Transcription
I'm Anne Pace, so you know when you study the history of sports and you truly analyze all-time great athletes, for the most part, they have two primes or two peaks. They have their athletic peak from about the ages of 25 to 29, and then they have a cerebral peak from about 32 to 34.
Like, for example, Muhammad Ali. He was just starting to enter his physical peak when he was forced out of boxing by the US government. But then he came back in the early '70s, and he was able to reach another peak right around the time of defeating George Foreman up until the Thrilla in Manilla, where all that damage that he took kind of set him back and started his downturn physically. But he was at another peak in that little time period from about the Rumble in the Jungle, really the rematch against Ken Norton, all the way to the Thrilla in Manilla.
Michael Jordan. He had a physical peak from about the age of 25 to 29. At 25, he was MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, and it slowly built up to him becoming world champion, so on and so forth. He retired, came back, and at 33, the Bulls won 72 games. And even though he wasn't the athlete that he was as a younger man, he still understood the game with so much more scope that he oftentimes was in a certain spot or position earlier than he would have been earlier in his career because he understood the game better. He knew what he was supposed to be.
I said all that to say this: LeBron James right now is at his cerebral peak, has mental peak. He's not quite the athlete that he was in his Miami years, but right now he can see the game so well, and that is why he states that he is getting better with age, that he's aging like fine wine. That's according to him, and right now I agree from a certain perspective.
So anyway, they're going to talk about Emelin chiming all right now. A month ago, Collins, the Cavaliers and Suns in action last night. In a nutshell, the game was never close. A big reason of why LeBron James, who not this 14th triple-double season, setting a career-high in that category. LeBron had no mercy against the Suns. He got it rolling in the first half here with a pass to Kyle Korver for the layup, and LeBron went arming it to Korver for the three-pointer. LeBron now attacking the hoop, getting the floor to go plus the foul. In the third quarter, Cavs up by 20, the 33-year-old with a steal and the windmill dunk. LeBron finished for 28 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists. Cavs win by 16.
LeBron having some fun describing how he gets so many triple-doubles. I think that LeBron is definitely getting smarter. Once again, I don't believe that he's the player that he was in Miami, but he just understands the game so much better. And I mentioned this in a video that I did a long time ago: as a man, when you turn 32, 33, you do start to see the world from a much more panoramic perspective, much more micro-cosmically. You don't have that same spirit of wonder anymore. A certain, a certain, now you enter into another mode, and that is where LeBron is entering right now as an athlete. And you could see it on the court. He doesn't get rattled, he stays calm, he understands that there's going to be another day, he keeps things in perspective. And I think that that helps him. I think that helps him with a lot of the anxiety issues that he had earlier in his career that made him look like someone who did not know how to perform in clutch moments. So it's just part of his manhood.
So even though, as I stated in another video, players like him and Kevin Durant, because they were raised in a matriarchal society, oftentimes they don't know how to deal with pressure like other players who are raised in a patriarchal society would have known how to deal with it. The experience that he had in Miami, going under the tutelage of both Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade, gave him a certain facsimile of leadership. Even though I always say he's not a good leader because he's too capricious, he still is entering into his own right now as a man where he's really starting to comprehend what's going on around him, and it helps him maintain a placid demeanor in those moments.
For morale abroad, here's First Take. The bride feeling self-activated in the Suns. Just when is that [ __ ] not feeling himself? Like fine wine, Max? Do you agree with? Was he? No, and he knows it's not even true. He's amazing, and he's staving off the climb because his basketball IQ, which is already the highest in the game, is somehow getting better. Like, he's, and this is what happens to players as they age, if they remain incredibly great. No one's ever remained this great this deep into their careers. Nick, I agree with Max Kellerman and many of his sentiments. Yes, as I already stated in my preamble to this video, when you're an all-time great and you get to that 30 to 33 year range, yes, you do start to see the game in a certain way. You ought to see life in a certain way.
