Lakers News: Where George Karl Ranks LeBron James Among Best Current NBA Players

It's been a regular Karl-A-Thon here on All Lakers lately.

Apr 29, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23). / Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Hall of Fame head coach George Karl, a longtime Western Conference rival of the Los Angeles Lakers as the head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings, remains more of a believer in L.A. All-Star combo forward LeBron James than many pundits across the NBA.

Karl chatted with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on the latter's Scoop B Radio Podcast for an extensive conversation that's well worth listening to in full.

“I still wanna give LeBron number one," Karl said of the league's oldest player. "So I guess LeBron would be number two in my mind [behind Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokic], but it’s really a young/old thing going on and the old guys know how to win, they know how hard it is to win and that’s what’s coming at these young guys that they have to learn in the next couple of weeks," Karl noted ahead of the playoffs (now, ironically, most of the young guys are still standing, while proud vets like James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler all missed out on the second round of the playoffs).

This is a very generous ranking, considering that James may not even be the best player on his own team anymore, after getting essentially outplayed by center Anthony Davis during L.A.'s five-game "gentlemen's sweep" first round loss to the Denver Nuggets. The 6-foot-10 "Brow" averaged 27.8 points on 63.4% shooting from the floor, 15.6 rebounds, four assists and 1.6 blocks.

James averaged an identical 27.8 points on .566/.385/.739 shooting splits, plus 8.8 assists, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 steals and one block per bout. But James was not the defensive force Davis was, even if he was the quarterback of the Lakers' offense.

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