LeBron James is widely regarded as one of the best players in NBA history. For many, he’s hands down the best, and there are a plethora of reasons behind it. When James was drafted into the NBA, he was shouldered with a lot of expectations from basketball fans around the globe.
For a kid who entered the league directly from high school, such hype was unseen. Despite all the huge expectations, James didn’t let them slow him down from becoming one of the biggest stars that the league has ever seen.
Now almost two decades down the line, another player has finally reached somewhat the same level of hype prior to being drafted into the NBA. We are talking about none other than the French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
Is Victor Wembanyama A Better Prospect Than LeBron James?
The 7’4″ French star recently displayed his talents against G League teams. Since then, his hype among fans and the media has only increased. So much so that NBA analyst Bill Simmons has labeled the 18-year-old as a better draft prospect than LeBron James.
Simmons isn’t the only one with huge expectations from Wemby. Former NBA player Richard Jefferson went as far as saying if Wembanyama and LeBron were in the same draft class, LeBron would go behind Vic.
Keeping this thought in mind, an NBA fan on Reddit decided to ask fellow fans their thoughts on who they’d draft between an 18-year-old LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama. As expected, the fans gave some great answers to the question.
NicClaxtonIsHotAF: This argument is pointless, no basketball fan is going to erase bias and pretend they don’t know what LeBron is now and factor that into their decision. As prospects Wemby is more enticing and the ONLY argument against him is potential injury and we’ve seen time and time again teams are willing to take that risk in drafts.
AgentDaleCoomer: LeBron because I’m incapable of pretending that I can ignore one of the two greatest careers of all time for the sake of this hypothetical.
Bwillwildcat1: LeBron for sure. He had a generational high ceiling and very high floor – there really were no doubts about him. Wemby has a similar ceiling, and one can make the case that it is even higher than LeBron’s due to his size, blocking ability, and shooting skills, but his floor is much lower – players that tall are historically injury-prone.
mlippay: Lebron. I don’t want a stick figure being my center piece.
_coed_: No player has ever been near victors height and stayed healthy. It doesn’t happen.
sctthuynh: Easily Lebron. Wemby is a tremendous prospect due to the unprecedented talent/skill for someone that size. But at the same time, that size/height also poses a ton of question marks regarding durability, sustainability and fit for the NBA.
mambagigimentality: It’s hard to get a real deduction of opinions because we know what LeBron turned out to be, whereas Wemby is still a hypothetical. If you asked this in 2003 before the draft, many more would be saying wemby with the reasoning “height can’t be taught.”
chinitoFXfan: Safer bet would be LeBron, since you’d already know what he’d be capable off and how durable he’d be.
mew-182: It’s Lebron no matter how you spin it, and don’t act like Zion wasn’t just as hyped.
oroalej: Still Lebron because I already knew what happened next. Ask me again when Wembanyama is 37 y/o.
The conclusion to the debate all comes down to how durable each player is. LeBron is all set to enter 20the season of his NBA career, and he is still one of the best players in the league. On the other hand, due to Wemby’s huge height, many are still skeptical about whether he will be able to stay healthy for the entirety of his career.
