The Beginning and End of LeBron James and a Guy Named Vince Carter

In this episode of the High and Low Basketball Show, Ike Amaechi is joined by King from Parts Unknown, Sean Khan and Ugo the Sheik to talk about the NBA rookies not named Chet Holmgren or Victor Wembanyama followed by a conversation about the legacy of LeBron James - where he ranks amongst their favorite players of all-time vs. the best players of all-time. You won't want to miss some controversial choices on these lists of all-time favorites plus some bonus chatter about one of the greatest shoe commercials ever - courtesy of Blake Griffin and Jordan Brand.

Also, check out High and Low merch on http://www.vonnabrahamm.com/store. Open up the High and Low YouTube channel for bonus content. Talk to us in High and Low's Facebook group and Discord.

Music featured on the episode is brought to you by Lyve of the Enjoy Music Group and Sonny Rocwell of The Goodness. Edited by Vonn August. Executive Producer is Ikenna Agu. Follow High and Low on Instagram and TikTok/Twitter @morehighandlow.

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Transcript

Ike Amaechi: [00:00:00] I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball. LeBron James said that, and I'm saying this. Welcome to high and low

day and good night. Welcome to the high and low basketball show. This is episode number 100 and Blake, AKA episode number 191. Dennis Rodman is the obvious choice here. The low hanging fruit. You know, he wore the number 91 as a member of the second iteration of Jordan's dynastic Chicago Bulls. The less obvious pick, though, is Blake Griffin, because I usually associate him with the number 23 when he was an absolute highlight machine in Lob City.

Uh, Jamal Crawford's between the legs love to Blake Griffin on a fast break might be one of the greatest [00:01:00] moments in recent history. Maybe because Blake finished it with a windmill dunk. He didn't have to do that, but you know, he was him back then. And Peake Blake had that black and white Blake and Drain ad spot.

I don't know if you guys remember this one, the Jordan Superfly 2s. The ad featured Dr. Drain, this overly confident kid with oversized glasses or goggles. Hey old school, you wanna run? 

Ugo the Sheik: Nope. 

Sean Khan: Darryl Drain would go for a run. Darryl 

Ike Amaechi: Drain, huh? 

Sean Khan: Can you shoot? 

Ike Amaechi: Can a butterfly sing? It's kind of giving Spike Lee's Mars Blackman vibes, and Drain, this kid Dr.

Drain, was absolute trash. But, uh, but he thought he was like the third splash brother thinking that he has a green light on every, every shot, every possession. And every time he would just shoot the ball, horrible shots, shot selection in red, but Blake would catch every errant shot and then dunk it, making these shots [00:02:00] look like perfect alley oops.

And, uh, just making this kid drain, look like Chris Paul on his best day, top five shoe commercial. Of all time, in my opinion, just in my opinion. Let's go. And the music on that commercial, that ad spot. Ugh, I gotta play it for you guys. Um, anyway, Blake Griffin wore the number 91 as a Celtic last season, which I completely forgot about.

Um, he's not in the NBA right now. I don't think he's on a roster. Actually, no, he's not on a roster. So, I can only assume he's close to retirement. Uh, he's had an interesting career. I need to Do a deep dive into Blake Griffin between, between his meteoric rise in the NBA, his comedy career. Dating a Kardashian.

Oh, so much good stuff there. Anyway, welcome to the show again. My name is Ike Amechi. I'm here with Hugo the Sheik, Sean Khan, aka Sean Controversy and listener Cheryl's [00:03:00] second favorite high and low contributor from parts unknown around here. We live by principle governed by the high and low lives of the world, which means we talk about basketball, especially and specifically the NBA.

And we talk about it at any time, anywhere, North, South, East, West, high and low this week on the show, we're looking at the King. Some LeBron fans are in denial of the fact that we're in the last days of King James, but we are. He might not be playing like it, but this is the twilight of his career. The final chapter, his epilogue.

And when you arrive at this point in any star's career, especially a player of LeBron's caliber, it feels right to lament, to reflect. I'm not talking about some kumbaya session, just some interesting chatter to put your perception of LeBron into perspective, if you will. We also have a listener question that will give us a chance to look at this year's rookie class.

That'll be [00:04:00] fun. So stay tuned for that. Before we lock in, let me check in. 

Sean Khan: Oh, hi, thanks for checking in. I'm still a piece of 

Ike Amaechi: garbage. Welcome back to the table, gentlemen. I'm not going to say Happy New Year because I think we're past that point. I don't know. Are we? When's the cutoff for saying Happy New Year to every other person in the world?

Like whether you're at work, school, grocery stores, like when's the cutoff? 

Sean Khan: One 

King: week, one weekend, right? One weekend. 

Ike Amaechi: Yeah, I think one, one weekend after New Year's. Okay. So there's no Happy New Year's coming out of your mouth this year. Well, 

Ugo the Sheik: so it depends. Like if you haven't seen the person since last year and it's still kind of January ish, you can kind of get away with it if you want to, but you don't have 

Ike Amaechi: to at that point.

What if you see a person for the first time in like, you know, like the third week of January or the end of January? 

Ugo the Sheik: And I haven't seen them 

Ike Amaechi: like, [00:05:00] since last year, since December, like you saying happy new year at that point, 

Ugo the Sheik: you don't have to, I mean, you could, cause technically you haven't seen them, but you don't, you're not obligated to like, if somebody came to me and said, Hey man, you didn't wish me happy new year.

And it's like January 31st. I'd be like, man, get the 

Ike Amaechi: out of here. Exactly. Exactly. You could, like, if 

Ugo the Sheik: somebody said it to me, I would be offended. I would be like, why the hell you say that? I'd be like, oh, thanks. I will say it back, though. 

Ike Amaechi: No, no, that's not coming out of my mouth. No, it's done. We're done. We're done with the Happy New Year's.

