The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LeBron's Top 5 scoring moments w/ Lakers, Heat & Cavs to break Kareem's record

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Jason Timpf breaks down the Top 5 scoring moments of LeBron James' career leading up to him breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA scoring record. Jason discusses games from James' time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers and shares how each moment was critical to LeBron's development as a scorer throughout his 20-year career. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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369 in New York. Call 1-800-522-470-0 in Wyoming or visit www.1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia. Hoops tonight, presented by Fanduel here at The Volume. We have a very special episode for you guys today, continuing our coverage of LeBron James passing Karim Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA's all-time leading score. We talked a lot the night that LeBron broke the record about his scoring development. and the way that he rounded out his skill set to become the player that he needed to be

to be capable of winning four championships the way that he did. And so what I thought would be a lot of fun today is to zoom in on five specific games, five specific moments in LeBron's career that I thought demonstrated him meeting those milestones that he had to reach in his scoring development. So what today's going to be is the top five scoring moments

of LeBron James' career. So without any further ado, let's get started. I'm going to take you guys back to 2007 in the Eastern Conference Finals in game five. As the Cleveland Cavaliers went on the road in a two-two tied series to play the Detroit Pistons, the same Detroit Pistons team that won a championship in 2004 and made it to the NBA finals again in 2005 and made it, I can't remember exactly how many, but they made to a bunch of Eastern Conference finals consecutively. One of the dominant Eastern Conference teams of that era. and LeBron James was just 22 years old.

And you guys might remember this as the game where he scored 25 straight points to secure the win, eventually sending the Cavaliers to the NBA finals. He also scored 29 of their last 30. There was like a random Drew Good and free throw mixed in there, if I remember correctly. And he finished the game with 48 points,

nine rebounds, and seven assists. But I looked at this as the game that clearly demonstrated LeBron's foundational skill, which was that nobody could keep him from getting to the rim. every all-time great NBA player has to be well-rounded. You have to build out the rest of your skill set to add that versatility that makes you tougher to beat in the playoffs.

But every single one of those all-time great players has a foundational skill. That one thing that they do better than everyone else, and that is their most reliable ability, whether that's with Shaquille O'Neal just his overwhelming size and strength. Or for Steph Curry, the fact that he was the best jump shooter to ever play the game. And for LeBron James, it was simply that nobody could keep him from getting to the rim. At 6'9 and 270 pounds or whatever it is, he was. And with his freak athleticism, I thought he was the best athlete in the league when he was younger.

No one was capable of keeping him in front. And this game was such a great example of that. He had two massive dunks to send the game to overtime in regulation, and then obviously the game winner driving past Chauncey Billups. So let's take a look at some footage. Another opportunity for the Cavaliers to take the lead. They're down by one. Maxiel defending on game.

LeBron is a step back. Stop back. Here we are. The score is 88 to 87. Detroit's in front. There's about 36 seconds left. And LeBron is at the top of the key, and he's isolating Jason McSiel. Now, Jason McSiel was the player that the Pistons tried to put on LeBron in this situation

because he had a better chance of matching LeBron's size and strength. But you're going to see the Pistons try a couple of different things to try to keep him away from the rim. Let's take a look. So as LeBron is getting ahead of steam, notice first of all, he's starting back at the Pistons logo. When you give yourself more of a head of steam, it's harder for someone to contain you, as opposed to starting at the three-point line when you're starting from a full stop. Now, LeBron's going to hit Jason Max Heel with a dribble combination, a double move to get to the

rim. He's going to start with the ball in his right hand and watch how when he crosses over through his legs to the left, how he opens up his shoulders and his body to the left. And you can actually see Jason Max Heel hop on. a little bit to his right to try to contain that move. And then LeBron's going to whip the crossover back over to the right. And Maxiel's completely out of position. And now he's loading up for a jackhammer dunk with his right hand.

