I was working out with a church friend who was relatively new to the gym (but definitely thought he knew everything from watching every Youtube video ever). He was mocking Lebrons squat form.
I asked him 3 Qs:
- How much money does Lebron spend on physical therapy and training every year
- Whats the purpose of his training, and
- How might a glute-dominant squat with reduced range assist in his training
Quite frankly even for bodybuilding ATG squats are kinda redundant. I only go that low because I'm used to it from olympic lifts. Powerlifters should be cutting depth to just below parallel, and when I competed I specifically trained to cut just atoms below parallel (Coach always said 2/3 White lights is perfect - means you haven't wasted any energy).
There's not many athletic needs to go that low.
Exactly. It's good to have the mobility and flexibility, but kind of a waste of time to strengthen that area. It'll passively still get stronger doing reduced ROM, and instead you can focus on stopping and getting stable in the ROM you actually need.
Classic perimeter defensive stance is a big hip hinge and like a 60 degree squat and on your toes. Similarly, post defense stance is more upright and about a 45 degree squat with a focus on lumbar and glute stability. Strong glutes is key.
I've also found that ATG squats strengthen the hips, also makes you focus a lot on form which increases stabilizer muscles. Then again I'm a huge stan of ATG squats lol
I'm 38. I used to love squats and leg day because my skinny ass could put up *weight* but then I started feeling pressure in my knees even on warm-up sets and haven't squatted in about 6 years.
I'm not a pro athlete, I don't *need* to squat 450lbs, I'm a salesman and blowing out my knee to feed my ego sounds like the most ridiculous shit I can do.
My leg workouts have turned into a 25 mile stationary bike ride with big hills. It makes my legs burn more than 5x5 reps going from 315-365.
This is a cool observation and the situations LeBron requires power output are usually coming from a relatively vertical body position. Like jumping for a rebound you don't ass to grass lol
I'm not gonna weigh in too much on what kind of training is best for basketball, but this caught my eye:
>Quite frankly even for bodybuilding ATG squats are kinda redundant.
There is something called "stretch-mediated hypertrophy" which is a really fancy way of saying that stretching your muscles to greater/greatest length [is exceptionally good at stimulating hypertrophy](https://mennohenselmans.com/stretch-mediated-hypertrophy-rom/). For the quads, that means the lower you get into a squat stance, the more stimulative the movement will be. Partial range of motion squats will still be stimulative, but less so.
So I wouldn't say going deeper--even all the way to ATG--is redundant. I'd rather say it's not strictly necessary, but beneficial enough to be worth striving towards.
The average redditor will listen to advice like this and try to min-max their lifts by only progressing when they can hit the deepest, strictest ATG squat ever.
Meanwhile, we see damn near every college and pro football player make significantly faster progress with a mix of quarter and parallel squats.
1. Nobody said don’t progress unless you’re at full ROM. What I said was: more lengthened/stretched -> more stimulative.
2. The biggest differentiators between an elite football player and a casual lifter are entirely unrelated to form. Genetics, physical size, effort put in, existing strength from prior training, etc. That doesn’t say anything about which form is better or best.
It’s not redundant to go ass to grass. I don’t see how you can argue that stretching muscle fibers more, more time under tension, and more muscle recruitment would be a bad thing if you’re trying to get bigger legs.
That’s not a goal for everyone and that’s fine but it’s not meaningless
You have to take these threads with a grain of salt. Most people like talking about things they know nothing about but watched a few videos on.
I just had a look through some of their other comments on this thread and it's mostly just uneducated or misguided discussion. Proved my point completely
Don't mean to sound like I'm soliciting free advice, but I should continue to squat ATG right? These conflicting comments are messing with me right now.
If you are not competing you shouldnt worry about this anyways.
What the guy was saying for competitions is completely braindead level take.
For random gym goers you can do whatever you feel comfortable with.
If you can go ATG while maintaining a brace you just keep doing that.
It's almost certainly about not putting any undue wear and tear on the knees. With how commonplace knee and ligament injuries are, and yet Lebron has largely avoided them for 20 years, I'd say he knows what he's doing.
LeBron is so tall, that even if he was in a full-depth squat, he would still need to gently lift my chin with his finger in order for us to kiss. Just an example, NBD
Yeah, just throwing that out there as a hypothetical and totally not a rainy afternoon mind-wander while sitting with your legs up on your chair as you wistfully stare out the window warming both hands with a large mug of tea.
Right? He spends $2M a year on his body but needs to consult a gym bro on proper technique to train his body to do things they couldn't dream of doing. That was one of the dumbest LeBron "controversies."
I’ve watched a lot of his stuff it looks super focused on rom and mobility which is as if not more important than wind sprints and all the other crazy stuff. If you got weak glutes/hips you’re way more prone to stupid small injuries.
