Who defended LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan the best? There’s no need to speculate when the Hall of Famers have already said themselves.
Some guys get a bit ahead of themselves when it comes to self praise. A true boss moves in silence. Really, there is no need to talk yourself up — as long as others will do it for you.
This is what makes taking and publishing lots of selfies so sad. If you’re actually out in these streets being dope, other people will take your photo and post that in all the ‘books, ‘grams, and snaps. No need to do it yourself.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being boastful, or apprising the world of exactly how great you are. Sometimes you gotta let people know. Like Aristotle wrote in The Art of War, it’s hard to be humble when you’re stuntin’ on a jumbotron.
After the major miracle he pulled off this past June, LeBron James doesn’t need to talk about himself anymore, however. Instead, he recently made news for praising one of his rivals. Rather than hyping up the extinction-level event he unleashed on the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, he was talking about the defense of another.
He’s far from the first to do so.
There’s a long history of basketball stars telling the world who guards them best.
Avery Bradley
Damian Lillard has not yet locked up a surefire invite to Springfield. He’ll never be on LeBron’s level. But he is one of the most popular and dynamic point guards in the league.
Anybody in the know will tell you his particular skillset — lethal quickness, stop-on-a-dime directional control, shooting range from anywhere — makes him a nightmare to cover.
According to the man himself, nobody does it better than Avery Bradley. “I told him he was the best perimeter defender in the league — because he is,” Lillard told MassLive in April.
Dame didn’t stop there. “A lot of guys just — people say they’re defenders. They look like defenders on some possessions, but that’s what he does. That’s what he wants to do. He’s there every possession. He doesn’t get screened. He’s tough. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due.”
This is not a consensus view.
Everyone agrees that Bradley is elite, but he’s also somewhat undersized. His chops are ready made to stay in front of Lillard and pester virtually any ballhandler on the perimeter. Still, there are always ways to beat a defender when you have a size advantage.
For the bigger wings in the NBA, Bradley just isn’t big or strong enough to bother them, even if he does get their respect.
Most, in fact, fear someone else.
Kawhi Leonard
Nobody can stop LeBron James. If you’ve been trapped in carbonite since 2003, you need only review some footage from the 2016 NBA Finals to bring yourself up to speed.
Among those who have tried to stop him, though, James — citing the mission statement of the Department of Redundancy Department — told the world that Kawhi Leonard guards him better than anyone else. “Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard, he’s solid. He’s solid, solid at that end of the floor. He’s very, very solid. I like him. I like the kid.”
We all know Bronny Two Times has no time for brevity. But his point stands: Kawhi Leonard is solid. And everybody loves his solidness.
The rangy, robotic wing is the reigning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year and cornerstone of a team that won 67 games last season. In Kawhi’s worst year, the San Antonio Spurs won only 50 games.
There is nobody in the league who offers the blend of size, strength, quickness, and smarts. Kawhi is disciplined, educated, and relentless in all aspects of the game. Plus he has Truckasaurus hands.
If the rest of the league’s top stars were as honest as LeBron, they would likely all say the same thing: Kawhi is the toughest perimeter player in the league to score against today — and maybe ever.
Joe Dumars
Joe Dumars was a fantastic player — a heady combo guard who played at the two alongside Isaiah Thomas while winning back-to-back championships. He was also equally capable of running an offense, as he showed during his post-Zeke days in Detroit.
His leadership and intelligence was unquestioned throughout the league. At the time, he wasn’t really seen as unathletic, but compared to the future specimens who would walk the league over the next two decades, he cut a stout, ground-bound, court-general image. A guy who made his name with savviness and knowledge more than genetics.
Despite his decade-long rein as a top NBA guard — making six All-Star teams — Dumars’ general style of play meant he ran the risk of being overlooked in the future when pundits discuss the top players. Very few highlights exist that would prove the case to anyone who didn’t watch his nuanced excellence first hand. He falls into that amazing-but-you-had-to-be-there category that Dennis Johnson epitomizes.
