LeBron James has had multiple primes throughout his 23-year NBA career thus far, and it’s not the easiest task to point out which version of him was him at his best. But that is the task James’ former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Channing Frye took on after appearing on Richard Jefferson’s Cavs NBA Finals 10-year Anniversary Series on The Richard Show.

Jefferson asked Frye to play start, bench, and cut with different versions of the greatest player in Cavs franchise history. Frye was then given the options of James’ 2015, 2016, and 2018 seasons. In the end, the sweet-shooting big man decided to start the 2018 version, bench 2016, and cut 2015.

“’18 LeBron was the best,” Frye said, via NBA Courtside on X.

Not too many are going to argue that point from Frye. That was the season where James became an inevitable force in the playoffs, as he had to do everything in his power to carry the Cavs to the NBA Finals after the team went through major shakeups during that year.

That year gave birth to the LeBronto meme, showed LeBron being at his best against his sworn rival Boston Celtics, and he scored 51 points in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, only for his efforts to be undone by a fatal mistake from JR Smith.

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The 2016 version stands out as well, of course, since James was able to lead the Cavs to a historic 3-1 comeback against the Warriors in the NBA Finals. He was brilliant on an individual level as well, recording a 27-11-11 triple-double in Game 7 of that history-making game as an encore to his back-to-back 41-point performances in Games 5 and 6.

But he didn’t have to carry as big of a load in 2016 as he did in 2018, as he had Kyrie Irving alongside him going band for band.

In 2015, James’ first season back with the Cavs, his scoring efficiency dropped and he was sulking for a good portion of the season, throwing passive and aggressive remarks towards his teammates. He was still elite, but the 2018 and 2016 versions of himself are, without a doubt, superior.