Paul Pierce says LeBron James doesn’t make his top 5 NBA players list

The former Celtics star says he's not sold on the King's greatness

May 20, 2020

The 10-part ESPN doc, The Last Dance about the Chicago Bulls’ last championship season, ended on Sunday, but it still has people in their feelings. One of the many responses to the doc was from people comparing current NBA superstar LeBron James to Micheal Jordan in a race for G.O.A.T. status.

Former Celtics star Pierce, now an ESPN analyst joined the discussion by saying that James would not even make his NBA top 5 of the best players in league history.

“Bill Russell built up the organization in Boston. He should get way more credit than we give him, and a lot of times he gets left out of the conversation,” Pierce said. “So in saying that, Kareem, Magic, Jordan, Tim Duncan, Kobe, Bird. These guys are all-time top 10 players who either helped build up their organization or continued the tradition.”

Pierce hasn’t seen James do the same.

“He went and put together a team in Miami, and in some ways, he came back to Cleveland to put that team together, and then he went to the Lakers, where a tradition has already been made,” Pierce said on ESPN’s Countdown show. “And we don’t know, you know, that’s still to be continued. So in saying that, that’s my argument.”

This was, of course, met with some disdain from his Countdown colleagues, former players Jalen Rose and Jay Williams along with co-host Maria Taylor.

Watch the clip below (starts at 1:29)

As you might imagine, Pierce found himself a trending topic on sports-starved Twitter with this take.

NBA Twitter everytime Paul Pierce says something pic.twitter.com/UnBP0jLtmB

— Psycho Mantis (@MarkSparks718) May 20, 2020

Paul Pierce is to LeBron James as Isiah Thomas is to Michael Jordan pic.twitter.com/VG7XIUD2MA

— MJs GOAT (@MjsGoat) May 20, 2020

Paul Pierce’s opinion on LeBron has changed quite drastically over time… pic.twitter.com/G2aMhuKmfK

— ???? ?✈️? – follow/like limit (@mldiffley) May 20, 2020

Paul Pierce: Says anything about basketball

The entire world: pic.twitter.com/eLbaRiMkiV

— Matthew McGovern (@MatthewMcGovern) May 20, 2020

Paul Pierce left LeBron off his Top 5 all-time list. He still salty from this ? pic.twitter.com/eavXvc5CWQ

— Hoops™️ (@AIIHoops) May 20, 2020

Yes, NBA Twitter is savage. But the good thing is that if when the NBA comes back, all the Bron/MJ arguments, all of these hot takes and everything else is likely going to motivate James to go all the way AWF to prove he should be on top of that all-time great list. Over here, we don’t think anyone tops Jordan.

The man was just astonishing in his prime and competitive on a level that very few can relate to. But let’s see what happens when months of inactivity, a truncated NBA season where James may have led the Lakers to another championship and the slander directed his way after this doc combine to motivate James to definitely prove he should be on top. Can’t wait.

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