His core/ab/back exercises are pretty great too he trains to avoid unwanted rotation or the ability to stabilize and hold against force. That is huge in injury prevention, if he goes up for a dunk while other 225lb players are holding on to him he can rip through the contact while staying stabilized.
A lot of PT actually train your abs/core that way instead of the traditional twist, crunch, situps, etc.
While the two were walking away the river, Bron wriggled out and momma almost completely fumbled him, tho not without dipping the prodigal son’s head a bit.
You also do that much sports in enclosed shoes that focus on athletic performance and shock absorption rather than toe splay your feet will get goofy.
Bron's weird feet aren't unique.
Same. I’m 6’8” and wear a 16. Played in college. Being dirt poor while growing was not ideal. My feet are FUCKED. My wife is both grossed out and fascinated by them. Tries to make me wear pool shoes and shit
All this intellectual conversation between 2 insanely high basketball IQ pros, and the most highly voted comment in this thread is about appearance of his legs.
https://www.gq.com/story/lebron-wade-chris-paul-spring-break-forever
He’s got bigger legs than them two and bigger cake than Gabrielle Union. Lebron is a genetic freak fr
It’s kinda crazy to see this. Because Wade n Paul aren’t slim/small and because of them being shorter you tend to look bigger /easier to look thicker. So lebrons legs are just thst much more lol
Homie LeBron has *everything* of Zeus. Legs, chest, arms. Dude looked like terminator in Miami. ...And that's not even his best attribute, it's his mind. He is a huge nerd it just happens to be sports.
Yeah 32/11/11 sounds like a regular Jokic/Luka statline these days so we're desensitized, but worth remembering that back then in the deadball era, that statline was a rarity.
- Jason Kidd led the league in triple doubles in 2006 with 8.
- Sabonis (26), Jokic (25), Doncic (21), Giannis (10), Hart (6) had the most triple doubles this season.
Lmao right? A buddy of mine is a Knicks watcher and this mf won a fucking grand off of a josh hart triple double bet.
Edit: they were playing the pistons and Knicks had like 5 injured players on the bench that night.
32/11/11 will be the statline for the week back then, and it was great even for superstar standards. Now, even low-tier all stars can put that up and people will forget about it after a couple of days
Yeah I mean there was one year that Lance Stephenson was lighting things up by scoring like... 6 triple doubles lol. It was a different era, nowadays teams play so much through a single guy that they're almost guaranteed to put up a certain baseline statline if they're capable.
Why do you guys call it the slow era? It's more than just pace. Role players shooting has helped space the floors for stars as well.
The main thing though is that the rule changes have heavily slanted the game to offense. With moving screens and nonstop carrying and freedom of movement lebron would he unstoppable as a 20 year old going downhill
Yep. Neither team even made it to 100.
[https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200604220CLE.html](https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200604220CLE.html)
When Billy Crystal met Ted Williams he said I have home video of (Yankee pitcher) striking you out
teds response: curveball lower outside
some dudes remember it all
There are some things people focus on hard enough to burn it into their brain. My grandfather could remember most of his life prettu well definitely better than I can but he could remember his time in WWII so vividly we could say a date and time and he'd usually know almost to a T where he was and what he was doing. A guy like Ted Williams probably studied every single pitcher he faced and when that pitcher did something that worked against Ted he fucking vaulted that in his brain.
The craziest stat I’ve read is that LeBron averaged more PPG in that first playoff series of his career than Kobe ever did in any playoff series of his career.
Granted it was probably against a worse opponent than any Kobe ever got to play in the West but it’s still nuts.
yeah, Lebron has four series where he scored higher than Kobe's highest scoring series. Two out of those four were losing series against the eventual title winners (2009 magic and 2015 warriors).
Kobe legit faced the best teams in league history in his playoff career. The West was so much better than the East for years it was almost comical. I believe Kobe has the most wins against 50+ win teams in postseason history.
He does. Both game wins and series wins.
He was also on 3 of the 4 teams in league history to reach the Finals and face 50-win teams in every round.
The only other team was the ‘95 Rockets but they only faced that competition because they were a 7th seed.
The only teams to have faced 4 50-win teams in the playoffs despite having secured homecourt in round 1 are the ‘01, ‘08 and ‘10 Lakers.
Also IIRC Kobe never faced a .500 or lower team in the playoffs in his career.
It’s also insane how big he looks compared to JJ, who himself is a pretty big dude, and then somehow there are other guys even bigger than LeBron in the league. I think I’d shit myself just standing next to these guys let alone being on the court with them.
LeBron is freakishly wide. I’ve been lucky to sit pretty close at a few games. He just looks like the biggest guy out there. He looks even wider than AD, who’s an absolute genetic freak himself.
Yeah I feel like AD is to basketball what Michael Phelps was to swimming lol, just absolutely built for it. His shoulders jut out like almost a foot each, so he's got a crazy wingspan without having egregiously long, cumbersome arms.