It's over. Yeah. You see, 

Ugo the Sheik: it's like Happy New Year, King. sir. sir. Happy Old Year, man. But you didn't say nothing back to me. Thank you, sir. Thank you. 

King: Yeah, 

Ike Amaechi: thanks. Happy belated new year. 

Ugo the Sheik: Nah, you don't need to say belated. Don't say belated. That just means you're just, you were intentionally absent minded. Maybe.

Ike Amaechi: So when someone says happy belated birthday, you're saying that they're intentionally absentminded? You knew when my birthday was. You 

Ugo the Sheik: chose not to tell me on the [00:06:00] day. 

King: When I get it, it feels stale. So I'm just making sure you know that that's a stale happy new year that you're getting back. 

Ike Amaechi: Interesting.

Wow. Okay. All right. Well, welcome back. King, did you know that you were, uh, listener Cheryl's second favorite high and low contributor? No, 

King: but I do contribute a fair bit. 

Ike Amaechi: Yeah, you're ranked number two behind, uh, Sirit. 

King: Sirit, okay. I can fix 

Ugo the Sheik: that. What?! Oh, don't get me started. It's already a new year, he's trying to get me started, man.

I'm triggered. 

Ike Amaechi: I'm triggered! I can fix that. I can fix that. Hugo was top four, or top five. Sean was top five. No, I was top six. Top six? Okay. And I wasn't five. It's, it was such a triggering list and probably the most, uh, Just the most reckless, egregious, egregious listener question slash comment that we've ever had.

So thank you, Cheryl, for that, uh, nugget of entertainment. [00:07:00] Uh, anyway, you go, Sean King from parts unknown. I appreciate your time this week. Thank you for joining me. Listeners of the show. Hi, hello, lives to the world. Thank you for joining us. Hope you're having a great week.

Ugo the Sheik: Alexa too. 

King: Sorry guys. My doorbell camera tells me when there's people at the house , 

Ike Amaechi: even the parts said no, someone at your house. 

King: Well, someone opened the front door, either left or someone came to the house and knocked on the door, one or the other and Alexa would like to let me know 'cause it's after that hour.

And uh, she puts the volume up. 

Ike Amaechi: man. Have you watched. Leave the world behind. Yes, of course. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Hold 

King: on, have you gone through the Easter eggs and watched everything? 

Ike Amaechi: You try to smarten up your house. Absolutely. And it's going to turn on you, just like the Tesla cars.

King: That was a, that was a jab at Elon. That wasn't a jab at [00:08:00] smart technology. That's a specific, like, I hate Elon jab from the director. I think 

Ike Amaechi: anything connected can be hacked. 

King: Right, right, right, right. Well, the, the, the, the idea of the movie is not necessarily technology is that people are susceptible to thoughts, right?

We 

Ike Amaechi: are in spoiler territory. My apologies. We're not good. This is not a 

King: movie podcast. If it's a Netflix movie, you must have like a certain limit, right? If it's been three months, you assume someone's seen it yet. You don't wait two years to watch a 

Ike Amaechi: Netflix movie. There's so much 

Sean Khan: on Netflix. But there's so much on Netflix.

That's actually a good point though but those Netflix blockbuster movies, like two Oscar award winners on the same movie, you get like a month and then spoilers don't matter anymore because you should have watched it by now. 

Ike Amaechi: Yeah. Shame on you if you haven't watched it. You didn't get to get a 

King: babysitter, you didn't do nothing.

Sean Khan: Yeah, Netflix. 

Ike Amaechi: Anyway, again, I hope you're having a great week. Um, and we're here another week, another episode, because if there's more NBA, [00:09:00] then there's more high and low things are certainly happening in the NBA, which is why you have questions and we have answers. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about something important.

This question is from bigums in thousand Oaks, California, thousand Oaks. His question is this. I liked Mitch's NBA resolution about getting to know more about NBA rookies. So did I, um, in the spirit of that resolution, what rookie not named Victor or Chet has impressed you the most this season? It's a challenge challenge.

Mitch mentioned a rookie last week, Hugo, you were here, was it Kobe Bufkin? Is that who he mentioned? Man, 

Ugo the Sheik: I don't listen to that guy half the time. Yeah, 

Ike Amaechi: you were working, you were working, man. That's right. You were clickety clacking away in the background. 

Ugo the Sheik: Exactly. I remember who he said, man. He usually goes deep into some analytics that nobody else looks into, man.

Good. [00:10:00] Okay. Yeah, you know what? Yeah, so I'm gonna go with the, the, a popular pick, part of the heat culture, Jamie Jacquez Jr., um, 

Ike Amaechi: Jaime Jaquez. 

Ugo the Sheik: Jaime, okay, I call him Jamie. Um, so, the interesting thing about my young man here is, He's, he's top five in games played amongst rookies. He's top 10 in minutes. Um, he's in top, top, uh, five, I believe in scoring, uh, Miami's using him pretty heavily for a rookie.

Um, and you know, to be a rookie and survive 37 games and, you know, not see the pine. Uh, I'll give him his props. You know what I mean? I think he should definitely get some rookie of the year votes. If not, I'd be a little bit shocked and a little bit slighted. 

Ike Amaechi: You'll be slighted? Oh, okay. I'll be slighted, 

Ugo the Sheik: yeah.

Sean Khan: Yeah. 

Ugo the Sheik: So I think what's Sorry, go ahead. So I was gonna say he's got the best hair amongst all the rookies. Yeah, 

Sean Khan: besides his [00:11:00] hair, what's impressed me the most about him is his efficiency. And if you look at like Chet and Victor, yeah, they're shooting high percentages, but they're like eight feet tall. Uh, he is a guard forward combo perimeter oriented player.

Um, a rookie that with his style has no business shooting 51 percent from the field. Uh, so for me, that's impressive. He's also going to be in the dunk contest. Uh, I didn't know he had bunnies like that. I watched some of his videos. And, um, yeah, I think he'll do a pretty good job in the dunk contest. I don't think anyone's going to touch Matt McClung.