Now, the very next possession, that Chauncey Billups goes down and hits a three and puts the pistons back up by two. So the pistons are up 91 to 89. Out of 15 seconds. Now you're going to see Drew Gooden come up to set a screen on Jason McSiel so he can get switched. on to Tashon Prince. Now, Tashon Prince is one of the better perimeter defenders of this era with a ton of length on the ball. You might remember him famously having massive defensive plays in his NBA playoff career. But he gives a lot of weight and strength up to LeBron. So LeBron gets the switch and now he's going to pull the ball out to the right wing. And notice once again, he dribbles all the way back out to

about 40 feet so he can get that head of steam. Now, as you can see, Tachon Prince is looking at looking around and he sees he doesn't have any help on his right side. So what he's going to do is he's going to try to funnel him to the left in hopes that Rashid Wallace will be able to help him at the rim. But in the process, he kind of opens up his left shoulder with LeBron driving to his right. And LeBron is so big and strong that he's just going to blow through that shoulder with absolutely no resistance and dunk the basketball again.

One little note there, you can see Rashid Wallace unwilling to help off of Doniel Marshall in the corner. We're going to talk about this when we get further down the list, but that's another characteristic of LeBron's game. Defensive players are terrified to help because they believe he will beat them with the pass every single time. So LeBron gets these back-to-back dunks and the game goes overtime. Now, as we remember, from this point forward through the rest of overtime,

LeBron puts on a ridiculous shot-making display from the perimeter to really carry the Cavalier's offense through the two overtime periods. But we're not going to focus. on that right now because it wasn't really reliable. This was a phase of LeBron's career when he was very streaky. And we're going to get to it later, but it took years and years more of relentless hard work from LeBron for him to build out the jump shot to the point where it was reliable. But let's fast forward to the end of this game. So it's W.O.T. 107 to 107. Notice this time, they put Chauncey Billups on LeBron James, and that was not a switch that was to start the play.

My guess there is Chauncey probably asked for the opportunity to try to disrupt LeBron's handle. Once again, LeBron is starting out at the Detroit Pistons logo, out at half court so that he can get a running start. Billups is once again shading his right hand this time, trying to funnel him towards the help. But LeBron has such a head of steam when he beats Chauncey off the dribble that they just can't even stop him when he knifes his way through the lane. And once again, you can see Rashid Wallace jumping out to Doniel Mavre. Marshall to try to stop a pass. One of their note on this play that I thought was super interesting, when you're being guarded by smaller guards and you're a bigger player, you never want to play around with the basketball.

That's not your advantage. Your advantage is your strength and your athleticism. So I liked how LeBron was simple there and just went to the left, as opposed to trying to do a dribble move like he did against some of the bigger, slower players. But LeBron wins the game with this layup. And once again, I thought this was the foundational moment of LeBron's career where he figured out that absolutely nobody in the NBA could keep him from getting to the rim. Now, you're going to see, as we move on to this next clip, we're moving on to number four, which is LeBron's game

against the Spurs in 2013. But the Spurs, they understood that that was LeBron's foundational strength, and they focused all their attention on taking just that away in the hopes that his weaknesses elsewhere in his skill set would be what burns him. But unfortunately, at this point, LeBron had figured that out as well. So number four, we're moving up to 2013, game seven of the NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs. And in this entire series, Greg Popovich, it was almost funny and weird, how much they were daring LeBron to shoot. They would go under ball screens. They'd have Kawhi Leonard go under ball screens below the free throw line. They would have, you know, when he would get Tim Duncan on a switch or something along those

lines, they'd have him back all the way off and just dare LeBron to shoot. And this was the series where the NBA found out that you could no longer just concede jump shots to LeBron James. And if you did, he would burn you. We found out after the series in some of the postgame interviews and some of the postgame articles that the many talented writers cover the NBA put out, that when LeBron was adventuring around the other countries around the world from Nike and doing all these charitable events and all these different things, that he brought. his shooting trainer with him.