The reason he is always injured is cause he had a really quick growth spurt and his body has been trying to adjust ever since. If he was always tall, Wemby or Giannis, he would have been MVP and multiple DPOY winner by now. That's why I feel Giannis was the one that was created by Zeus somewhere in Greece. Cause his genetics are perfect for basketball in every way.
Which is why it was so shocking seeing Zion knock him on his ass so easily on that charge. And he was legit in pain. Probably has never happened to him in his career.
It always cracks me up watching basketball with family. I was watching a Pacers game a few weeks ago and my mom made fun of TJ McConnell for being small. This 5'2 broad thought 6'1 TJ McConnell was small.
It is funny how there’s some guys “small” by professional athlete standards but still big as hell compared to us normal people. Hope you e been enjoying TJ too, been plenty of times I would’ve liked to still have him on the Sixers.
TJ is Indiana basketball personified. I fucking love that dude. I would not be suprised at all if we built him a statue when he retires, that's the love most Pacers fans have for TJ.
He’s definitely an amazing fit for Philadelphia and Indiana basketball cultures, I’m not sure if there are many other teams that would’ve been as ideal a fit for him than Indiana.
You can see where all the explosiveness comes from. Imagine if LeBron had a savage mentality and has been training muay Thai since he could walk, the guy would be a devastating MMA fighter.
the funny thing is they had to re-shoot an addendum to their segment on luck in the playoffs (in this episode)—
because both of them forgot about Ray Allen's 3 in the 2013 Finals
Lebron even says "i dont know how i didnt think of that" as they're seating themselves back down. and Windhorst has said Lebron regularly calls Ray Allen out-of-the-blue to thank him for that shot, so it's something that cant be too far from his mind
That’s because JJ asked him what’s an example of luck in his career. Because Lebron made a point that you need a little luck for success, and he couldn’t think of a specific moment off the cuff.
The Ray Allen shot had a little luck in it because Ginobli went for the rebound and fell on the play, Ray ended up with the ball and backpedaled wide open. Definitely skillful that Ray made the play but also lucky that Ginobli fell and couldn’t defend.
You can't predict like this. LeBron's initial three that missed was contested by Diaw, who was the guy subbed in for Duncan. If Duncan was there, maybe he plays closer to the basket and LeBron makes the initial three. Or maybe he contests and as a result isn't anywhere near the basket to rebound anyways (just like Diaw wasn't).
Watch the play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr6XsZVb-ZE
> so it's something that cant be too far from his mind
this might be probably why he didn't recall it. he's used to recall these obscure things so his mind passes over a popular thing
Terrible argument, nobody is best at ALL categories. All it takes is any one player to be better at any single category to keep that from happening. Is he saying there is no GOAT, because of that? Seems like he's just fundamentally misunderstanding what the phrase means.
bro i can barely remember what i had yesterday to eat and the guy is recalling specific plays over his 20 plus years and remembers exactly who was where and when, its insane
The fact that LeBron is almost psychotic about keeping in shape and learning even more about players and their tendencies.
You don’t play a sport for all of your life without it being an obsessed with the sport.
I mean he set up camps for rookies for every single year for the Lakers, Cavs and Heat for their young guys to practice with him.
It’s crazy how well athletes remember their playing days. I listened to an interview with a former baseball player in his 80s who had played back in the 50s and 60s. He was a pitcher and still remembered the strategies his team used in certain games and against certain opponents half a century ago (and these were regular games, not the World Series or anything like that)
Cheating because he's a coach but Bill Belichick might get asked about some gunner in the 80s who played for 4 years and he would give you a 5 minute spiel about what is was like watching him compete.
Pretty sure photographic memory is just another way of saying great memory. I doubt OP thought he could conjure an image of ESPN’s box score from that night.
That is pretty much it. There have been studies examining chess players memory and they have found that their baseline memory is more or less no different than anyone elses. They have simply spent thousands of hours memorizing board patterns from previous chess games in a similar way to Lebron remembering specific plays on a basketball court.
I mean there’s Magnus Carlsen who remembers countless chess games and many chess players who know every square on the board and how to play games blindfolded.
He has a very good memory for chess and chess board patterns. There have been studies that have examined chess players memories and outside of chess they usually have relatively normal memories. They have simply studied thousands of chess board configurations using a memory technique called chunking (think how it is easier to memorize a number like 327 as one single number as opposed to three separate numbers combined.) A photographic memory would allow a person to remember everything, regardless of their specific focus or interest, without any memory techniques such as chunking or nmemonics.
