Doug Gottlieb – Teams Fear that LeBron is “As Good Once as he Ever Was”

DOUG GOTTLIEB SHOW – Doug Gottlieb reacts to LeBron James leading the LA Lakers back from a bad scoring deficit against the LA Clippers to win the game and marvels at how he’s able to dig deep to play at an elite level this late into his career. Jason Stewart then brings Michael Jordan into the conversation to discuss the longevity debate.

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Old Bron Still Got it 0:00
LeBron v. Jordan 8:25

#lakers #lebronjames #michaeljordan

my son Hayes got a hoop workout in and I was watching the end of uh Central Florida’s win over Oklahoma State on my phone and then shot with him for a little bit after his workout and then um we started having a discussion about the NBA and if you know young Hayes got Le a lot of his opinions are formed especially on basketball okay and he Lo he loves this idea of hot takes I got a hot take for you Dad Celtics are the best team in the NBA what do you think I was like well you know they have the best record in the East I don’t know if that’s that hot of a take but okay it’s like well who do you think the best best team is he’s like what do you think about the Minnesota timberwol I like yeah I like him it’s like I think the Thunder of the best in the west like I’m going to go with the Clippers really yeah so I walk in to my home and the Laker Clipper game is on it’s like Midway through the third quarter and I hadn’t been paying attention and I look up and I’m like wow wow the Lakers appear dead in the water and if you picked up a dead animal dead in the water or something else offends you again just a commonly used expression but it was bad I mean really bad and so I’m sitting there going man are they tired have they played on back toback nights what’s are the Clippers just better right I was at a Laker Clipper game earlier this year and it was much the same where the Clippers hopped out to a big lead and the Lakers came back and won and then all of a sudden LeBron James stays in in the fourth quarter when the Clippers sub and he starts hitting a shot and another shot and another shot and another shot and then the crowd got behind him and uh we I had a bunch of people were watching the game and it was like wait this is at it’s at Staples or now crypto but it’s technically the Clippers home night which looks different the lighting is different the mood’s different the atmosphere is different but you know what’s this what what’s the same is the Lakers are still more popular and it became like a Laker home game all of a sudden but I’m going to warn you about something okay I am not saying LeBron James wasn’t anything other than otherworldly and it was the hey Kawai and the Clippers have been better all season kawai’s the better player right now consistently in his career but LeBron James had 20 34 points 19 of which in the fourth quarter and was it a plus 11 in the plus minus and I was I thought back somebody else brought this up earlier on the show in regards to somebody else and maybe it was with LeBron James there’s a Toby Keith passed away about two weeks ago and Toby had a lot of songs one of my favorites was the song I ain’t as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was and I thought that was perfect for last night LeBron James is not nor she to be expected to be the elite Superstar top five in the league maybe top five in league history guy who’s going to score 40,000 points he ain’t expected to be Peak LeBron and the percentage of times in which he can play Peak LeBron has gone down which we got to be reasonable for he ain’t as good as he once was but he’s as good once as he ever was and that’s the fear that other teams deal with in the playoffs right they’re like man we don’t want to get into a game six or a game seven you know he still gets the respect to the officials we’ve seen the numbers where they don’t drive that much yet they get more calls than anybody else in the league you know when you have the League’s biggest Star LeBron is the League’s biggest star that’s going to happen but you don’t want to get in one of these playoff games with the Lakers because he does have it in him he can’t do it for all seven games he probably can’t do it for four games but when it clicks when the energy is there when the shots falling not a lot you can do you know not a lot you can do but similarly it’s the opposite for the Lakers that’s Fool’s Gold you convince yourself the old man still got it and he does but not every night you know not every night he can still defend not every possession and the percentage of times in which you can do it goes down and down and down and I even think he intimidated kawh Leonard late in that game kawi Leonard had the ball with 10 seconds to go actually he had it with 15 seconds to go he’s dribbling the ball up the court and they’re down a point and he passed the ball to James Harden who then passed it right back to him like what are you doing you’re the guy take over the game right and that’s when the Clippers call a timeout now eventually out of the timeout they got the ball to Kawhi Leonard who missed a shot that that’s his shot right the like curling jump shot 15 feet on the Baseline you know he famously made the three-point shot which we were talking about last night um against jool embiid and the Sixers when he’s playing in Toronto a a more difficult shot but he made that one missed that one last night and you know you lose the game and that’s where you go well you tip your cap it’s a maker Miss League like no no no no no you had the ball with LeBron James why’d you have to call timeout now keep in mind all of this was without Paul George and so in spite of the fact that the Lakers won the game if you think the Lakers can win in the NBA playoffs with LeBron James and that again all of that said the game was over the Clippers didn’t have Paul George like well I don’t know end the game Paul George okay but when Kawhi Leonard comes out normally at the start of the fourth quarter Paul George can remain in and there’s no foot off the gas pedal so this isn’t me saying LeBron hasn’t been great and wasn’t incredible last night this is me saying one this is what NBA teams fear about the Lakers is they don’t really think they’re all that good but man when they are and when LeBron’s got it going on not you can do and then the opposite is true of the Lakers and the predicament they’re going to be in in the off season which is are you really thinking that’s that’s going to happen less and less and less often not more and more and more often it’s just reasonable and that’s if you can maintain being healthy and you’re 40 years old he has the greatest history of longevity in this league he’s a great player and because he keeps himself in peace physical