And every single day, he would work on his jump shot, even during the offseason while he was traveling and doing all of his obligations for Nike and all of his other sponsorship deals. LeBron broke down after that NBA finals just the sheer amount of relentless work that he put in to improve his jump shot. I talk all the time with young players.

There's two different kinds of shooters in the world. There are shooters and there are makers. And the difference between a shooter and a maker, is not like a natural ability as much as it is the relentless work. Whenever you hear of a streaky shooter, it usually means that behind the scenes they're not putting in the requisite work. And you have to, day after day, for years and years and years, put in thousands and thousands of reps to become a competent jump shooter.

And the progress is so slow, you might have to make a 500 jump shots a day for three months just to even see the slightest bit of improvement. And that's why it does take years and years. years and years. And so there's a specific moment that I want to point out to you guys where you can see that fulfillment happen for LeBron James. So let's start with the shots themselves. So here we are. We're in the third quarter and the spurs are up 57 to 56. James will try another three. Huts it in. LeBron James, fourth three-pointer of the game. Chris Bosch and LeBron James are setting a

double pick and pop for Ray Allen. And as Ray Allen is coming off the screen, notice Kawhi Leonard is sitting all the way down at the elbow to contain Ray Allen as he's coming over the top of the screen, knowing that he's giving a shot to LeBron, but that fits within the Spurge scheme in this series. They were 100% willing to give LeBron wide open shots all series long, and to the Spurs credit, up through game six, it worked. They were up in the series, three games to two, almost won in game six, and LeBron did not shoot the ball well. But in this series, it all came together. Ray Allen makes the kick pass back to LeBron, confidently rises up and knocks down the three. We move on. I believe this is about a minute later. We're at the three and a half minute mark.

Now the heater up 59 to 57. Catch and shoot, play off your instincts, trust your skill level. Leonard daring them. Ray Allen and James. Again, look how far off they're playing. He'll try it again. It's good. LeBron James making the spells pay a five-point heat lead. LeBron has the ball now. Ray Allen is setting the ball screen. On the screen, notice Kauai Leonard duck down like he's going to go underneath the screen, which causes LeBron to pull back for three. Kauai offers a late contest, but it's way too late, and LeBron knocks it down.

These are wide open, dare you to shoot shots. Fast forward again, we're at the two minute and ten second mark of the third quarter. Largest lead is seven. That with the spurs in the opening minutes. Jane pulls off, puts it in. Kauai Leonard, look, LeBron's dribbling at the logo, and Kauai Leonard is sitting at the elbow. They are daring LeBron to shoot.

Birdman comes to set the screen at the elbow, and Kauai goes underneath the ball screen. LeBron just walks into a wide open 20-footer at the top of the key and knocks it down. Again, this was all by design because the Spurs expected him to miss these shots, but at this phase of LeBron's career, he had become a reliable jump shooter. Pass forward a little bit further.

We are at the 5-minute and 46-second mark, of the fourth quarter. Shot clock puts it up, knocks it down. Here we are in the middle of the fourth quarter. Miami's up 81 to 77. LeBron's got Tim Duncan on a switch down in the right corner,

and Tim Duncan is daring LeBron to shoot. Now, LeBron's going to do what I call using a rhythm dribble to gain your rhythm going into a jump shot. A lot of times when a defender is conceding a jump shot to you, it gets in your head. And so it's really hard just to rise up into a shot out of some sort of funky standstill dribble.

So rhythm dribbles are what you can use to reset your rhythm and lean back on a shot you know you've practiced a lot. So for instance, you don't ever practice just dribbling the ball up the floor and then elevating into a shot from a standstill. Every single time you shoot off the dribble, it's usually off of a dribble combination or a hard step to the left or a hard step to the right or maybe a step back. And so using a rhythm dribble can set you into a situation

where you can think back and go, I've made this shot hundreds of times in practice. So LeBron's going to use a pound dribble through his legs from right to left to rise up into the shot. That sets his rhythm. When he goes into that shot, he's thinking to himself, I have made this pound dribble through my legs jump shot hundreds and hundreds of times. I can do that.

