball IQ. He has that gift."
-- Julius Erving
"He's understanding who he is, what his team does, what they need to do to win. I think he's evolving into a real high-level guy. He understands what they have to do to win, the defensive rotations, the offensive sets. He's really evolving into a real high-level category for him."
-- Kevin McHale
SELFLESSNESS AND SACRIFICE
"He's a team player and a very unselfish. He revels in the fact that his teammates are as successful as he is during the course of a game. The bottom line with LeBron is that he's all about winning. He makes sure his teammates are part of their success because it's the only way he can be successful within the team environment."
-- Bernard King
"This is paramount. It's critical to be a winner. There are players who have great talent yet selflessness is not one of the attributes that they have. If you're going to have a team that enjoys playing a team game, then your key player must have that attribute. He has it in spades."
-- Jerry Lucas
"He basically proved himself to be one who can play in this league and now that he knows he can, he's getting other people to become involved. A sign of great player is when you make everyone else on your team better and that's what he's doing."
-- John Havlicek
"I look at LeBron James the same way I looked at Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan -- he loves the game, loves to play. You can see the passion when he plays, it comes out of every one of his pores."
-- Dolph Schayes
"He's about winning. He doesn't care about how many points he scores, he just cares about how many games his team wins. That's what you want in a great player."
-- Rick Barry
"Selflessness and sacrifice sums up the way LeBron plays on both ends of the basketball court. LeBron could have been the league's leading scorer but his focus is on the bigger prize, the NBA championship.
"Winning a back-to-back MVP is predicated on his style of play. He plays the game the right way."
-- Scottie Pippen
"His 7, 8, 9, 10 assists per night speak for themselves. He is a guy who believes in making his teammates better. I've seen him play games where maybe he's taken two or three shots in the first quarter because he's trying to get everyone else involved. He surveys the floor to see where he's going to be effective on any given night."
-- Dominique Wilkins
"He's very selfless. He's a willing passer. I like the fact that late in games, he'll take on the other team's top scorer, 'Hey, give him to me. I'll shut him down."
"LeBron is not afraid to put himself out there. 'I got him, put the game on me.' More importantly, I'll make the pass, I'll make the play. He's selfless. I like that part of him a great deal."
-- Kevin McHale
"As he's gotten older, he has a better grasp of the game and what's important. He's realizing that winning is the only important thing.
"It takes a little time for a player to understand because in many cases they have their own individual goals to establish themselves and he's done all of those things. There is only one thing that is missing and that is winning and winning a championship."
-- Billy Cunningham
"He's the ultimate unselfish player. He can score 60 points or 10 points, it doesn't matter because he'll still dominate the game.
"LeBron goes end line to end line, willing to sacrifice his body. He ends up on the floor and in the stands. He's in superior condition. He never seems to get tired even though he plays the game end to end.
"Until he has it all -- a title -- he's not going to rest."
-- Julius Erving