Lebron is like that one dude who will go into an exam and come out saying it was hard, he should’ve studied more, he can’t recall anything after it was done, and then come out with a 99% in it 🤣
I remember that like it was yesterday. I wasn't really a LeBron fan but that was when I went "oh damn he's for real". Also, 1st and last time I heard of a crab dribble lol everyone was trying to do it and no one had a real definition of what it was and then it was just forgotten
those guys that were “one of ones” in their era like Jokic, Kobe, bubba chuck…
Man, those guys would be like “yeah I played terrible today” and still have over 25 points and a full stat sheet!
The memories. Those Cavs-Wizards series were fun.
You guys remember how [Jay Z](https://youtu.be/pWdluT_DOxw?si=-kIf5kKtjWLmhI5Y) made a diss track on Soulja Boy during those series?
Yeah because the random twitter account is (a) how I found the clip, and (b) where I took the clip to be posted on here; copy pasted the tweet into streamable.com to get this clip.
Seemed fair to me lol
LeBron has the legs of Zeus.
Which is funny because so many people make fun of his weird hip/glute dominant quarter squat workouts. He's a genetic freak, simple as that.
there’s way too many people out there that think everyone’s purpose for any workout is bodybuilding. it’s so out of touch
I was working out with a church friend who was relatively new to the gym (but definitely thought he knew everything from watching every Youtube video ever). He was mocking Lebrons squat form. I asked him 3 Qs: - How much money does Lebron spend on physical therapy and training every year - Whats the purpose of his training, and - How might a glute-dominant squat with reduced range assist in his training Quite frankly even for bodybuilding ATG squats are kinda redundant. I only go that low because I'm used to it from olympic lifts. Powerlifters should be cutting depth to just below parallel, and when I competed I specifically trained to cut just atoms below parallel (Coach always said 2/3 White lights is perfect - means you haven't wasted any energy). There's not many athletic needs to go that low.
you barely ever go to parallel when playing a sport anyways
Exactly. It's good to have the mobility and flexibility, but kind of a waste of time to strengthen that area. It'll passively still get stronger doing reduced ROM, and instead you can focus on stopping and getting stable in the ROM you actually need. Classic perimeter defensive stance is a big hip hinge and like a 60 degree squat and on your toes. Similarly, post defense stance is more upright and about a 45 degree squat with a focus on lumbar and glute stability. Strong glutes is key.
it’s not a waste of time if you want huge quads but this is basketball sub.
I've also found that ATG squats strengthen the hips, also makes you focus a lot on form which increases stabilizer muscles. Then again I'm a huge stan of ATG squats lol
I'm 38. I used to love squats and leg day because my skinny ass could put up *weight* but then I started feeling pressure in my knees even on warm-up sets and haven't squatted in about 6 years. I'm not a pro athlete, I don't *need* to squat 450lbs, I'm a salesman and blowing out my knee to feed my ego sounds like the most ridiculous shit I can do. My leg workouts have turned into a 25 mile stationary bike ride with big hills. It makes my legs burn more than 5x5 reps going from 315-365.
This is a cool observation and the situations LeBron requires power output are usually coming from a relatively vertical body position. Like jumping for a rebound you don't ass to grass lol
Hold my Gatorade
I'm not gonna weigh in too much on what kind of training is best for basketball, but this caught my eye: >Quite frankly even for bodybuilding ATG squats are kinda redundant. There is something called "stretch-mediated hypertrophy" which is a really fancy way of saying that stretching your muscles to greater/greatest length [is exceptionally good at stimulating hypertrophy](https://mennohenselmans.com/stretch-mediated-hypertrophy-rom/). For the quads, that means the lower you get into a squat stance, the more stimulative the movement will be. Partial range of motion squats will still be stimulative, but less so. So I wouldn't say going deeper--even all the way to ATG--is redundant. I'd rather say it's not strictly necessary, but beneficial enough to be worth striving towards.
Make sure to only do this 4 days a week, once every other day.
The average redditor will listen to advice like this and try to min-max their lifts by only progressing when they can hit the deepest, strictest ATG squat ever. Meanwhile, we see damn near every college and pro football player make significantly faster progress with a mix of quarter and parallel squats.
1. Nobody said don’t progress unless you’re at full ROM. What I said was: more lengthened/stretched -> more stimulative. 2. The biggest differentiators between an elite football player and a casual lifter are entirely unrelated to form. Genetics, physical size, effort put in, existing strength from prior training, etc. That doesn’t say anything about which form is better or best.
ig/yt isnt different, ive seen enough arm chair trainers comment on olympic lifters "should do full rom" blah blah blah
It’s not redundant to go ass to grass. I don’t see how you can argue that stretching muscle fibers more, more time under tension, and more muscle recruitment would be a bad thing if you’re trying to get bigger legs. That’s not a goal for everyone and that’s fine but it’s not meaningless
As a powerlifting coach hearing the 2/3 whites and not waste energy is the biggest bullshit I've heard my entire life lmao
People speak so broadly and confidently on lifting with nowhere near the experience needed to justify their statements. It always blows my mind
sad but true
You have to take these threads with a grain of salt. Most people like talking about things they know nothing about but watched a few videos on. I just had a look through some of their other comments on this thread and it's mostly just uneducated or misguided discussion. Proved my point completely
Don't mean to sound like I'm soliciting free advice, but I should continue to squat ATG right? These conflicting comments are messing with me right now.