Moreover, many will more readily remember Dumars as a GM, both for the championship team he built in Detroit and the decision to take Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh in the straight-up loaded 2003 Draft.
Fortunately, his case to be remembered on the court has some irrefutable evidence: the eye-witness testimony of the greatest to ever lace ’em up.
The exact quote seems lost to time, morphing as if in a game of telephone. The most easily findable is Michael Jordan, in a quick chat, saying that “Joe Dumars — he was the toughest guy for me to drive by.” But it was well known during the Bad Boy era and beyond that MJ had the utmost respect for Joe D, to the point where Sports Illustrated ran a cover story suggesting Dumars was the only one in the NBA with a chance to contain MJ.
With Michael, you never know exactly what he’s trying to do with his words. He reportedly hated Isiah Thomas — and most of the Pistons players of that era — so he may have been trying to get even further under the skin of Thomas by praising his back-court mate in public (while privately campaigning to keep him off the Dream Team).
There’s also the boost it give Jordan personally. As he was rising to the peaks of his fame, clearly taking the league over from Magic and Larry, MJ lost in back-to-back postseasons to the Pistons. When that happens, elevating the status of Joe Dumars makes the losses seem more reasonable.
Regardless of the claim, Joe D was a beast. Jordan — and everyone else at the time — knew it, even if MJ’s claim is now what many see as the most memorable thing about the man’s career.
Tony Allen
First. Team. All. Defense. That is what Tony Allen has been throughout the prime of his career. And he personally put the biggest exclamation mark on that statement.
The Grindfather doesn’t need anyone else to do his talking for him.
In the same vein, Kobe Bryant, at least during his playing days, wasn’t one to praise his competition. He was raised in the Michael Jordan school of destroying wills; not in being anyone’s friend.
But as he was wrapping up his career, Kobe softened up. The Mamba chilled with the venom and let his guard down.
One touching moment during his farewell tour included a friendly gift to Tony Allen. Kobe gave him a signed pair off sneakers that read, “To Tony, the best defender I ever faced!”
It’s a claim that holds water. Outside of Metta World Peace, Kawhi Leonard, Andre Iguodala, Bruce Bowen, and Paul George, there haven’t been many perimeter defenders on Tony’s level this millennium.
Michael Cooper
Larry Bird knew from the moment he saw Michael Jordan that he was the best ever. He didn’t specifically say MJ was the toughest defender he ever faced, and Jordan wasn’t strictly checking Larry when the Celtics and Bulls faced off. But MJ won Defensive Player of the Year as a 25-year-old and was named to nine All-Defensive teams.
Bird famously did call him “God disguised as Michael Jordan,” and gave him the highest praise a rookie has ever gotten, especially considering the source. “Best,” Bird said about Jordan in 1985, per the Chicago Tribune. “Never seen anyone like him. Unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. Phenomenal. One of a kind. One of a kind … He’s the best. Ever.”
With the Legend out here comparing a guy to deities, we might have a case similar to the the three-point shootout victory during All-Star Weekend in 1988. It may be safe to assume that Bird respects MJ more than anyone in all respects and the real question here is “Who’s finishing second?”
But it’s actually another Michael who Bird considers the best player to ever guard him.
The Showtime Lakers, and specifically Magic Johnson, were Larry’s biggest rival. But it was Michael Cooper, not Earvin, who actually had the impossible assignment of trying to stop Bird. He couldn’t. Nobody could. But in 2002, Bird said that Coop’s failed attempts came the closest to working. “Michael Cooper was the best defender.”
Like LeBron, Jordan, and Kobe after him, there wasn’t a person a live who could disrupt Bird consistently enough to budge him off of near-constant greatness. This quartet has 17 titles between them.
But for the vanquished foes, it has to help ease the pain to at least get a nice pat on the back.