condition you almost have to think say age is just a number because he doesn’t play Like a Man his age but when you really dig in deep he doesn’t guard like he used to he’s not consistent terms of his movement he picks his spots and when he has it he’s amazing but the amount of times that he has it those are going to decrease over time that’s the essence of it have we seen guys fall off completely yes Jason kids last playoff series with the Knicks if you remember he couldn’t even make a layup but with LeBron it’s just more gradual and it’s a percentage play the Lakers are still 10 and a half games out of you know the top they’re still you know uh two games away from the kings in terms of staying out getting out of that eight seed they’re still in the playoff series and yes they came back and won won the game but they were down 21 points without Paul George playing for the clippers for a reason and if you ever thought that Toby Keith songs didn’t connect with you I give you I W I ain’t as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was can we chat about um the Michael Jordan comparison now the Jordan v LeBron debate which is pretty tired but don’t you have to give LeBron this this part of it that he’s much better now at 38 or 39 than MJ was in his final two seasons with with the wizard right I mean MJ I think he averaged 20 points but it was kind of like a man check this guy out he’s still averaging 20 points but like LeBron can still put performances up like that that he did last night and he seems like he’s still two or three years I mean he’s still gonna be playing for two or three years you have to give him that part of the whole MJ debate don’t you yes I would I would I would say it’s there’s a little difference there okay this is important um Michael Jordan’s last year playing he was 39 years old he played every game played every game and I think he played in a bad wheel right and um but he played every game on a bad team and it was one of those again this will sound like an excuse it’s an explanation because I believe that if LeBron played every game his numbers would be far lower it’s one of the actual Geniuses to LeBron James is they’ve done this for a long time and that they’ve managed his number of games played and that keeps his average up okay because you of ask yourself like well if you’re trying to dial back LeBron like and he’s still going to work out like just Haven him play like 15 minutes in a night 20 minutes night problema when you play 15 20 minutes is can’t score you just don’t you can’t accumulate the volume of touches and shots and possessions and yes you can rest yourself but you can’t anyway so they just have had him not play the other part to it was he was legit retired for three years you know and your body um atrophies and all this stuff atrophies whereas LeBron has kept going but yeah I’m I’m okay saying that like yeah he’s better at 39 than Jordan was okay circumstances are different one’s on a team that’s put together to try and win now has another Superstar on his team the other one Jordan it was a team that he helped put together it was a mess uh he had retired previously and he played every game and by playing every game you’re it’s going to wear you down more especially when you’re at 39 years old and he did have some games in which he exploded that’s you know if you if you look at Jordan that year like oh well there was in his there was a couple of games which he had but no he did not have it nearly as much as LeBron quote unquote has it and you can by the way pull up his game log and see he had 33 on the 18th of February this is Michael Jordan he had 32 against Orlando he had 45 on a night against uh New Orleans he had 43 against the Nets you know I mean heck and that was in February well last night was what February 28th on February 27th 2023 21 years ago Michael Jordan had 35 points he had 11 rebounds and six assists in a win over Houston with the likes of kame brown Christian leightner and Jerry stock house you want to know who played with him that night let’s let’s look go on uh one more time I I get you the exact box score okay here’s the box score uh Michael Jordan uh where’s Michael Jordan there we go Michael Jordan yes Christian other starters were Jerry Stackhouse had 28 Tyron Lou was the starting point guard ironically enough right Brenan Haywood man brenon hey come on B didn’t have it didn’t pee a drop he had zero points as a starting big guy stack house had 28 and Christian lner they played Juan Dixon Off the Bench and Charles Oakley he got his boy Oakley won last gig too there’s got to be some great stories there kwami Brown Larry Hughes Byron Russell man he had Brian Russell Off the Bench that’s got to be cruel how many times do you think he mentioned to him the game-winning shot in Utah every day Bobby Simmons and my boy jahii white jahi’s a good dude he played State no jahii white was oh’ Brian Russell’s Cleveland High School in Long Beach State there you go was the depth of my knowledge jahi white played at Georgetown he’s that’s a big strong dude man anyway he didn’t didn’t play and they played against the Houston Rockets the Rockets you ready for it katino Moy had 24 Yao Ming had 16 Stevie Francis was one of 13 Stevie franchise played every minute had it was an overtime game played 50 minutes Eddie Griffin uh who died right Eddie Griffin did Eddie Griffin died and James Posey that was the starting lineup waen Hawkins Jay Hawk who uh he runs a program in Long Beach he had 10 Maurice Taylor came off the bench Glenn rice muchi Norris Kelvin KO Tito madx wow these are some these are some names right here 21 years ago so you could sit there and go like well he’s and I I again I think LeBron is I think it’s fair Chas 2 if we want to take 39y old Seasons that’s fair we also should contextualize it and one team is better the Lakers it’s playoff caliber team they have Anthony Davis there is no Anthony Davis on this on on this team I guess Jerry Stackhouse but he’s not Jerry Stackhouse has never been a top five player in the league Anthony Davis has and he played every night played every night whereas the smarter thing to do to average more points to have more energy is to play two out of every three nights which is what LeBron’s doing like LeBron they play t night too right and like suddenly like now LeBron has well his ankle might flare up no he’s just old everything hurts you need an extra day okay there’s the difference but he was he was unbelievable and then they tried double teaming him and his teammates were hitting shots and they moving without the basketball that was something to watch that was really really special that was cool to watch and I thought that what he said after the game was so appropriate hey like we can’t game’s not over until there’s double zeros on the clock