Max Kellerman states that no other player has ever been able to compete at this level at that age. Well, that's not true. Once again, Michael Jordan at 33 was the captain of a 72-win Bulls team. He averaged 30 points a game, shot 50% from the field in a much more physical era where players were went man-to-man. So you cannot always just compare the numbers. With Michael Jordan, it was a little bit, well, he's always done that. What I see is a difference in him in regards to his ability to control his anxiety. He can control his mental mind frame much greater than he could when he was younger, when he defended all the time like an elite defender, five different positions. I agree. 2013 LeBron, that's one of the great seasons that any player has ever had in NBA history. And when he says more possessions, his, but I mean, come on, of course more possessions changes statistics. There's a reason why statistically five years ago, no one could get with them. Now James Harden and Russell Westbrook are putting up numbers like LeBron is. That's because James Harden and Russell Westbrook are so much better than anyone who was there five years ago? Of course not. It's pace of play.
Well, pace of play has something to do with it, but also Russell Westbrook and James Harden have grown as players. They've grown into their grown man bodies, so right now they're in their physical prime. LeBron is in his mental prime. 1961-62, in that season, when Wilt Chamberlain, Stephen A. famously averaged 50 and 25, Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double with 30 points a game, Elgin Baylor in most, in more than half the season, averaged 38 and 18 rebounds. Again, is that because Wilt won MVP? Bill Russell won MVP? Is that because in that year, the world was populated by supermen the likes of which they would we would never see again? No. Or is that because those guys were better than let's say Shaq or Kobe or or Magic Johnson? Or because they never put up the numbers of these, that the guys I just mentioned, the '61-'62? Did no. Of course, it has to do with era, pace of play, how the game is played. That affects your numbers. And part of the reason that LeBron is putting up these kinds of numbers at that stage of his career, of course, he's great, of course, he's amazing. Part of it is the pace of play. And he knows that. That's why he says it with a smile. LeBron, of all people, would know that pace of play does have an effect on his numbers because LeBron is an athlete who keeps up with many of those higher-end metrics. So he understands the effect of pace of play on statistical output. He is just putting on the media a little bit, but most of that was sincere. He does believe that he's getting better with age, and that's part of these self-hypnosis that great athletes put themselves through when they get about 33, 34, and Father Time starts to knock on your door.
First of all, you're talking about pace of play. What you're talking about also is a game that's gotten less physical. And so because it's gotten less physical, with the most physical specimen in the game, when you consider where he is and what he delivers, the fact that he's 6'9", 260, a locomotive, can play an open court, primarily spends a lot of this time on the perimeter. With that size, you usually don't see somebody that size with that athletic ability, that speed, and that ability in the open court. So when you combine that with the fact that the game is less physical, he's taking advantage of it, which is why I respectfully disagree with your argument. Because the thing about it is, you have to take all those things into consideration when you're judging what a guy's bringing to the table. We sit and we constantly compare players in terms, and a lot of times when people fail to bring it to account to era, we have to remind them that era. Guys were playing in, how physical the game was when Jordan was playing, even Iceman George Gervin and others, and when they were playing, ol' Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and when they were playing. Except, except, we have to take all of those things into consideration.
Ultimately, what it comes down to is what, what makes LeBron so great in his 15th season? Think about this: he has averaged better than 25 for the last 14 years. Yes. And that is what makes much of your assertions pretty inconsequential. Your statement that, well, we have to evaluate LeBron's numbers based on the fact that it's a far less physical era. No, it's not really that less physical than the '80s or the '90s. The '90s was the most physical era. But please understand that the flavor of our rules were instituted in 1990, and in the '90s, you had the most physical and the most offensive era in NBA history. Those are facts, it's not narrative. Go on the NBA basketball reference website, and it will tell you. I know for a fact because I watched it. But from the '93 season, meaning '93-'94 season, I should say, let me specify, all the way to about 2003 to 2004, the NBA went to a very, very prohibitively defensive peril that is started to crawl out of in '04 and did not fully come out of until about 2011. Okay? The 1980s was not a defensive era. I don't care how much Stephen A. Smith tries to get on top of mountains and exclaim it to the world. No, everybody was not going to the basket and getting decapitated like he likes to assert. That is just not true. During the playoffs, you would have many of the higher-end teams in the NBA that would get much more physical in the playoffs than the regular season. You had games like when the Detroit Pistons played the Denver Nuggets, that was 184 to 183 or whatever that score was, and I believe triple overtime. It's very common for teams to score 120 points back in the '80s.