He's setting his rhythm, getting his confidence to knock that shot down, hits it over Tim Duncan. Same exact thing later on. Here we are. Four and a half minutes. In Miami's got the lead. LeBron's got Tim Duncan on a switch. Six to shoot. What he's going to do here is just do a hard dribble to his left to elevate into a jump shot.

He didn't need more separation. Tim Duncan was already conceding the shot. But that hard dribble just helped set LeBron's rhythm so that he felt confident rising into that shot. He knocks it down. And then to end the game, less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, Miami up 90 to 88. James pulls up. Putts it in, Bron James.

LeBron's got Kawhi Leonard. We're going to have Mario Chalmers come set the screen, and Tony Parker is going to do a hedge and recover. So he's going to hop out on LeBron just to cause him to hesitate a little bit as he's coming off of that screen, and then he's going to recover back out to Mario Chalmers. But Kawhi Leonard, once again,

watch as LeBron is coming off of the Tony Parker hedge. Look at this long step Kawhi Leonard takes back to the paint. It's not a long step to contest LeBron's. jump shot, it's a long step back to the paint. They are once again overplaying the paint and conceding a jump shot to LeBron. He rises up and knocks down the 20-footer that effectively amounts to be the dagger to win LeBron's second NBA championship. And one of my favorite moments in this video, if you watch, the camera stays live and follows LeBron to the bench. And as he's going to the bench, after he high-fives a couple coaches, you can see him just do a hard fist pump into his hand and he yells out

something that sounds like yes or yeah. And what I love about that is to me, that's the fulfillment of hard work leading to results. LeBron, as a wealthy man, you know, traveling in his summers, it would be so easy for him to relax. It would be so easy for him to take it easy. But he paid his dues, you know, blood, sweat and tears for years and years and years to round out that jump shot into something that he could count on.

And then suddenly in a big moment when he absolutely needed it, It came through for him. And you got to see that fulfillment. As an athlete, those are just the moments that I appreciate the most, just seeing that hard work pay off and lead to something. And it almost comes out as a nearly emotional type of response. Number four, this was LeBron, finally discovering that teams could not ever concede jump shots to him. And if they did, that he would make them pay.

All right, number three, we're going to fast forward now to 2017. This was game three of the Eastern Conference first round series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers. The Cavs had gone up two games to none, and they were going on the road to Indiana. That game three on the road for a team down 2-0 is always one of the toughest games in the world to win. I always call it the buzzsaw game because you're playing in front of your home crowd. Usually that team is the underdog. They feed off of that crowd energy to an absurd extent. and once again in this game, it played out like so many other game threes that I've seen in NBA history play out.

The home team dominates throughout. But in the second half, Tyloo actually benches both of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love because they weren't playing well, and he closes the game with LeBron James and role players. This game, to me, is the best example of how LeBron's passing ability sets up his scoring opportunities. Throughout the NBA, you see scores deal with multiple defenders all over the football. floor. And oftentimes for a defensive coach or for a defensive strategy, it makes the most sense to try to get the ball out of that guy's hands because chances are he's not going to consistently make the right play because he's looking to score. That's the way his basketball brain works.

But with LeBron James in particular, it's the exact opposite effect. LeBron is constantly looking to make the right read, like we were talking about in the Detroit Pistons game when Rashid Wallace kept refusing to leave Danielle Marshall to offer help on LeBron at the rim. LeBron is one of the most efficient scores in NBA history, and I think a huge part of that is he's constantly on an island attacking just his defender. But that's not just by design. That's not bad defense. It's simply because coaches are terrified to send help to LeBron because they know he will burn them every single time. And that's how this game started. Here's a play early in the fourth quarter. Paces are up 93-84.

After his monster second quarter, and I'm sure he's glad to see one go through, Kevin. Yeah, no question. Tough, tough shot. Boy, getting along too there. LeBron had been torching the Pacers with the passers throughout this entire game. He actually finished the game with 12 assists. So there's one play in particular from this game that I think is the perfect encapsulation of this concept that I'm talking about.