But, um, I mean, just the fact that he's considered for the dunk contest. And, uh, I think it's a pretty exciting player to watch 

King: right now. Is this bunnies things like an analogy of the white shoes jumping up in the air because you can't see the person ducking or is it some other thing I haven't been able to figure out where it came from 

Ike Amaechi: bunnies jump the hop 

King: yeah yeah but hops what's the how did the [00:12:00] analogy I feel like it's like a there's lots of things that jump kangaroos 

Sean Khan: jump I mean doesn't Luca use that phrase 

King: it's a Luca thing broken used car Luca who 

Ike Amaechi: doesn't get off the ground oh there you go on brand yeah yeah Broken used car, Luca from episode 22.

King: Everyone knows he's showing where man. Come on. 

Ike Amaechi: It's obviously rookies who else wants to jump in our rookies. 

Sean Khan: So I was going to say hi me as well. And so like you just took the words out of my mouth, but um, I want to give a Honorable mention, shout out to Scoot Henderson. Last time I was on this podcast, he was getting absolutely trashed.

Um, he's, he's made some progress. He seems like he belongs in the NBA at least. Like, you know, a few weeks ago, he looked like he was getting a cut and not be in the league anymore. That's true. He's made some progress. He's averaging 12 points a game. He's shooting like 35 [00:13:00] percent for the field though, on a really bad team.

Ike Amaechi: Um, but 30 percent from three. Yeah, 

Sean Khan: he's, he's not a top three pick, but he's not as bad as I think we thought he was. And he's showing some signs. I think he dropped like hit a 27 point game recently. Um, so he's showing some signs. Good 

Ike Amaechi: for him. My goodness. People were talking about him challenging Victor for rookie of the year.

No, only, only he was talking about that. That's true, actually. Has everyone mentioned the rookies? I did. King, have you mentioned the rookies? King's ready, King's 

King: ready. Um, so, I'm picking a Sir Thompson. And I'm picking that strongly with a lot of facts behind it. Uh, he's on the worst damn team in the world.

Detroit is so bad, and they should have lost 40 games this year. The only reason they won a game is because a specific team let them win, because they're part of the rigged [00:14:00] system. And if Sar Thompson has any sense to him, he'll do what another ROI did in the past, like Scottie Barnes, and carry the team forward or else Detroit's done, you might as well sell them to Vegas.

The rest of his teammates are crying. They're all dead. They need to give him the great, the Drake green light to kill Cade, Duran and everybody. And what's his face? Hayes is already on life support. So in terms of runway forward, this is the only rookie that has a huge runway ahead of them that could become guaranteed ROI and be the best rookie for the league to save Detroit.

Maybe that's the narrative that they're pushing. Right? Not a great 

Ike Amaechi: shooter. It's got to happen. He's got to do something. All right. Well, bigums appreciate the great question as usual. Thank you. Shout out to you and your folk in Thousand Oaks, California. Hey man, quick reminder to high and low lives. If you want to leave a question for us to answer on the show, send your DM to us on Tik TOK.

[00:15:00] We're also on Instagram and get high and low. So you can send your DM to us on that platform. Links are all in the show notes, sign for us to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll open the final chapter in the book of James. Are we going to rip it apart or are we going to turn those pages with care?

You never know with LeBron. You can go either way. Anyway, find out when we come back. This is the High and Low Basketball Show.

This moment is brought to you by High and Low listeners. Today, we have Myles in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sharing his top five players for this year's NBA MVP ladder. Starting with number five, Myles picked Jason Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Number 4 on Myles NBA MVP ladder is the Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic.

Myles number 3 pick went to Yannis of Milwalkie Bucks. The player who ranked second on Myles MVP ladder was none other than Shea Gilgius Alexander of the [00:16:00] Oklahoma City Thunder. And the top player on the MVP ladder BBRRRRRRRRRRRR Drum roll is Nicola Jokic of the defending champion Denver Nuggets. Great list.

Thanks for sharing your top five this week. Now let's jump back into the high and low NBA show.

And we are back. I'm Mike Imechi. They are Yugo the Sheik, Sean Conn, and top two high and low contributor, King for Parts Unknown. And this is the High and Low NBA show. During the break, we were talking about, we were talking about many things. Um, but I know King, you had mentioned, you were asking a question about where the term bunnies came from this to answer King's question.

Um, the term came from the game quake, uh, which basically means to jump in the first person shooter game, [00:17:00] uh, basically by taking advantage of the physics of the game so that you could jump farther and then, then the standard jump. So that originated from the game Quake, and I'm pretty sure lots of basketball players that are also gamers, so I'm sure that somebody had.

Transfer the term over to, uh, to basketball. So now, now it's being used. It's probably being used in basketball more so than it's being used in, in video games. Uh, anyway. 

Sean Khan: I just want to apologize to all of our listeners for saying the word bunnies because we now have bunnies. It's a long winded explanation.

Oh, what? Did you just say to me? I was trying something new, clearly it didn't work out. Didn't work. Uh, I'll, I'll stick to my, my, my regular speak for now on. Hops. 

Ike Amaechi: Verticals. Back to the regularly scheduled topic of discussion, LeBron. You know, we talk, we talk a lot of hoops on this show. Many names, many players.

Um, but outside [00:18:00] of, uh, the guests, Stephen, Leslie's Laker fan talking points, we seldom put the spotlight on the guy who's been the face that runs a place for the better part of 20 years now. Um, acolytes of Kobe would argue against that, but the numbers don't lie. Golden State fans would refute that claim, but, uh, the bronze accomplishments and his accolades.

Uh, they, they, they make for a strong case. Uh, we shine a light on Giannis. We shine the light on Nicola Jokic. We even shine a light on Shea Gilgis Alexander S G A. He gets a lot of mentions around here. Even Joelle Embiid, who you go hates, well, he gets his fair share of attention on this show. But what about LeBron?