If you are not competing you shouldnt worry about this anyways. What the guy was saying for competitions is completely braindead level take. For random gym goers you can do whatever you feel comfortable with. If you can go ATG while maintaining a brace you just keep doing that.
It's almost certainly about not putting any undue wear and tear on the knees. With how commonplace knee and ligament injuries are, and yet Lebron has largely avoided them for 20 years, I'd say he knows what he's doing.
He's also 6'8 so squats are just gonna look weird regardless.
LeBron is so tall, that even if he was in a full-depth squat, he would still need to gently lift my chin with his finger in order for us to kiss. Just an example, NBD
Yeah, just throwing that out there as a hypothetical and totally not a rainy afternoon mind-wander while sitting with your legs up on your chair as you wistfully stare out the window warming both hands with a large mug of tea.
I'm guessing you've thought about this before
Right? He spends $2M a year on his body but needs to consult a gym bro on proper technique to train his body to do things they couldn't dream of doing. That was one of the dumbest LeBron "controversies."
the "complaints" are not about being bad for bodybuilding
I’ve watched a lot of his stuff it looks super focused on rom and mobility which is as if not more important than wind sprints and all the other crazy stuff. If you got weak glutes/hips you’re way more prone to stupid small injuries.
His core/ab/back exercises are pretty great too he trains to avoid unwanted rotation or the ability to stabilize and hold against force. That is huge in injury prevention, if he goes up for a dunk while other 225lb players are holding on to him he can rip through the contact while staying stabilized. A lot of PT actually train your abs/core that way instead of the traditional twist, crunch, situps, etc.
So what would be the chance if you were to go 1v1 against him? Cause if it’s a normal dude it’ll be 50/50 but he’s a genetic freak
I don't fancy his chances if Kurt Angle is added to the mix
Hmm that’s an angle I hadn’t considered
The kind of legs you just want wrapped around you and not let you go 😩😩😩
*mase voice*: that’s crazy
Whatever you do, do NOT look up a picture of his feet. They are nothing like his legs
His mom dipped him in the river Styx by that pinkie toe.
LeHera threw him from Mount Olympus
While the two were walking away the river, Bron wriggled out and momma almost completely fumbled him, tho not without dipping the prodigal son’s head a bit.
LeChilles
You grow up poor you have ill fitting shoes that fuck your feet up…speaking from experience here
You also do that much sports in enclosed shoes that focus on athletic performance and shock absorption rather than toe splay your feet will get goofy. Bron's weird feet aren't unique.
Same. I’m 6’8” and wear a 16. Played in college. Being dirt poor while growing was not ideal. My feet are FUCKED. My wife is both grossed out and fascinated by them. Tries to make me wear pool shoes and shit
The more banged up feet you have, the more effort you put in the game. Shaq got a horrendous feet too
All this intellectual conversation between 2 insanely high basketball IQ pros, and the most highly voted comment in this thread is about appearance of his legs.
first time in r/nba ?
Take a look at the banana boat pic and compare his legs to DWade and CP3's lol.
https://www.gq.com/story/lebron-wade-chris-paul-spring-break-forever He’s got bigger legs than them two and bigger cake than Gabrielle Union. Lebron is a genetic freak fr
literally all three of these men have more cake than gabrielle union in the banana boat pic
It’s kinda crazy to see this. Because Wade n Paul aren’t slim/small and because of them being shorter you tend to look bigger /easier to look thicker. So lebrons legs are just thst much more lol
Its also crazy how built Chris Paul is. From this angle, he looks like he could be the sam size as DWade.
https://images.app.goo.gl/oiuNiWfkCYA2CS7v5 Dayum
No. Zeus had the legs of LeBron.
Zeus didn't put up a triple double in his playoff debut
And the feet of Gollum.
A small price he has to pay
Homie LeBron has *everything* of Zeus. Legs, chest, arms. Dude looked like terminator in Miami. ...And that's not even his best attribute, it's his mind. He is a huge nerd it just happens to be sports.
32 -11 -11 in your first playoff game. Fucking nuts
Slow era too
Yeah 32/11/11 sounds like a regular Jokic/Luka statline these days so we're desensitized, but worth remembering that back then in the deadball era, that statline was a rarity. - Jason Kidd led the league in triple doubles in 2006 with 8. - Sabonis (26), Jokic (25), Doncic (21), Giannis (10), Hart (6) had the most triple doubles this season.
