Lakers: 2 Longtime Rivals Concede LeBron James as NBA’s Greatest of All Time
LeBron James has made his fair share of rivals over the course of his 20-year career. Nobody likes losing, and people especially hate losing to the same person over and over again.
Two players who played a lot against LeBron over the course of their long careers were Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Pierce was with the Boston Celtics in the East from 1999-2012, while Garnett was there from 2007-2012. They had a lot of battles against the King, winning a lot, and losing a lot.
While both spent a ton of time hating LeBron, after he broke the NBA's scoring record, they had to give him some respect. They spoke about his GOAT status on Garnett's KG Certified podcast.
"We talk about the GOAT, he might be the GOAT," Pierce said. "I think that right there probably solidified it. And this is the reason why. He put himself in a place where I don't see nobody passing him in our lifetime in scoring, for one. Two, you look at his accolades and you look how the longevity, and then you look at the biggest part of it, was the expectations coming out of high school. That type of pressure. That's tough, because no one in our league has ever had to deal with these type of expectations coming in. And so, and then, probably the most scrutinized superstar. So I got to probably put him up at GOAT status. It's undeniable."
Garnett added that this is officially the "changing of the guards" with LeBron now being the "king of the hill." How's that for high praise from two longtime rivals?
It's hard to argue that this officially puts LeBron into the GOAT status. There's almost nothing he hasn't done in the league, and he's still playing at such a high-level. He has time to potentially add another championship, and if that happens, I don't think there will be a debate anymore. Also, it'll be fun to see how high his scoring record goes.