He's in his 20th season, 39 years old. He's carrying the Lakers. They're not very good, but he's carrying them. Um, and he's still trucking down the court, putting players on posters, bullying, unsuspecting defenders, posting numbers that any star half his age would [00:19:00] love to replicate. Uh, it's, it's actually pretty incredible.

Uh, considering we're in the final chapter of his career, one day soon, NBA fans will not have the luxury of seeing LeBron James on a basketball court. So let's, let's talk about Bron Bron while he's still here. So let me pose this to you guys, Bron Bron. If you were tasked with adapting LeBron James life and career to film, basically turning his story into a movie, how would you end?

What would the final scene look like? I feel like my 

Ugo the Sheik: movie would 

Sean Khan: be really boring. Um, just cause LeBron's, he's had no drama like outside, outside of basketball. He's had no drama. I think when he was younger, he was adopted or whatever. So he may have had a tough. First, whatever, 10 years of his life or something, um, but he's been like a celebrity since he was like 15 or something.

What 

King: year does this movie come out? 

Sean Khan: Can I ask? I, so if my movie comes out after [00:20:00] he dies. 

King: Right, so what year? Wow! No, I'm thinking the same thing, so 

Sean Khan: what year? Everyone dies, it's not disrespectful to say that people die. But what year? He's gonna die someday. Um, well, I don't know. Well, so say like 50 years from 

Ike Amaechi: now.

So, 

Ugo the Sheik: he doesn't even get to enjoy the movie about his life? Uh. Also, he said it was boring, so I guess, okay, he's not missing anything. 

Sean Khan: So, like, for me, it's just gonna end with him as, like, an 80 year old grandfather, but, like, the last scene is gonna be him lacing them up and, like, going to play pick up basketball and still playing at 80, and he's At 80, he's about as good as Jordan was when Jordan played for the Wizards.

Um, and it's gonna end like that 

King: for me. So it's a boring documentary? 

Sean Khan: It's not a documentary, it's just a story, like a biography about his life. Well that's a 

King: documentary 

Ike Amaechi: if it's a biography. No. No. It's a biopic. Okay, so it's a biopic. 

Ugo the Sheik: If I was doing a LeBron James movie, at first I'd definitely get the guys from ESPN [00:21:00] 30 for 30 because they do an amazing job.

True. of telling stories. Um, I would probably veer away from his athletics because I think that's pretty well much known and try to dig into things that nobody knows about LeBron or, you know, even his own little personal thoughts and whatnot. I would definitely end the movie on a cliffhanger that, you know, leave people kind of thinking and wondering, like, so.

One of the best 30 for 30s I ever saw was on Ric Flair and at the end of that Segment you don't know who is the Ric, who's the real Ric Flair, right? Is it this young Man that was trying to impress his parents that thought wrestling was something for clowns Or was it this, you know over the top?[00:22:00] 

egomaniac, you know, the man, the myth, the legend, like, you don't know who is who. And you're still left wondering, like, okay, well, who is the real Ric Flair? And I would love to see an ending similar for LeBron James. Like, okay, we thought we knew LeBron James all these years. But okay, which version or, or, or is there multiple versions of him?

So that, that's how I would do 

Ike Amaechi: it. I like that. I 

King: like it. I have a similar ending where there's like a catch at the end or like a mystery. Uh, the movie's, the movie ends with like a mix, a mix of Space Jam and Inception. Space Jam. Let me get there, let me get there. Okay. The ending, in the ending section of the movie, you're building up to LBG, LBJ.

Trying to store his skills and his consciousness in AI. So we're talking 2050, 2060. He's old. [00:23:00] It's like a reimagination of Space Jam, that movie that just passed, the bad one. Create a reimagination where it's real life characters, not a cartoon. And instead of trying to steal their consciousness, LBJ is just trying to save his consciousness for his lineage of Sons that have become players and have grandkids, and at the end, just like in Inception, there's that silly dreidel that almost wobbles off.

I need some kind of dreidel like thing, maybe it's a water bottle, but, uh, you don't know because it fades to black. And you can't tell if he was dreaming about playing with his kids, or he actually got to play with his kids. Kind of like in Drive, when you don't know if Ryan Gosling's alive or dead. I want to leave the movie with you not knowing if LeBron actually got to play.

With his blankets. So you're built up to want him to do that right in the movie, but at the end, you just don't know. I like it. I think, I think this works and I'm a big LBJ fan now because I bought his shoes. So I thought I'd give him a good send off. 

Ike Amaechi: Okay. 

Sean Khan: I'm [00:24:00] thinking about Hugo's movie. And I'm just wondering, like, people have been trying to find that dirt on LeBron and nothing's come up yet.

It's been like 40 something years. Well, 

King: no. 

Ugo the Sheik: Yeah, it doesn't have to be dirt. It just has to be It just has to be stuff like we don't know about him. Something new. Yeah, like what was it? Like last week, uh, Who was it? Didn't he hit, uh, What's his name in the face, uh, from Memphis? And, you know, he kind of acts like, oh, I didn't do anything, it was an accident, but like, you would like to hear like, yeah, you know what, he said something to me before, so I gave him a shot.

His perspective on those situations. Yeah, I gave him a shot, you know, I didn't like him. What about 

King: how his wife won't take pictures with any other dudes? She's never been caught with a camera taking a picture of her with any other dude. Cause she's respecting the king and not letting that degrade his character.

It's 

Ugo the Sheik: LeBron, not his wife, not his kids. Yeah, yeah, 

King: but that's what I'm saying. His wife knows not to go [00:25:00] take photos with, you know. Kodak Black or anybody, right? Because it takes away from what he's trying to accomplish. Kodak Black? What? 

Ike Amaechi: All the people to name anybody. Anybody. Not even 

King: Kodak Black? Usher, anybody.