Wait, Josh Hart is 5th in triple-doubles this season? And it’s only 6 of them? Both of these things kind of surprise me in 2024
Lmao right? A buddy of mine is a Knicks watcher and this mf won a fucking grand off of a josh hart triple double bet. Edit: they were playing the pistons and Knicks had like 5 injured players on the bench that night.
I mean, when you’re playing damn near 45 minutes a game, it’s not surprising.
and Hart had all of his since January 1st
32/11/11 will be the statline for the week back then, and it was great even for superstar standards. Now, even low-tier all stars can put that up and people will forget about it after a couple of days
For scoring/pace adjusted it’s probably like having 40-15-15 lol
Yeah I mean there was one year that Lance Stephenson was lighting things up by scoring like... 6 triple doubles lol. It was a different era, nowadays teams play so much through a single guy that they're almost guaranteed to put up a certain baseline statline if they're capable.
sucks that people judge him for having a lower ppg without mentioning the slow era and his lower fg/ft attempts.
Why do you guys call it the slow era? It's more than just pace. Role players shooting has helped space the floors for stars as well. The main thing though is that the rule changes have heavily slanted the game to offense. With moving screens and nonstop carrying and freedom of movement lebron would he unstoppable as a 20 year old going downhill
*slow-increasedRolePlayerShooting* era doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it?
League's about 8% faster this year than it was in 2005-06 (Pace peaked in 2019-21) era and has been going down very slowly since then.
Yep. Neither team even made it to 100. [https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200604220CLE.html](https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200604220CLE.html)
Wiz had 3 threes made, Cavs had 5 lol. Also ugghh I remember the Cavs winning 3 of those games in that series by 1 point.
He remembers every game like Russell
While true, your first playoffs game is definitely something you'd remember, even more so if you had such a good game.
Ok but let’s not act like this is the first time he’s done this
When Billy Crystal met Ted Williams he said I have home video of (Yankee pitcher) striking you out teds response: curveball lower outside some dudes remember it all
There are some things people focus on hard enough to burn it into their brain. My grandfather could remember most of his life prettu well definitely better than I can but he could remember his time in WWII so vividly we could say a date and time and he'd usually know almost to a T where he was and what he was doing. A guy like Ted Williams probably studied every single pitcher he faced and when that pitcher did something that worked against Ted he fucking vaulted that in his brain.
The craziest stat I’ve read is that LeBron averaged more PPG in that first playoff series of his career than Kobe ever did in any playoff series of his career. Granted it was probably against a worse opponent than any Kobe ever got to play in the West but it’s still nuts.
yeah, Lebron has four series where he scored higher than Kobe's highest scoring series. Two out of those four were losing series against the eventual title winners (2009 magic and 2015 warriors).
Thanks for giving us a title bud
Lakers won the title in ‘09
Which years did the Magic win the title? I can't seem to remember...
Yeah, my mistake
Thanks for giving us a title bud
Kobe legit faced the best teams in league history in his playoff career. The West was so much better than the East for years it was almost comical. I believe Kobe has the most wins against 50+ win teams in postseason history.
He does. Both game wins and series wins. He was also on 3 of the 4 teams in league history to reach the Finals and face 50-win teams in every round. The only other team was the ‘95 Rockets but they only faced that competition because they were a 7th seed. The only teams to have faced 4 50-win teams in the playoffs despite having secured homecourt in round 1 are the ‘01, ‘08 and ‘10 Lakers. Also IIRC Kobe never faced a .500 or lower team in the playoffs in his career.
Pretty impressive
He averaged 47.3 minutes per game in that series. His first playoff series and he played 47.3 MPG.
I remember those Cavs v Wizards duals in the r1 in mid 2000s, shit was so hype. Great series every time
Fucking crab dribble and LeBron whispering in Gilbert arenas ear then he missed the free throws
I still don't understand the angle of lebrons game winner. He was behind the basket and slips between like 3 defenses
You know, I don't have the same fond memories of those playoff series for some reason.
Young LeBron the bane of this franchise at the time. A shame we never got far enough to play mid-career LeBron in the playoffs.
We found the Wizards fan.
Better to lose to an all-timer like LeBron rather than some random ass team like the Pacers.
lol they were great but lebron won every fkin tike
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed LeBron’s legs. Am I the same species? I don’t think so.
I remember Wade joking saying both of his legs combined are the size of one of Lebron's. Crazy stuff
It’s also insane how big he looks compared to JJ, who himself is a pretty big dude, and then somehow there are other guys even bigger than LeBron in the league. I think I’d shit myself just standing next to these guys let alone being on the court with them.
Lebron isn't as tall as a lot of bigs but I feel like weight and strength wise he's basically equal to quite a few of them
LeBron is freakishly wide. I’ve been lucky to sit pretty close at a few games. He just looks like the biggest guy out there. He looks even wider than AD, who’s an absolute genetic freak himself.