This year is the third best top of his career. He's shooting from three-point range, range, and he's only done that two other times in his career. That's why you have to look at him and say, okay, you got to give him credit where credit is due because whether it's physical or not, to step outside beyond the arc and drill more shots than you've been doing in the past, he deserves credit for that. It's not for us to look at him and say, well, he's bigger, you may have lost a step or whatever. Well, you figure out a way to take advantage of, you know, doing whatever it is you lost a step, but in this category, you're shooting better, or your game in the post is better, or your rebounding better, or whatever the case would be, he deserves credit for that. Points, shooting percentage, free-throw shooting, all of this stuff is consistent. The one thing that's better is just three-point shooting. Everything else, no matter how he got there, it's ruined.
Let me say this. It's very common as players age that they become better shooters, especially when they get in their early 30s because they get their grown man body, they get their grown man strength, and their mind becomes much more placid. So therefore, their hand-eye coordination becomes a little bit better, especially in their shooting. Many players have come into the NBA in their early 20s and they were not great shooters. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, they were not great shooters. They were not as bad as the media narratives make them out to be. Michael Jordan was never a bad shooter from mid-range, but by the time he was 28, 29, he was probably the best mid-range jump shooter in the NBA, and that's just because you grow into your body and you settle down. LeBron is at the point right now where at 33 years old, he's probably as good as he's ever going to be as a jump shooter because soon he's gonna start to lose his legs and he's gonna make less shots from from deep. So right now he's at his cerebral peak. It should last probably for another two years or so.
Well, with the state-of-the-art PEDs that he's taking, allegedly, you know, never know how long it might last throughout his career. We cannot take credit away from him for that. He's a little, and yet, even I, I can't believe Stephen A. Smith. As much as you sit up here, as much basketball as you played and watched in your life, division now, allegedly, you know, you love to sit on TV and act as if you invented the game of basketball. All you are is a fan on television, brother. And you, I don't understand how you making high six figures, maybe seven figures a year, and I see you wearing that same plaid Tom Ford blazer at least twice a month, at least twice a month, I should say, but probably once a week. Why don't you take your ass to Fifth Avenue and go buy some new stuff? Mind you, making all that damn money, add a little bit more diversity to your wardrobe. Me, [ __ ], but in Philadelphia, all over the place. You, of all people, are focusing on only one side of the court. Even if you even if you think that he's just as good offensively as he's ever been, and I believe adjusting for the league that he's playing in now compared to when when he played in Miami, the third year he was in Miami, he is clearly not as good as he was at that point, but approaching that level. I understand, but that Miami LeBron was better. That's just the offense. What about the defense? She was gonna act like that side of the floor doesn't get off.
Let me say this. Before Stephen A. Smith answers, no, LeBron is not the defensive player that he was at his peak in the early 2010s or in the late 2000s. Inc. But when you get 32, 33, it's all part of expanding your understanding of the game, cerebrally. It's knowing when and how to pick your spots. Nobody gives 100% exertion on the defensive end in the NBA after the age of 30. That just doesn't happen. To be quite frank with you, nobody gives 100% on the defensive end period in the NBA. If you're playing 30-plus minutes, it's really not possible. You'll burn yourself out. Even the great Michael Jordan couldn't give 100% on the defensive end even in his prime. There were times where as he got older, they would switch him on weaker players on the other team so he could so that he could conserve his energy for offense, and they would have Ron Harper or Scottie Pippen guard the opposing team's best player so that Jordan could convert down the stretch offensively. That's just common sense, and it's part of human physiology. You can't keep going 100% on both ends forever.
