LeBron James leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA championship after being down 3-1 in the Finals to the Golden State Warriors has people reevaluating his legacy. Bill Simmons of The Ringer led off his new show Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons by proclaiming LeBron to be one of the three greatest players of all time. He put him behind Michael Jordan and Bill Russell. That's pretty high praise.
Then Simmons had Charles Barkley on the show, and Chuck immediately refuted the claims that LeBron is a top 3 player of all-time. Barkley did have LeBron in the top 10, but the top 5 players he named are Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and Russell. He said that top five will never change. He also said LeBron was somewhere in the 8 or 9 range, behind Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant while in the company of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.
Barkley saying his top five will never change seems a bit crazy, but saying LeBron could move up past Duncan and Kobe seems reasonable if he wins a couple more titles. Duncan and Bryant both have five championships in their Hall of Fame careers. While LeBron's Finals record wouldn't be as pristine as theirs, more Finals appearances could certainly tip the scales in his favor.
Regardless, Barkley has LeBron in some of the most amazing company in the NBA history book. That's not too shabby.
