As one of the best players on the planet, LeBron James is enough to make any team in the league competitive. The impact he makes on both ends of the floor doesn’t just benefit him, it benefits his teammates and all of the people who feed on the opportunities he provides.
When he was in Cleveland, playing for the Cavaliers, former shooting guard Iman Shumpert was going to war with LeBron every single game and even helped them capture a championship in 2016.
But playing with James isn’t always as easy as it looks, and Shumpert made that known in a chat on his podcast, “Iman Amongst Men.”
“We was playing with Cleveland and boy, Bron a– in the middle of, it was at the end,” said Shumpert. “Shorty (James) grabbed the ball at the top of the key to calm us down. I don’t remember if I was not headed over there or what, but he said, ‘Shump, corner, now!’ Shorty, I looked around. I looked at T. Lue, everybody looking with the eyes like, ‘Hurry up. You gonna do it?’ Look, Cleveland is quiet as hell, and I’m like, ‘Bro, if I react, I’m the most selfish person on the earth.’ I’m like, I don’t know if he realize how he just said this bro, but I don’t like being talked to like that. I don’t like that. But he said it with so much command. If he wasn’t talking to me, I’d have been proud of him like, ‘Yeah man, you took control.’ But he was talking to me so I wasn’t rolling. Bron, I ended up going to the corner for you, but I did drag my feet, and I apologize for that, you know what I’m saying, ’cause it was like, as a man, I really didn’t know how to deal with that, bro, like I don’t know, you know what I’m saying. Your voice ain’t have to get that deep to tell me to go to the corner. … It was your stature at the moment. I didn’t appreciate the stature, but afterwards … I approached the man in the shower to tell him, ‘Bro, come on, man. I’ma run through a wall for you, dog.’”
Bron is a leader both and off the court — and everybody knows that. But sometimes, his aggressive leadership style can rub some people the wrong way.
For Shump, it was tough receiving orders like that. It challenged his ego as a player and a man. Nonetheless, he knew it was nothing personal and got to witness for himself how right LeBron James always is when it comes to the game of basketball.
Sometimes, succeeding at the highest level is more than about following orders. It’s about swallowing your pride and knowing your place.