So in the middle of the fourth quarter, there's about six and a half minutes left, and the game is tied 98 to 98. Paul George, a chance at triple doubles together here tonight. Swatting away by Shepard. Here's LeBron James. He's got Corber on the wing. He'll take it himself. Look out.

Lebron gives Cleveland the lead. Paul George is isolating Iman Shumpert at the free throw line, and Imon Shumperd shumps him or strips him as he's rising up for a jump shot, rest in peace to Fred McLeod, the play-by-play announcer for the Cavs who coined that term. But it sparks a two-on-one fast break, with LeBron James with the basketball, Kyle Corver running the right wing,

and Montaella standing between LeBron and the rim. LeBron, all he does is right at the top of the key, hesitates with a high dribble and peaks over at Kyle Corver. and when he does watch Montaella sprint out to Kyle Corver. Not, oh, I'm scared of LeBron, let me get out of the way. Not, not, I just don't, I'm not interested in taking a charge. Just literally, I think LeBron's going to make this pass to Kyle Corver. So he sprints out to Kyle Corver and concedes a wide open dunk to LeBron James going down the lane.

Once again, the fear of LeBron James and his willingness to make the right play at the expense of conceding a wide open dunk. LeBron finished the game with 41, 13, and 12, and closed out the Indiana Pacers on their home floor to go up 3-0 in the series without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The ultimate offensive engine in NBA history. All right, let's fast forward one year to 2018. We're going to look at two games for this one, but there's one specific play that I think kind of sets everything up, and then obviously you guys remember what happens in game two of this series. but we're going to 2018 in the Eastern Conference second round series

between the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had just come out of a seven-game slug fest against the Indiana Pacers, and so they were exhausted and worn out. Everyone was generally low on the Cavs at this point, and the Toronto Raptors were a heavy favorite to win this series. But they go into game one, and LeBron's having a tough shooting night, finished the game 12 for 30 from the field, only had 26 points. But down the stretch, he made every big play to send the game to overtime,

And I believe J.R. Smith ended up making most of the big shots in O.T. as the Cavs ended up stealing game one. But the biggest play of the game is 105 to 103. Toronto has the lead. LeBron doesn't call for a ball screen. LeBron doesn't run any sort of action. And again, this is a big thing that I talk about. If you call ball screens, you're bringing a second defender up into the play.

LeBron wanted nothing to do with that. He saw O.G. and Anobie and said, this is the guy that I'm attacking. Backs him down to the right block and knocks down a fadeaway over his right shoulder. I look at this as the game where LeBron understood that he was confident enough in his skill set to go to the post in late game situations to create shots. One of the reasons why I'm such a big believer in hurting your back to the basket is it's the easiest way to protect the basketball. It allows you to use your size and strength to pin the defender behind you.

Now, good post defenders will slide their feet well and keep you in front and make you shoot over the top, but if you are taller and you are capable of knocking down shots over the top, those post-up fade-away suddenly become the most unguardable shot in basketball. And LeBron James in a game where they needed one basket to send it to O.T. Went to his unguardable shot, a fade-away over his right shoulder on the right block, and he knocked it down and sent the game to O.T. Where the Cavs inevitably won. Then we fast forward to game two.

And as you guys remember, this is the LeBronto game. Time and time again, down the stretch of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, LeBron just hit a obnoxious variety of fadeaways. Over Serge Baca, over Kyle Lowry, over Pascal Seacum, over O'G. An Anobie. He was doing everything from every spot on the floor. There were sidestep jump shots, step-back threes, turnarounds over his right shoulder, turnarounds over his left shoulder. There was even like a little one-legged fadeaway at the free throw line,

softly off the rim. It was almost like what clicked for him at the end of game one became suddenly something he was so confident in that he just leaned on it, time and time again down the floor. The most absurd thing about this particular game was that was the moment where you realized LeBron had reached a level of greatness and a level of confidence.