But you gotta, like, there's no pictures of her out with no celebrities. Obviously she's around them, right? But she's like, nah, I'm not taking that picture. That would be an insult to what we're trying to accomplish over here. 

Sean Khan: She's like the opposite of Larsa 

King: Pippen. Hey, see? You're catching on. You're catching on with what I'm saying.

You're catching on. This is the Coretta, right? It doesn't even have to be said. LeBron doesn't have to have a Jonathan Mayers Conversation, you know, she just knows. I 

Ike Amaechi: mean, if there's not, but listen guys, if there's not enough in this lifetime, like if there's not enough. In this reality, then you can kind of pull, um, a for all mankind kind of thing where you just say, okay, let's, let's re imagine LeBron's life in another timeline, another reality.

Like, what if LeBron James never took steroids? What kind of career? What does that? What did [00:26:00] you just do? What kind of career does he have? Is this a what if? And let's play that out. 

King: Is this a What If episode? 

Sean Khan: Yeah! Now you're planting, now you're planting dirt. Yeah, you're, 

King: you're planting dirt. You're doing 

Ike Amaechi: some crazy What If stuff.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying, like, for all mankind, in that, in that timeline, the, the Russians landed on the moon first, and then all of a sudden, and so it sets off this series of events that are, that are very different from the reality that we are in, right? So I'm just saying, hey, let's use the same concept, but let's just say, 19 year old LeBron never took steroids and where does his career end?

Is Kobe still alive? Because, you know, they, they still needed him to be around and didn't assassinate him so that LeBron could take over. You know, like, what does it look like? You know what I'm saying? I'm 

King: trying to figure out if this is like a strange creative imagination, like in what if, or if it's a specific, like, house in the top of the hill castle, like this geopolitical espionage stuff.

Yeah, House on the Hill. So yeah, whatever it was called. 

Sean Khan: House on, House on [00:27:00] Castle something. The tower, something. All 

King: the geopolitics, geopolitical stuff. The Ridley Scott show, right? Yeah, where the geopolitics all flipped over. Are you trying to flip the power dynamic of the NBA? Just to see how that would look?

Yeah. Or are you trying to make alternate universes for LeBron? Which one is it? 

Ike Amaechi: Both. Okay. 

King: I think you can explore other versions of LeBron's life that don't have to be taking away his power. 

Ike Amaechi: And you can have different versions of LeBron, like you can turn this into a TV show and just have different seasons.

This is LeBron in this reality. This is LeBron in that reality. Like if he never married such and such, or if Bronny actually turned out to be a good basketball player, you know what I mean? Like he'd be in the NBA by now. So, yeah. I'm taking so many crazy shots at these people. My apologies. I'm just, I'm spitballing ideas.

I actually think that leave the king alone, 

King: man. I support the shoe. I support his shoe line now.[00:28:00] 

Ike Amaechi: But on a more serious note. We know that LeBron James is going to go to the Hall of Fame. It's like, it's a given. I mean, like he's, if they could put him in early, they would. He should already be there. He really should. He really should. But when you enter the Hall of Fame, you represent one team. Usually that's the case.

So does LeBron James go in to the Hall of Fame as a Laker, a Cav or a Heetle? 

Ugo the Sheik: So I'm going to say this just to be different, just to be who he is. He goes in as all three. 

Ike Amaechi: Man, 

King: I was trying to entertain that there wasn't one solid answer for this, but when you go all three, I think you've lost your mind. I was trying to convince myself that the other two were Like, it's one, and then two and three is miles away.

Has 

Ike Amaechi: he had a Hall of Fame career in L. A.? Has he had a Hall of Fame career in L. A.? Well, 

Ugo the Sheik: he did bring them a bubble 

Sean Khan: chip. He's had [00:29:00] three careers. 

King: He had a bubble chip. That's a fake. Thank 

Ugo the Sheik: you, bubble chip. Bubble chip. 

Sean Khan: I think he should go in as a cab just because he's from Ohio and got drafted by them and then went back and won that epic title for a team that has really never sniffed a title.

Um, but I think, I think he'll go in as a Laker though. Just, I just feel like he, he wants that. prestigious Lakers kind of vibe around him. I don't know. That's the way I see it, but he should go in as a cap. 

King: So where's his statue? Is this, he's going to get a statue like shack, Los 

Ugo the Sheik: Angeles. He 

Sean Khan: won't, he won't get a statue.

I think him going in as a Laker is like forcing his way, almost like forcing a statue, you know, like forcing his, like his way to Lakers lore. 

King: See, that's what I'm saying. I think that makes it invisible. Like in the grand scheme of basketball, 10 years, 20 years down the road, if he goes in as a Laker, it's invisible.

If he goes in as a cab, it's visible. Yeah. 

Ugo the Sheik: Who do you think he's 

King: gonna go in [00:30:00] as? I think he's gonna go in as a Cav. I hope. Unless there's something wrong with the league. 

Sean Khan: I hope so too, but I just have a feeling he'll go in as a Cav, as a Laker. 

Ike Amaechi: He's had 11 seasons as a Cleveland Cavalier, versus 6. And he'll 

Sean Khan: have, he'll have 25 as a Laker when all is said and done.

Ugo the Sheik: So the wrinkle for me in this is probably the best version of LeBron. Was in Miami, but you won't like Miami. Won't even want him to go in as a Miami player. No. Yeah. So we can take Miami off the table. 

Ike Amaechi: I think Cleveland makes more sense. 

King: Lakers was last for sure for me. Miami might have been second, but I thought it was more like a cheat.

He actually earned it. LeBron going to Cleveland, getting the Hall of Fame, and then getting a statue is like R. J. Barrett coming back to Toronto and getting a statue after he wins two rigs. Like there's, there's some, there's, there's some art there, right? Like this is the, this is the narrative you want to put out there.