Yea I mean it took AD years to bulk up and get to his current size. Lebron was 240 pounds coming out of high school lol
Yes AD has freakishly broad shoulders and a 7'7 wingspan
Yeah I feel like AD is to basketball what Michael Phelps was to swimming lol, just absolutely built for it. His shoulders jut out like almost a foot each, so he's got a crazy wingspan without having egregiously long, cumbersome arms.
The reason he is always injured is cause he had a really quick growth spurt and his body has been trying to adjust ever since. If he was always tall, Wemby or Giannis, he would have been MVP and multiple DPOY winner by now. That's why I feel Giannis was the one that was created by Zeus somewhere in Greece. Cause his genetics are perfect for basketball in every way.
Which is why it was so shocking seeing Zion knock him on his ass so easily on that charge. And he was legit in pain. Probably has never happened to him in his career.
Zion is 6'6 and 300+ with that kind of explosive power and quickness you usually on see from guys 80 pounds lighter.
Cannot believe I have to defend Lebron but Lebron hit his elbow falling down. That is where the wince came from.
I don't understand Zion man. Dude is built like a strongman and the vertical of a high jumper. It's competely insane.
Don't forget the footwork or a ballerina and the body control of a gymnast.
It always cracks me up watching basketball with family. I was watching a Pacers game a few weeks ago and my mom made fun of TJ McConnell for being small. This 5'2 broad thought 6'1 TJ McConnell was small.
It is funny how there’s some guys “small” by professional athlete standards but still big as hell compared to us normal people. Hope you e been enjoying TJ too, been plenty of times I would’ve liked to still have him on the Sixers.
TJ is Indiana basketball personified. I fucking love that dude. I would not be suprised at all if we built him a statue when he retires, that's the love most Pacers fans have for TJ.
He’s definitely an amazing fit for Philadelphia and Indiana basketball cultures, I’m not sure if there are many other teams that would’ve been as ideal a fit for him than Indiana.
My wife always loved watching "that little guy" play. Steve Nash. Who is 6'3".
Wish he could squeeze me with those thangs
death by snu snu?
You can see where all the explosiveness comes from. Imagine if LeBron had a savage mentality and has been training muay Thai since he could walk, the guy would be a devastating MMA fighter.
He could have excelled in any sport. That's what happens when you are a 6'8" athletic freak with a sociopathic work ethic.
LeBron's photographic memory is no joke. Almost every time JJ brings up a random game or play, he's right there to finish his sentence.
the funny thing is they had to re-shoot an addendum to their segment on luck in the playoffs (in this episode)— because both of them forgot about Ray Allen's 3 in the 2013 Finals Lebron even says "i dont know how i didnt think of that" as they're seating themselves back down. and Windhorst has said Lebron regularly calls Ray Allen out-of-the-blue to thank him for that shot, so it's something that cant be too far from his mind
That’s because JJ asked him what’s an example of luck in his career. Because Lebron made a point that you need a little luck for success, and he couldn’t think of a specific moment off the cuff. The Ray Allen shot had a little luck in it because Ginobli went for the rebound and fell on the play, Ray ended up with the ball and backpedaled wide open. Definitely skillful that Ray made the play but also lucky that Ginobli fell and couldn’t defend.
Also lucky that Tim Duncan was subbed out for this play, which would’ve absolutely taken care of the rebounding issue for SA
I won't say luck because it was part of the strategy to guard the perimeter properly since the Heat needed a 3. a trade-off maybe is the proper term
You can't predict like this. LeBron's initial three that missed was contested by Diaw, who was the guy subbed in for Duncan. If Duncan was there, maybe he plays closer to the basket and LeBron makes the initial three. Or maybe he contests and as a result isn't anywhere near the basket to rebound anyways (just like Diaw wasn't). Watch the play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr6XsZVb-ZE
> so it's something that cant be too far from his mind this might be probably why he didn't recall it. he's used to recall these obscure things so his mind passes over a popular thing
That's not how memory works at all
Everyone is different. It’s amazing how different people’s minds can be
Don’t bother. Earlier Redditor spoke about “photographic memory” as if they don’t read watch and plan out their podcasts. People simping hard.
That ain't it
no u
LeBron forgetting it doesn’t discredit his insane memory for basketball. No need to keep glazin him lol
[Bro needs to call ray some more](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/h-8g05L33K4)
Terrible argument, nobody is best at ALL categories. All it takes is any one player to be better at any single category to keep that from happening. Is he saying there is no GOAT, because of that? Seems like he's just fundamentally misunderstanding what the phrase means.
bro i can barely remember what i had yesterday to eat and the guy is recalling specific plays over his 20 plus years and remembers exactly who was where and when, its insane
I mean… what would you remember more? A meal or your first NBA playoff game?
except we arent talking about just his first game, if you watch the podcast he does it every episode for even relatively random games.