Do I think that LeBron is aging like fine wine? Yes, I do. Do I think that he's as good as he was in Miami in 2013? No, I don't. But they don't cancel each other out. Just because one is true doesn't mean that the other is not true. Him aging like fine wine doesn't mean that he's as good as he was back in 2013. It just means that he's aging like fine wine. Answer that question. You people don't get to ask me that question. You are the last person on Earth that gets to ask me that question because I'm the one that, Molly is my witness, I am the one who brought up repeatedly over the last year and a half when you said it, well, you did everything but deliver a dozen roses to his front doorstep. I was the one who consistently said LeBron James picks and chooses the spots defensively. He's not cooperating when he went out there and except the toughest defensive assignment from open attack. He picked the choosing on many, many. He physically can't do that anymore. Kawhi Leonard, 25 years old. LeBron, 32, 33 years old. That, that just is not realistic to expect that. He just, he didn't even have to. That third year in Miami, if you recall, there was some issues with the franchise. There were some particular issues going on with Dwyane Wade. There were times, and this led to LeBron James ultimately wanting to leave Miami. But let me say, there's also, like I always tell you, brother, this is a pro-truth channel. This is not a fanboy channel. Just because LeBron James cannot play defense at 100% does not excuse him when it comes to certain conversations. Like, for example, due to the fact that he could not defend at an elite level anymore, that means that that has to count against him when you're comparing him to players like a, like a fully healthy Kawhi Leonard, a fully healthy Kevin Durant, when you're trying to discern and decipher who the best player in the NBA is. These are facts. This is what I mean when I say the brothers have to assess things based on empirical data. It's very important to take the emotionality out of it. Just like when I evaluate LeBron instigating the free agent aspect of players moving from team to team in the NBA, I think that it's a great thing that he brought an element of mobility to the to the NBA, particularly star players, to know to teach them how to disavow themselves from any sort of sense of loyalty to a team or a city that they should never have had in the first place. But at the same time, when you evaluate his legacy, that is going to count against him when you're grading him against players that were with one team for their whole careers and were able to build something at that team or with that team that was dynastic. That is going to count against him.
Ready to go. And then LeBron James, we'll find out an hour before tip-off that Dwyane Wade was playing that night, and it drove LeBron James crazy because he wouldn't find out until later, 1:00 in the afternoon, that Dwyane Wade wouldn't even be available. So when you look at it from that perspective, I remember that 2014 season, LeBron's last season with the Miami Heat, doing Dwyane Wade. That man looked like he was strung out on something, allegedly. He lost all his muscle tone, his face was always puffy. To be quite frank with you, looked like he had an allergic reaction to something that he was no longer able to take his PEDs, allegedly, because he lost all the muscle tone in his arms. You know, the physique that we have become accustomed to seeing from Dwyane Wade was no longer there. There were plenty of times where LeBron James had a level of culpability and responsibility in different ways that he didn't have in any of the year he was at. He can do it. He can do a lot, but he was asked that particular season to do a hell of a lot more than he had ever been. Hit like timeout, hold on. He won the championship that year. But beyond that, he played on both sides of the floor consistently. And so whatever the reasons are surrounding why he's not doing it now, and I would say part of it is he's smartly saving himself. The fact is, today he has to save himself because he's 33 with a lot of miles. Five years ago, we didn't have to save himself because he was younger with fresher legs, but that made him a more effective player, both ends of the floor. He's a [ __ ] LeBron because you'll be good as that guy. Because what I'm saying that you, Max Kellerman, is that six years ago or seven years ago or three years ago or four years ago, he may have had different responsibilities. That particular season that you're leaning on, he was asked to do more. So it's not about what you're actually doing, it's what you're capable of doing. I think he could.