So don't say any of this crazy stuff about him going to Lakers and getting a statue there. [00:31:00] But 

Sean Khan: is it so far fetched though that he goes in as Laker, especially if he 

King: plays another four or five games? Is it so far fetched that R. J. Barrett comes back here and gets two rings and gives us a stash? Okay, 

Ugo the Sheik: so question number three.

Ike Amaechi: R. J. Barrett. How did he creep into this conversation? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Hall of Fame? What? Exactly. I don't know, man.

Alright, you guys. What's next? This is an interesting question for you guys. Cause I mean, LeBron, I think we all respect what LeBron's done for the game. And I think it's, it's a given that LeBron is top five of all time, you know, arguably top two, best of all, best of all time. The GOAT, you know, arguably, maybe.

Um, so [00:32:00] that aside, where does LeBron sit on your list of favorite players of all time though? Just hearkening back to Brandon Miller. When he was talking about PG, he wasn't saying PG was a top five player of all time. You're saying PG is one of his five favorite players. So just understanding that distinction, where would LeBron sit on your list of favorite players of all time?

Sean Khan: So, LeBron's not even on anywhere close to my personal list of favorite players, like, I respect what he does. Top 10? He's a great, he's a great player. No, uh, favorite players? No, not even, I don't even know where I would put him. What? Top 10? No? Wow! He wouldn't even be in that conversation for me. 

King: Wow!

Favorite is like your favorite food. That's favorite. Favorite is like the 

Sean Khan: thing you would eat. I would put him second best of all time, but he's not 

King: favorite for me. Favorite's like if you have pizza every single week, you're still happy. And you're saying LeBron's not Friday night basketball, watching every single day of the week for the rest of your life.

You'd rather watch someone other player. [00:33:00] 

Sean Khan: I'd rather watch, I mean, no, I just saw my favorite, like my favorite is like who I cheered for and who, you know, like who I supported. I think that's more of my, like, like, for example, like Jordan is my number one by far. 

Ike Amaechi: We'll get, we'll get to you to who your favorites are.

All are. But first, okay, so what about you, King? Where does he sit on your list? 

King: Yeah, I can go into depth, but right off the top, just really simple. He's number two. MJ's number one. We'll talk about three and four and five later because they're really far down. And that's because if I have a favorite players, because I want them on the court.

So I would watch LeBron on any team and you could create 12 LeBrons. It'd be the best league ever. Same thing with Michael. You create 12 Michaels back then. You'd be the best league ever. 

Ike Amaechi: Heck out of me today, man. Holy, you telling me that you would want to watch LeBron over Hakeem 

Ugo the Sheik: Olajuwon? 

King: Yes. Yes. Now listen, you said favorite player all time, right?

Yes. [00:34:00] Yeah. Watching Hakeem play against Hakeem and everyone having an Hakeem on the league would not be the favorite thing for me to watch on a Friday, right? It's a limited amount of game, but watching LeBron go against LeBron, every, against every team would be sick. 

Ike Amaechi: LeBron won't even go against 

Ugo the Sheik: LeBron.

He'll go against the second worst defender 

Ike Amaechi: on the court. What are you talking about? But don't 

King: you get that? That's the, that's the art, but that's the art of it, right? If every team has a LeBron, it's the best league in the world. Just like if every team had a Michael, it'd be just like the best league that never happened back then, right?

Every team had a hero. Right. This, I love the abstract. This is Regie Miller abstract perspective. This is why Reggie Miller and and Charles Bley were so sad 'cause they could never be as good as mj and they could never carry their teams right. Oh gosh. . But imagine they were as good as mj. It would be a sick league back then.

But anyways, I'm not even gonna talk about three, four, and five yet, so. So 

Ugo the Sheik: I. I have LeBron in the [00:35:00] fringe of my top five. I can argue with him being number five, probably number six, but he's definitely in my top ten. Who's your one, two, four? 

King: I don't get it. 

Ugo the Sheik: We gonna talk about 

Ike Amaechi: it.

Who's your top five, Hugo? 

Ugo the Sheik: Okay, so my top five. So this is a lot of nostalgia for me. So number one is actually two people combined because they changed the way that we watch sports highlights. Gary Payton and Sean Kemp. I loved watching them in action. Loved watching their highlights. Loved GP's trash talk.

Loved Sean Kemp dunking on everybody. Uh, my number two is, uh, Vince Carter. I mean, when he was in his prime. Prime. Like, I mean, people were doing wrestling moves to stop him from embarrassing people. Uh, he was one of the first guys who, when he, he would like there's dunkers, but he would do dunks where you would just ask yourself, [00:36:00] what muscles are you using to do a reverse windmill 360?

Like at this, I don't know. Like, how do you coordinate yourself to do that? It makes absolutely no sense. Uh, so half mad, half amazing. Like, wow. Uh, number three for me was, I like to nickname him the anti Jordan, uh, Clyde Drexler. I feel that, um, had Jordan not been in the league. Drexler would most likely have been that guy.

Uh, he was that good, he was that smooth. Uh, had the hops, had the skills, had everything. It was just, Jordan was just not much better than him. Drexler! But, 

Sean Khan: he only lost you once. One finals appearance, but anyway. 

Ugo the Sheik: But, you know, I'm talking about accolades and all that kind of stuff, right? Then my next dude is, uh, Hakim Olajuwon.

Uh, again, the dream. Moves, uh, DreamShake, uh, DreamFake, the whole nine yards. Um, and then, this [00:37:00] person, uh I 

Sean Khan: thought we were snake drafting. Yeah, I 

King: want to s all over all of those right now. No, I'm going to go all over 

Ugo the Sheik: them. I don't care. And then, and then the last guy I'm going to say 

King: Like, I want to s over all those picks right now.