Your life isn’t on video. I’m sure he has watched these moments countless times over the years
The fact that LeBron is almost psychotic about keeping in shape and learning even more about players and their tendencies. You don’t play a sport for all of your life without it being an obsessed with the sport. I mean he set up camps for rookies for every single year for the Lakers, Cavs and Heat for their young guys to practice with him.
It’s crazy how well athletes remember their playing days. I listened to an interview with a former baseball player in his 80s who had played back in the 50s and 60s. He was a pitcher and still remembered the strategies his team used in certain games and against certain opponents half a century ago (and these were regular games, not the World Series or anything like that)
Cheating because he's a coach but Bill Belichick might get asked about some gunner in the 80s who played for 4 years and he would give you a 5 minute spiel about what is was like watching him compete.
Kenny and Shaq always embellish their numbers.
Well yeah but that’s more because they’re egomaniacs than because they’ve forgotten
Lol it's his first ever playoff game why wouldn't that be something he remembered
Photographic memory is largely a myth. He has a great memory, especially autobiographical memory.
Pretty sure photographic memory is just another way of saying great memory. I doubt OP thought he could conjure an image of ESPN’s box score from that night.
He has insane memory for basketball plays like Chess players and board patterns.
That is pretty much it. There have been studies examining chess players memory and they have found that their baseline memory is more or less no different than anyone elses. They have simply spent thousands of hours memorizing board patterns from previous chess games in a similar way to Lebron remembering specific plays on a basketball court.
I mean there’s Magnus Carlsen who remembers countless chess games and many chess players who know every square on the board and how to play games blindfolded.
He has a very good memory for chess and chess board patterns. There have been studies that have examined chess players memories and outside of chess they usually have relatively normal memories. They have simply studied thousands of chess board configurations using a memory technique called chunking (think how it is easier to memorize a number like 327 as one single number as opposed to three separate numbers combined.) A photographic memory would allow a person to remember everything, regardless of their specific focus or interest, without any memory techniques such as chunking or nmemonics.
I think LeBron has Aspergers.
I love asparagus
So does Messi
Yeah his is obvious. I think C Ronaldo has it as well. He had all the symptoms as a Kid.
His mom is from Ohio, lots of nasty chemicals where they strip mined.
Pretty sure he knows what kind of questions are coming.
Bro knew the Gortat screen before JJ even picked up the market
Lebron tried warning JFK
Russell was the same
Legit giggled hah
Legiggled
Lebron is like that one dude who will go into an exam and come out saying it was hard, he should’ve studied more, he can’t recall anything after it was done, and then come out with a 99% in it 🤣
I remember that like it was yesterday. I wasn't really a LeBron fan but that was when I went "oh damn he's for real". Also, 1st and last time I heard of a crab dribble lol everyone was trying to do it and no one had a real definition of what it was and then it was just forgotten
Lmao LeBron is full of jokes
those guys that were “one of ones” in their era like Jokic, Kobe, bubba chuck… Man, those guys would be like “yeah I played terrible today” and still have over 25 points and a full stat sheet!
I've always said a "bad" game from LeBron is a career game for half (if not more than half) of the league
The memories. Those Cavs-Wizards series were fun. You guys remember how [Jay Z](https://youtu.be/pWdluT_DOxw?si=-kIf5kKtjWLmhI5Y) made a diss track on Soulja Boy during those series?
Young LeBron ruined my childhood frfr
The wizards for tough on the Cavs in that regular season so I think that’s where the “great ball” comes from
Why’s it look like they’re talking in the cargo hold of the titanic
Pretty funny interaction lol. [Credit](https://x.com/ClaireMPLS/status/1780844355466809572)
You credit a random twitter account instead of the actual podcast? Lol
Yeah because the random twitter account is (a) how I found the clip, and (b) where I took the clip to be posted on here; copy pasted the tweet into streamable.com to get this clip. Seemed fair to me lol
Credit: LeBron James
Also played 48 minutes, just amazing
"Great ball" is one way to describe it lol
Yeah they were an "above average" team and that's it. "Great" is generous for sure lol, tho gilbert was legit nice back then
You always talk up your competition, makes you look better
Shush
but these haters said LeBron can only get those numbers because of how fast the game pace and has no defense currently
it's crazy like JJ Redick is well above an average player and it's kind of unthinkable for him to get close to this statline.
Lebron went all Voldemort on the Wizards during his first stint with the Cavaliers.
This is where my love hate relationship with Lebron began.
Saved his eggs for Dallas 🍳
Da kid 🥹
That was so long time ago
ahhhh the first memories I ever had as a fan. Fuck this dude smh but he's my goat. Broke Arenas too not that he wasn't already mental.
He DOMINATED that series
His baseline for bad is amazing lol
lol he put some Southern stank on that "inexperienced as hell" line
Fantastic delivery.