Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith were tasked with coming up with their player rankings heading into the 2024-25 season and the results are quite interesting. Barkley’s top 50 list is the one that stood out the most, as he doesn’t have LeBron James in his top 10.
James comes in at No. 11 for Barkley, which is a bit of a surprise. What makes that decision seem even more interesting, is that you’d think LeBron would rank higher when you consider the criteria that the Hall of Famer used to rank players.
“You cannot be a great player if you can’t win a game multiple ways,” Barkley said. “No. 1 priority is how many different ways you can win the game.”
I’m not sure there are 10 players in the NBA who impact the game in different ways at a high level the way LeBron can. The 39-year-old averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023-24 while shooting 54.0% from the field and 41.0% from beyond the arc. He remains one of the very best all-around players in the NBA today.
As for who Barkley had over LeBron, here’s his top 10.
1. Nikola Jokic
2. Luka Doncic
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo
4. Joel Embiid
5. Stephen Curry
6. Jaylen Brown
7. Jayson Tatum
8. Kevin Durant
9. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
10. Anthony Davis
Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid are all better than LeBron at this stage of his career. They’d be my top 4 as well. I think you can make a very good case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jayson Tatum to be ahead of James as well but it gets a bit tricky after that.
Would I put Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant ahead of LeBron? Probably not. It’s close between them but I think James still has a bigger impact on the game than his two great rivals.
It’s very close between LeBron and his teammate Anthony Davis too. I’d argue Davis is the more important player for the Lakers, but if you’re asking me who’s better between them, I might give the edge to the 20-time All-Star.
While I wouldn’t necessarily have much of a problem with anyone ranking Curry, Durant, and Davis above LeBron, as it is so close, I do take issue with Jaylen Brown being above him. Brown deserves a lot of respect for winning Finals MVP and Eastern Conference Finals MVP last season, but he isn’t a better player than the Lakers star.
I think a good spot for LeBron in these rankings is anywhere between seventh and 10th. O’Neal has him at No. 5 while Smith put him at No. 2, which is a bit too high. I don’t believe you can make a case for him still being a top-five player in the NBA, but he hasn’t dropped out of the top 10 just yet.
Getting back to Barkley, there are plenty more surprises on his list. The 61-year-old has Donovan Mitchell all the way down at No. 43 while Kawhi Leonard and James Harden don’t even make the top 50.
Barkley’s reasoning for Leonard not being there is that the best ability is availability and he’s been hurt the last few years. His coworkers didn’t go that route though, with Smith having him at No. 15 while O’Neal put him at No. 29.
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