LeBron James is unquestionably one of the greatest players in the history of basketball, and the question of where exactly he ranks among the greatest ever is a hot debate. However, there is a sentiment among quite a few fans that he isn’t a particularly skilled offensive player, even though he’s the NBA’s all-time leading career scorer.
He recently responded to critics on his “Mind the Game” podcast who say he doesn’t have “a bag” of offensive skill sets he can draw upon. Tom Haberstroh, a former ESPN reporter who used to cover the Miami Heat, once said that Michael Beasley would beat James in games of one-on-one when both were teammates in Miami.
On an Adin Ross live stream, Beasley said that while he did beat the four-time MVP, the story wasn’t told correctly.
“Yeah,” Beasley said. “I mean, the story is told wrong, but just know it’s legit.”
When asked what the final score of the game was, Beasley replied, “A lot to a little.”
Beasley was a gifted player in his own right. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft after a prolific year at the University of Kansas. He was indeed a dangerous one-on-one offensive player, but for whatever reason, he never quite put it together in the pros.
He spent his first two seasons in Miami before James joined the team, and he was then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the summer of 2010. After averaging 19.2 points a game during the 2010-11 campaign, things went south for him, and he bounced around from team to team.
He had a second two-year stint with the Heat starting in the 2013-14 season, and after spending time with the Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks, he was reunited with James as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2018-19 season.
That 2018-19 campaign turned out to be his final one in the NBA.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Former NBA player claims he beat LeBron James in a game of one-on-one
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