Can he give one, two? Yes, LeBron could give 100% exertion on both ends of the floor right now if you wanted to, but not for the whole season. And he himself will admit that. So Stephen A. Smith, if Stephen A. is trying to imply that LeBron could go 82 games giving 100% exertion on both ends of the floor when, as he already admitted, more is asked of him in Cleveland, or he's asked to do something from a different level in Cleveland than he was in Miami, I think that Stephen A. is fooling himself and he's just saying that for the sake of winning the argument. They won the championship that year, right? They won it because of him. They won the championship, played both ends of the floor, regular season and playoffs. What would be? They won that championship in 2013 because of Ray Allen. That's why they win a championship because LeBron was not good in the finals. He wasn't good until the middle of the third quarter in Game 6 going into Game 7. Prior to that, he was very bad, at least by his standards. To win the championship, it is to save himself for the playoffs. My point is, he didn't need to save himself. Once again, you're giving generic answers as opposed to inside answers. Pat Riley doesn't do business that way. The Cleveland Cavaliers might. What you can get away with in Cleveland, you can't get away with in Miami. What I'm saying. Well, again, LeBron may have wanted to. Plenty of athletes might want to get away with it. Lilium, at least might choose to want to save themselves. Excuse me. Michael Jordan, there were times when he amped it up. Michael Jordan would amp it up in a fourth quarter. He'll amp it up against a particular team. He'll amp it up against a particular. Michael always gave his best at the moment that he needed to give his best. That's what counted with Michael. No, Michael did not give 100% effort on the defensive end every game. A lot of that is narrative, and a lot of that is an over-romanticizing of Michael Jordan. And if you're not careful, you'll fall into that if you have a fanboy mentality as opposed to properly assessing what occurred historically. So I have to view things objectively. Like, for example, in the '98 playoffs, in the Conference Finals, Michael Jordan didn't guard Reggie Miller for the most part. For the most part, he guarded Chris Mullin. They put Ron Harper on Reggie Miller because they knew that Reggie Miller was gonna be running whoever was guarding him off a main-on-one screens, he's gonna be running the baseline trying to punish his defender. They put Scottie Pippen on Mark Jackson. That's what Stephen A. is basically trying to imply to Max Kellerman, that no, all-time great players don't always have to give 100% on both ends because they're human beings. They do have to conserve energy, especially when they get in at 33, 34, 35-year-old range. Who adds it? What Michael Jordan would tell you, no, there were some times where he didn't feel that he was. See what I'm saying? What I look and see that he may not be by his own standards, but by the standards of the rest, but the rest of the week, he was always excellent on both sides of the floor. And if you're talking about to him where he wasn't as good on the defensive end, then he wasn't his best. Well, it's very clear that both Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith need to be reminded about what the question is actually asking them. The question states, do you agree with LeBron? As LeBron states, you can just say, I'm like fine wine, I get better with age. These two are arguing about whether or not LeBron is better or worse than he was at his peak. That is not the question. That's why I stated during this video that you can age like fine wine, but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily better or even the same as you were back in your prime. A player has a physical prime and a mental prime. Those are two different things. Michael Jordan at 33 was not Michael Jordan at 28, but Michael Jordan at 28 did not understand the game at the level of Michael Jordan at 33. That is where LeBron James is right now. So these two basically are arguing about a sentiment that, number one, is inconsequential and exists in reference to the question that is asked.
Make up the damn baby. Exactly. Because that is the wisest course of action. From abroad, he's doing so. We sort of a 50. Molly had to shut it down because she saw, just like I did, that these two fools were arguing over nothing. A lot of what they were talking about was lost in translation. She should have cut them both off and reread the question to them because they turned the argument into whether or not LeBron was better or worse than he was in his prime, or whether or not he was holding back on the defensive end. And that truly is not what his sentiment was meant to allude to. All he was alluding to was the fact that now he's in his mental prime as opposed to his physical prime. That's what it means to age like fine wine. But anyway, peace.