Then in a monumentally important playoff game, a second round playoff game, against a team that was favored to beat you, LeBron was just trying stuff, just challenging himself to make tougher and tougher shots. LeBron went to that tough shot in game one because he had to. It was his best chance to tie the game.

He did it in game two because he wanted to demoralize and snatch the heart of the Toronto Raptors. And that's exactly what he did. And one of the most impressive playoff feats of LeBron's career, he swept the Toronto Raptors as a heavy underdog without Kyrie Irving, without a legitimate co-star on the team and just a group of role players. But that was another monumental step that LeBron had to reach in his scoring development, trusting his back-to-the-basket game to create shots in big moments using his size.

All right, number one, we're going to fast-flex. forward to 2020, the year that LeBron won his most recent NBA championship. One round after the Los Angeles Clippers collapsed time and time again against this Denver Nuggets team that was so good in the second halves of games as they picked you apart with the Jamal Murray-Nichli-Yil-Jokets dribble hand-offs and reversed pick-and-rolls and normal pick-and-rolls and all of that stuff. Somebody had to be the guy who could finally stop the Denver Nuggets from coming back, and it was LeBron James with an assortment of pull-up jump shots to execute the Denver Nuggets when Kauai Leonard and Paul George could not.

I've talked a lot about how pull-up jump shooting is something that's somewhat unreliable. Kaui Leonard and Paul George are professional pull-up jump shooters. That's what they do better than everyone else in the world. But that is their foundational skill, and it failed them on that stage. What was so interesting about this moment to me for LeBron was that this is not even his foundational skill. As we talked about earlier, his foundational skill was his ability. to get to the rim or his ability to impact the game defensively with his athleticism.

But what sets LeBron apart from the rest is he can do that shot-making stuff just as well or almost as well as the guys who do it professionally as their foundational skill. Down the stretch of this game against Denver, LeBron made a ridiculous variety of complex pull-up jump shots off of different footwork, off of different dribble combinations to put away the Denver Nuggets. And once again, this is not his foundational skill. I would argue in his career, it's been his weakest of his core skills. But even his weakest of his core skills is something that he does better than the vast majority of players in the NBA. So let's start here about the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Again, the Lakers are up 3-1 in the series. If they

win this game, they go to the NBA finals. The Nuggets were on a big run in the second half of this game, just like they had been doing against every team that came before. Milsape. There's a lot of discussion about that call when Davis came down on his heel. James gets into the paint. Grant right there with him. Oh, James. LeBron has Jeremy Grant off of a pick and roll, and he's working to his left. He gets cut off. Excellent defense from Jeremy Grant as he funnels him away from the basket. But LeBron just elevates from the block fading several feet towards the baseline and knocks down the jump shot. That is an incredibly difficult shot that salvages a possession that was defended.

extremely well by the Denver Nuggets. Here we go to the four-minute mark. Lakers are up 106.99. Now James will shoot an open jumper. He's got it. LeBron James with a stare-down at that Denver bench. LeBron's going to run a pick-and-roll with Dwight Howard. And Nicola Yokic is actually going to switch the pick-and-roll because Jeremy Grant gets caught on the screen.

Dwight Howard has always been a very good screener. But on the play, notice Nicolioch is too far back. He takes a retreat step back to the semi-circle, and LeBron finds himself by himself. at about 21 feet, and he knocks down that pull-up jump shot. I've always talked about in pick-and-roll, in order to beat different pick-and-roll coverages, you need to be able to punish a defender for going under a screen or a big man for sitting too far back

by being able to rise up and knock-down pull-up jump shots. LeBron did it there to put the Lakers up by 9. Fast forward to the three-minute mark. The Lakers are up 108-101. The switch. Now Murray on LeBron James, a hobbled Murray. Trying to stay with him as best he can. LeBron James hits one for L.A.

