LeBron James Reveals The Reason For Asking Rich Paul to Recruit Talen Horton-Tucker Four Years Ago

Talen Horton-Tucker was an unpleasant surprise for Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. The second-year player led the Los Angeles Lakers to back-to-back wins against the Clipper. Let’s not forget that LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t see any action in both preseason games. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel had great words for his young player, and LeBron is more than impressed. Let’s just say that Horton-Tucker exceeded everyone’s expectations. Do you know that LeBron tried to recruit Horton-Tucker?

LeBron used Tuesday’s Zoom call to share his thoughts on Horton-Tucker. He said what he said and then went to catch a plane. According to recent reports, the four-time NBA champion will join his teammates in the game against the Phoenix Suns. Davis will see his playing minutes, too.

LeBron wanted to recruit Horton-Tucker for a reason

The Lakers superstar is well aware of the fact that Horton-Tucker hasn’t even scratched the surface yet. He will do a lot of great things in the future. We have seen his potential. LeBron first saw it four years ago. He was watching a high school basketball game. He even told Rich Paul to take a look at him.

“First of all, obviously the basketball we can see what he’s capable of doing,” James said. “For him to be 20 years old, he hasn’t even scratched the surface yet of what he’s going to be, but the kid can flat out play.

“I saw it about three and a half, four years ago. I was watching a high school basketball game and I happened to catch Simeon [Career Academy High School] playing, and I told our agent at the time, it’s now Talen’s agent, Rich Paul, told my agent I said, ‘You need to take a look at this kid Talen Horton-Tucker that’s at Simeon, the kid is super talented.’ This was like four years ago.

“Long story short, I mean obviously you see what he’s doing now, and he’s going to continue to get better and better and better as the days go on. He gets an opportunity to practice against us and veterans and things of that nature.”

He’s going to continue to improve and he’s going to do some really good things in this league for a long time.”

This is just the preseason, and we can’t wait for the regular season to begin. Horton-Tucker will probably see a bigger role on the team in the future. He is definitely turning heads now. In the second game against the Clippers, Horton-Tucker scored 33 points. How amazing is that!