Lakers’ JR Smith Pays Ultimate Praise to LeBron James

JR Smith and LeBron James won two titles together. The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2017 NBA Championship, and Smith was part of the winning squad. LeBron won his fourth title and also snatched the NBA Finals MPV award. The king of basketball has won four titles and four Finals MVP award with three different teams. This says pretty much everything you need to know about him and his pro career.

Smith appeared on CBS Sports’ “All Things Covered” podcast this week, and talked about LeBron’s greatness and his dominance on the basketball court.

LeBron finished second in the MVP voting in four different occasions. Three times he finished third in the MVP voting.

“For so long, so many people have been counting on his downfall. Even if you think about the accolades, he could win MVP every single year. But when they go up there to talk about the conversations, he’s always the third guy. It’s either Giannis or James. Or Russ or James. Or this or that person. And ‘oh you could always throw LeBron in there, look at his numbers.’ People get so bored with seeing greatness. It’s disrespectful to an extent. How can you say he’s the best player in the world [every year] and not give this man MVP? I’ve never understood that. He can go to any team and make a championship run.”

JR Smith likes LeBron James and the Lakers better

Michael Jordan and many other superstars have fallen short in MVPs. LeBron was supposed to win many more awards. He was supposed to win this year’s MVP award. But the NBA focused on regular-season numbers.

Smith and LeBron won the title in 2016. According to Smith, this Lakers team plays much better than the 2016 Cavs.

 “I think the size that the Lakers have, we just didn’t have in Cleveland. In Cleveland, we were more grittier, we played a little harder, we were much nastier defensively. But the size with this Lakers team with [Anthony Davis] and Dwight [Howard], and being able to change the lineups with Markieff [Morris], we just weren’t that versatile [in Cleveland]. We could play multiple different ways in L.A., but in Cleveland, we only had to play one way… I think the Lakers team was just too big.”

LA was a big bite for many NBA teams. The Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Miami Heat struggled against LeBron’s team. Cavs faced a lot of strong opponents too.