Don't 

Ike Amaechi: care. I'm 

Ugo the Sheik: going through it. The last guy I'm going to say is going to be an interesting one and people are going to maybe curl their eye up. Prime Gilbert Arenas. Oh my god. He's my James! This is 

Sean Khan: Prime, Mike James, 

Ugo the Sheik: Gil, Prime Gil Arenas, man, give me, give me that on a, on a weekly basis. Sans the guns and all that other stuff, but you know, when he was dropping game winners screaming out Habachi, like, listen, that was just too much fun.

Ike Amaechi: Wow. Okay. 

King: Okay, I'm gonna hold my tongue for all those bad picks. And focus on my, my top five, right? So five first? Yeah. Okay, so Shaq, hands down, if you guys remember watching the NBA, he was like, I don't wanna say a black hole, but he was a force that affected the entire league. [00:38:00] Every player had to play different.

Every key was different. People got hurt, rims broke. It was the first ever reformation of the NBA. So, to see the NBA change because a new player got there, was, was amazing. And to have a new player like, let's say Giannis, he got a lot bigger or something, come in, Over the next few years would be amazing again.

So I'm saying hands down a player that can actually transform the league. Unlike Chet and Victor, cause they're just tall and skinny. He's number five. Cause he literally changed the whole league, the rims, everything. And then number four is Kobe. And I would say that there's a lot of soft like players all over the league.

And the mob mentality was the best thing that ever came out of just affecting how team sports. Are where they're at now. And I think it's actually translated across all of their sports. So just to have these millionaires play really hard was amazing for me. So that's number four. Who wants to watch a game?

We're knowing trying, right? [00:39:00] Number number three is real easy. Steph, right? Uh, people used to think the three pointer was an obscure thing, but this guy's brought this golf like precision to the shot and, uh, the whole court now is like, uh, is an opportunity to score. So he's changed the actual physical space of the game.

So those, again, those three at the end are my favorite by far, because without them, you wouldn't watch basketball, but they're again at the very bottom, right? Because MG and LB at the very top. But that's my top five and I want to still shit all over you goes pick so bad 

Ike Amaechi: Okay, Sean 

Sean Khan: so I already mentioned Jordan as my number one I got Jimmy Butler in my top five

Players always has been exudes exact Like type of player that I think I was and like, or like I was trying to be 

Ike Amaechi: Buckets hair. It's all hair 

Sean Khan: And he showed up at the [00:40:00] right time. He's like playoff. Jimmy is a thing So for me, he was super clutch Next one is Kyle Lowry That's like just a personal choice.

Like I was a huge Lowry fan. I think his Presence in Toronto is what changed the culture Um, I think, you know, he was never maybe the best player on our team potentially, especially during that title run. But, uh, for me, one of my favorites, one of my favorite players to cheer for. Uh, next is, uh, Reggie Miller.

Ooh. I watched Reggie hit so many clutch shots for so many years. Um, his, his Pacers team was the only team to take Jordan's Bulls to seven games. Uh, so he was one of Jordan's biggest rivals in that era as well. Um, so just like watching him hit like just crazy clutch offsuit. There was a series I think against the Nets where he goes older and he hit like a bank like 30 foot 3 pointer at the buzzer to send it to overtime in game [00:41:00] 5 of the first round series.

Um, just like super clutch to tell he retired. Um, and my last one, I gotta put Vince on there as well. You know, as much as he hurt us, no player besides Jordan had me rooting for them and that team, uh, more than Vince, uh, he had the whole country, like on fire, uh, so the whole world and obviously like woke up this like basketball beast in Canada and now we have how many star players in the NBA because of him specifically.

Um, so for me, he's up there as well. Uh, and again, this is like a personal choice list. This is not top five players of all time. So, um, yeah, those are, I think when I was thinking about it, like I was writing names down, like those are the guys that I settle on. Nice. 

King: I don't mean to poop on you go and Sean at the same time, but I do have something to say poop.

I have something to say about Vince and [00:42:00] because you guys both picked him. I recognize that you're calling it your favorite and it's a personal choice, but I feel like picking Vince as a personal choice is like accepting the fact that The Raptors were like an expansion team and we didn't have any talent at all.

So having someone jump fairly well and dunk fairly excitingly for the whole season was here. It was like, Oh my gosh, it's a big deal. Everyone these days can dunk like that. John Moran is a perfect example of that. Stop it. And Vince, Vince tried really hard. I'm sorry, Vince tried really hard for just those moments.

So I think you guys don't have a clear enough sense of the league as a whole when Vince was giving us something to watch. 

Sean Khan: For both of you. I mean, for me, it's also nostalgia and it's also what I remember and what I was watching. So it's like, who got 

King: me in my seat the most? And those are the five 

Sean Khan: players I 

Ugo the Sheik: think that, that gave me a nod.

Jock can do dunks like Vince Carter, is that what you're telling me right now? [00:43:00] 

Ike Amaechi: Not even close. Well, 

Sean Khan: Aaron Gordon and Zach Levine are better dunkers than Vince Carter was. They're doing way, way different dunks. What?! Do me 

King: a 

Sean Khan: favor and watch the two dunk contests. But this is 20 years later, in every sport.

Athletes have evolved to the point that, like, Vince Carter's dunks in 1999 don't look nearly as good as Levine and Gordon's dunks. Oh, wow. Okay, so 

Ugo the Sheik: I'm gonna, okay, so, yeah, so, I'm telling you this right now. Push, push, push the dunk contest aside, because if you're measuring, if you're measuring, No, if your measure is the dunk contest, then you're not watching enough.

Just go on YouTube, Vince Carter's top 100 dunks, okay? That's all you 

Ike Amaechi: need to see. In game dunks. In game 

Ugo the Sheik: dunks. He killed Shaq. He killed Tim Duncan. 

Sean Khan: Yeah, in game, but it wasn't even close. No, he's the best in game dunker of all time. He's like the best dunk contest dunker of all time, too, but [00:44:00] Times athletes have evolved so much since then.

