Lakers: Former Shaqobe Laker Compares Games Of LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan

Four-time champ thinks LeBron's play has a lot in common with one of the Hall of Fame MJ's, but not both.

Retired NBA big man John Salley, who won four titles as a role player with and against several all-time legends, across three consecutive decades, has seen a heck of a late of greatness on the hardwood.  

The 6'11" power forward/center out of Georgia Tech has plenty of Laker ties. He won his first championship with the Isiah Thomas/Joe Dumars/Bill Laimbeer/Dennis Rodman iteration of the Detroit Pistons against the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Magic Johnson/James Worthy "Showtime" Lakers in 1989. 

More importantly, Salley won his last title in the purple-and-gold, when he came out of a two-year retirement to serve as a deep bench vet during new head coach Phil Jackson's first year at the helm of the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers, the 1999-2000 season, at the ripe old age of 36. He averaged just 6.7 minutes a night and played in a scant 45 games, but was a crucial locker room leader guiding the team to its first title since Johnson's Lakers defeated Salley's Pistons in 1988.

Bally Sports' Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson spoke to Salley for a Bovada Sports segment, where they covered many Lakers-centric topics of conversation.

Salley established his NBA expertise by recalling the litany of all-time players he encountered during his league prime. "I played with everybody that’s important," he said. "So the 80’s and 90’s was the PRIME era of the NBA so, I got to play against Dr. J and Moses Malone (RIP), Darryl Dawkins (RIP); I got to play with and against Michael Jordan [his Pistons teams beat Jordan's Bulls twice en route to titles, and he subsequently joined Chicago to win his third championship in 1996], against Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], Byron Scott… I got to do a lot of amazing things."
Thanks to all this up-close-and-personal contact with so many league greats, Salley felt more than comfortable weighing in on the stylistic tendencies of one of the newer Lakers greats, LeBron James. Salley noted that the play of James, a 6'9" point forward, reminds him more of 6'9" classic L.A. point guard Magic Johnson than Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan. 

"He IS Magic Johnson," Salley declared emphatically. "But Magic also had the Michael Jordan killer aspect. Magic is like a mixture of both." 

When it comes to determining the best NBA player ever, Salley made an interesting pick. "I always said that the best player that was in the NBA is Earvin-Larry Bird-Johnson because they’re like one person. They’re both so intense, that it was amazing."