LeBron James and Kobe Bryant will forever be linked to each other, and Hall of Famer Julius Erving was recently asked to pick between the two icons. Erving went with James, but not for his resume or things of that nature.
“I think LeBron is one of one,” Erving said, via The Schmo. “Kobe’s another sort of imitation of Michael Jordan. There have been plenty of imitations of Michael and Kobe and me, and other people. LeBron’s like one and one. So I’m going to give him his pick.”
We had seen incredible scorers like Michael Jordan before Bryant came along. He had even modeled his game after Jordan’s, and the resemblance was uncanny.
As for James, we had never seen anything like him when he came into the NBA, and we still don’t see anyone quite like him. You’re talking about an incredibly athletic and powerful 6’9″ point forward who, at his peak, could do basically everything on the court, from scoring, playmaking, rebounding, to defending.
We had seen a 6’9″ point guard before in Magic Johnson. Johnson was really the first player of that size able to playmake at an exceptionally high level. He wasn’t anywhere near the athlete James was at his peak, though. Johnson could not score or defend like him either.
Scottie Pippen then came along, and he could do a bit of everything on the court. Pippen wasn’t the same level of scorer or this kind of physical specimen, though. He was listed at 6’8″ and 210 lbs. James is taller and has weighed over 240 lbs for basically his entire career.
It’s often been said that James is like a more athletic version of Johnson with Karl Malone’s physique. You’re sprinkling playmaking and extremely high basketball IQ on someone very agile, strong, and physically imposing. Max Kellerman called the 41-year-old James a smarter version of Malone. You wonder when we’ll see another like him.
While Erving was very complimentary of James here, he actually left him off his list of the 10 greatest players of all time. Bryant wasn’t on there either. Erving also doesn’t have James in his list of the five greatest dunkers of all time, but that wasn’t really controversial. The 76-year-old does hope we’ll get to see him in a Dunk Contest before he retires, as he has never taken part in one in the NBA. That’s unlikely to happen, though.
Julius Erving’s Unstoppable Big 3
Erving was also asked here to build his dream Big 3 with himself, and went with two icons from way back in the day.
“Give me Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell,” Erving said. “I’ll be a guard. Certainly, we’ll be able to protect the rim, right? And Wilt can score 100 points. So what the heck?”
Good luck stopping this trio. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were the greatest offensive and defensive forces, respectively, of their era.
Chamberlain famously averaged 50.4 points per game in the 1961-62 season and won seven scoring titles. He was also named MVP four times, while Russell won the award five times. He’d have had plenty of Defensive Player of the Year awards on his resume, too, but the honor didn’t exist during his career.
Put a silky, smooth operator like Erving, who averaged 24.2 points per game in 16 combined seasons in the NBA and ABA, next to them, and it’s game over for everyone else.