LeBron calls Danny Green to come set the screen, this time getting Jamal Murray on a switch. What I thought was so impressive about this play is when you're going against shorter defenders, once again, like we talked about earlier, this is the time to turn your back to the basket. Notice LeBron is setting up the spin here. He's deliberately moving further to the right because he wants to create space so that he can elevate into the middle of the lane without Jeremy Grant becoming a problem. So notice he's going to work down towards the right block to set up his spin move. Hard dribble.

he's setting up his footwork for the spin, does the pound dribble into his spin, now Jeremy Grant is not any position where he could help. If he ran this exact same move, but about 10 feet further to the left where he originally had Jamal on the switch, it would be much easier for Jeremy Grant to run in there and dig or to help

and then get back to Danny Green. LeBron sets up that turnaround fadeaway over his right shoulder, which has been one of the bread and butter shots of his career and knocks it down to put the Lakers up nine again. Very next possession. The first year of LeBron James, and they've missed six consecutive years, with a drought. James again. Oh, he hits another one. LeBron James, putting together a closing

quarter against the Nuggets. Lakers get a swap. It's going to be another Dwight Howard pick and roll. This time Jeremy Grant does a nice job quickly ducking under the pick and getting back onto LeBron. And LeBron is going to go to Kevin Durant's bread and butter move, what we call the hezzy pull-up jump shot. He's going to have the ball in his left hand and he's going to squat down low. When he gets low to the ground, it's like you're setting up a dribble move. Most players when they sit down low in the hesitation, they're looking to explode to their left. As a result, it gets Jeremy Grant to also squat down to prepare to make a recovery step to his right, and that opens up just enough space for LeBron to elevate into a pull-up jump shot that he knocks down.

That's another element of variety in LeBron's shot making. And here we go to the dagger. Lakers up 112.103. His 116th, which is number one. He'll take a three. LeBron James will have. Another pick and roll with Dwight Howard. This time, Nikoliyokic is going to hedge out to try to stop LeBron from turning that corner. When he does, Jeremy Grant has to take a short step back to watch out for that lob. And you can see LeBron pick up the basketball like he's going to throw that lob to Dwight Howard. Yokic sprints back to Dwight Howard. And in that split second, while Jeremy Grant is too far low, LeBron rises up and knocks down the shot to send the Lakers to the NBA finals.

So LeBron always had those foundational skills. He had that ability to get to the rim that he discovered in 2007. And then from his time in high school, he was always a basketball player that had a natural feel for finding his teammates. It's almost like an order of operations in his head. He's always looking to make the right play. But as you saw over the years, because of limitations in the supporting cast and because of his limitations as a jump shooter,

teams found ways to beat LeBron by packing the paint and letting him make the right play and have guys miss shots and have him miss jump shots on their way to beating LeBron James' teams. But over the years, he rounded out that skill set with everything you need from that specific position. Pull up jump shooting off the dribble as you're operating with a live dribble from the perimeter, turning your back to the basket and your ability to knock down shots over both shoulders. We didn't go over it in this video, but another huge element of LeBron's game has been that modern perimeter shack, that ability to use his strength and size to just bully people around the rim with a live dribble. As a result, though, LeBron's become one of the most well-rounded basketball players that we've ever seen in this league.

And he never gets included with the scores like we talked about that night because of the fact that he gets to the rim so frequently. We talked about it this year, like LeBron averages seven makes in the restricted area per game. Steph, Kauai, and Kevin Durant combine to make six shots in the restricted area per game. So you watch them just make all of these complicated shots all the time. This is that causes people to gravitate towards them as scores. But the truth of the matter is, when you combine LeBron James' interior presence as a bully ball score around the rim,

and all those things that he rounded out with his skill set from the perimeter, with the ability to knock down shots turning over both shoulders out of the post, with the ability to knock down shots out of different dribble combinations and out of different footwork from the perimeter, it suddenly made him completely unguardable. And when you pair that with his relentless willingness to make the right play and to hit his teammates in spots where they feel comfortable,

he became what I believe to be the best offensive engine to ever play in the NBA. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, Embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.