Iman Shumpert had quite the start to his NBA career, as he was drafted in 2011 by the New York Knicks, who had All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire on the roster. It normally doesn’t get much better than that for a young player in the NBA, but it did for Shumpert in 2015.
He and J.R. Smith were sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team trade which meant they got to team up LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Playing alongside LeBron was a surreal experience for Shumpert, who once explained how well James reads the game during an interview with Vlad TV.
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There’s times that he’d be in the game and he’ll be like, he don’t mean to do it, but he’ll be like, ‘J.R. hand.’ and he’ll just throw it to the hand, snatch it, palm it, then he’ll be in a post-up like, ‘Shump if he move, cut right behind him if he move.’ And he’ll start to dribble, ‘Tristan (Thompson), cut, take him with you.’ and everything he is saying, you just watch it happen and the moment that man flinch, I’ll sprint behind it, catch (and) dunk.”
LeBron’s basketball IQ is off the charts, and this isn’t the first time that a former teammate of his has spoken about him being able to analyze the game and anticipate what is going to happen next. That intelligence, combined with his physical gifts, is what has made LeBron one of the greatest players we have ever seen.
Dirk Nowitzki Praised LeBron James For Continuing To Dominate In His 20th Season
This season, LeBron became just the 10th player in history to play 20 seasons in the NBA, and unlike the other 9, he remains a force in his 20th season. One of the others who did manage to hang around for that long is Dirk Nowitzki, and he was in awe of LeBron’s level of play this season.
Dirk also admitted that if James surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and becomes the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, then he’s sort of running out of arguments for picking Michael Jordan over LeBron as the GOAT. James is going to do it this season, barring some major injury, and when he does, a lot of people would probably crown him as the greatest.
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