Charles Barkley is well known for his strong takes and isn’t afraid to stir the pot. But he’s dead wrong about LeBron James as it relates to his place in NBA history.
Appearing on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike” show, Barkley listed his top seven all-time NBA players, and James wasn’t on his list.
Charles Barkley just named his top-7 NBA players of all-time.
1 Jordan
2 O Robertson
3 Bill Russell
4 Kareem
5 Wilt
6 Kobe
7 Tim Duncan— UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) June 20, 2016
With three championships, James has secured his legacy as one of the game’s all-time great champions. Yes, there are some who have more than he does, but James has completely transformed the game. He also engineered the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, as the Cleveland Cavaliers became the only team to come back and win after being down 3-1.
He was also the unanimous MVP of this year’s NBA Finals, for good reason.
LeBron led both Finals teams in:
• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists
• Steals
• Blocks pic.twitter.com/olnAo7SylX— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 20, 2016
In Game 7 Sunday night, he became just the third player in history to record a triple-double in a Game 7, finishing with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. For the Finals, he averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.3 blocks and 2.6 steals per game.
Heck, Magic Johnson said just last week that James has earned a spot on his personal NBA Mt. Rushmore. He said James is the best all-around player in NBA history, and it’s hard to argue he’s wrong on that point.
The scary part? James is still just 31 years old and will surely add to his legacy before he is finished.
Barkley surely has his reasons for saying James isn’t an all-time NBA great, but they’re wrong.