During an interview at Lakers Media Day Tuesday, LeBron James was asked to name his all-time Lakers starting five, but he left out one big name.
“I’m going Magic [Johnson] at the one, Jerry West at the two, Kobe [Bryant] at the three, myself at the four and Shaq [Shaquille O’Neal] at the five,” James said.
The four-time MVP, who is second on the all-time NBA scoring list, snubbed the one person who is ahead of him in that regard: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The former Laker and six-time NBA champion is one of the best players to ever live but James did acknowledge the center and explained his reasoning.
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“I love Kareem too, man, I can’t even front on that,” James added. “But Shaq’s so dominant. We need a big because I’m playing the four.”
O’Neal is widely considered to be one of the most dominant figures in all of sports due to his physical—and at times—brutal style of play and use of his big 7’1” frame. It appears that Adul-Jabbar’s 7’2” stature couldn’t make the cut.
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