Nobody 

Ugo the Sheik: is doing what guy athleticism that they're 

Sean Khan: showing. Nobody is way better. It's way, it's way more athleticism, 

King: not even close. How are those in-game dunks happening? It's when the team's at an expansion playing an expansion team. No one caress this guy back 

Ike Amaechi: to expansion. Talking about no one cares fourth 

Sean Khan: quarter when they were a playoff team.

Listen, he 

King: was was never, Vince got to the playoffs 

Ugo the Sheik: two times. He was dunking on Shaq and Kobe going quarter through the lane unabated 

King: talking. First quarter known paying attention. First quarter knowns, paying attention. Fourth quarter, the game's over. Oh my goodness. You gotta, you gotta have context, 

Ugo the Sheik: man.

We're talking about a guy who dunks, a guy who is excited. We're not talking about the wins and losses. We already know Vince wasn't quote unquote a winner. That's fine. Sorry, this is Vince's 

King: best dunk is not even in the country, man. It's in some other country when he jumps over someone who's just standing there, right?

You need context. Wow. You need context, man. He's half amazing only when it's really easy. Wow. Okay, 

Sean Khan: you know what? You're still upset. That [00:45:00] is the best dunk of all 

Ike Amaechi: time. It's true. It is. Outside of North America. 

Sean Khan: So you're telling me like the best dunker of all time. Anywhere. Everywhere. Be considered on people's 

King: list.

No, no. In the played. I totally respect that. It's her favorite. But I think you're both jaded by he jumped over 

Ugo the Sheik: a seven footer. Who 

King: has done that? Yeah. Listen, I totally respect it's your favorite, but I think you're 

Ike Amaechi: jaded. Listen, you, you still upset, man? Yeah. You still upset? Yeah. You definitely holding a grudge, man.

You still upset, man. 

Ugo the Sheik: You, you, you got some trauma that you're carrying over these last couple of decades, man, you upset. 

Ike Amaechi: So the reason why Sean and Hugo have picked. Uh, of insanity on their list is because it's subjective, right? He represents something positive, um, in their basketball experience. I mean, you guys had Jordan, you got most, you had Kobe.

I didn't hear magic, quite disappointing. No one had Kobe. I had 

King: Kobe. I had Kobe. Yeah, 

Ike Amaechi: yeah. Kobe's number two for me, man. [00:46:00] Magic's number three for me. Steph is number four for me. Hakeem's number five. And then LeBron's number six. And then I got Brandon Roy and some other players. Penny and all those guys.

Uh, so, last question for you guys. Do you feel any different about LeBron after this conversation?

King: I feel there's too many haters out there, man. There's too many haters out there. There's too many haters out 

Ugo the Sheik: there, man. LeBron is LeBron. It's his story. 

Sean Khan: I don't hate him. He's just not my, like, my, he's not my favorite player. He's not even close to being one of my favorite players. He's a great player. He's, like I said, second best player of all time, probably.

Where does 

King: this hate come from? It's not hate. You just It's not hate. It's not 

Ike Amaechi: hate. 

King: Where did these thoughts come from? It's indifference. 

Sean Khan: It's indifference. Why does he have to be my favorite? What's wrong with you, Skip? 

King: Anyway, honestly, it 

Ike Amaechi: was worth a try. You'll miss him when he's gone. Thank you. Thank you.

King: [00:47:00] Skip. Why the f k I can't shoot three point shots? 

Ike Amaechi: That brings us to the end of this episode of high and low. Hope you enjoyed this one. Uh, it's going to be a doozy to edit. Uh, we're on the road to episode 200, 200. Uh, Hey, Hugo. Sean. King from parts unknown. Remember to subscribe to high and low anywhere you Find podcasts and make us a part of your weekly routine.

Uh, and you know where to find us. We're on Instagram. We're on Tik TOK, we're on X and we're on YouTube. Links to those are on the show notes. Where can listeners find you, Sean? 

Sean Khan: Wow. Uh, you guys can find me on Instagram. I have Sean underscore controversy and you can find me at home and hopefully on this podcast next week again.

Yeah. Uh, yeah. Instagram is probably the best way to find me, but I know you won't because no one ever has found me yet. 

King: No one's on Instagram anymore. They're all on TikTok. 

Ike Amaechi: That's true. [00:48:00] Really? Uh, okay. Well, King, where can they find you? Are you on TikTok? I'm on TikTok 

King: under Media Kingdoms, leading the curve for everybody.

All the other platforms are dead. 

Ike Amaechi: Hugo, where are you? Uh, 

Ugo the Sheik: I can't be found because I'm in perpetual darkness to start the year. I haven't seen the sun in God knows how long so You won't see me till the sun's out. 

Ike Amaechi: Goodness gracious, man. Where are you? In, uh, Antarctica? Iceland? 

Ugo the Sheik: I'm in a place called Unknown Parts.

Ike Amaechi: Wow. Two weeks in a row with this talk of darkness. Yo, 

Sean Khan: Unknown Parts and Parts Unknown sound so different. That's 

Ike Amaechi: the fun part. 

King: Get some vitamin D, man. It sounds dispersing. 

Ike Amaechi: Pause. Vitamin D, yeah. 

Sean Khan: Unknown parts and vitamin D. 

Ugo the Sheik: Wow, 

Ike Amaechi: taking a turn. Once again, music is by [00:49:00] Live of the Enjoy Music Group. That's the music you're listening to right now.

Oh, you can find live on X. You can find them on Instagram at L Y V E. Additional music is by Sonny Rockwell of the goodness. Can't find that guy anywhere. Sound design is by Vaughn August. This is a Vaughn Abraham podcast, just in case you didn't know. So on behalf of King from Parts Unknown, on behalf of Sean Controversy, and on behalf.

Of Hugo the chic, the villain? No, no, just Hugo the chic. Uh, I'm Ike Ameshi. Thank you for listening to High and Low, and we'll talk to you next week. Those bunnies up? That's spooky. Are you talking about something steep? 

King: You want 

Ike Amaechi: me to say that?