Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is widely recognized as the greatest player in today’s NBA. And in fact, there are some experts and analysts who are willing to dub him as the best player in the history of the game. However, James isn’t just a great player. He’s also a great teammate, as Richard Jefferson recently noted on an episode of Undisputed.
“How difficult is it playing with LeBron James?” Shannon Sharpe asked Jefferson during the interview.
“It’s not for everyone,” Jefferson quickly replied. “… Jerry West had that famous quote where it was, ‘All I want to do is win. If winning isn’t the most important thing for you, then you’re not going to enjoy being around me.’
“That’s something (LeBron) takes pride in,” Jefferson continued. “All he wants to do is win. Yes, he likes his numbers because it’s a part of his legacy and what he does. And he has benchmarks that he wants to accomplish — whether it’s 25 points, average a triple-double… You have to, as a player, put benchmarks that you want to achieve. But, for him, being a great teammate, he is the No. 1 camaraderie guy that I’ve ever been around on any level: high school, college, NBA — and I’ve played with Tim Duncan, Dirk (Nowitzki), Jason Kidd and Steph Curry.”
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As most hoops fans know, James and Jefferson developed a hilarious friendship during Cleveland’s run to the title in 2016. “RJ,” as Jefferson is more commonly known, went on to detail what James is like off the court.
“Bron’ is facilitating dinners every single night, getting the guys together” Jefferson added. “He’ll get a comedy show together with Dave Chappelle or Kevin Hart. These are the things that help break up the monotony of the season. He does this to let you know, like, ‘Hey, when we get into that fire, if I can eat dinner with you three or four times and we can crack jokes, when we get into that fire and I yell at you, it’s because we’re brothers. We’re in this fire together.’
“That’s how he leads,” Jefferson said of James in closing.
James is indeed an outstanding leader, as Jefferson stated in his interview. For the first time in his 15-year career, the King played in all 82 of Cleveland’s regular season games, averaging 27.5 points (third in NBA) on 54.2 percent shooting from the field (36.7 percent from beyond the arc), 9.1 assists, 8.6 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and just under one block (0.9) in 36.9 minutes per game.
James and the Cavs are currently trailing the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, 1-0. Game 2 is set for Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. EST with TNT, FOX Sports Ohio and FOX Sports Indiana having live broadcast coverage.