3-time NBA champ questions LeBron James’ G.O.A.T. case in ‘AAU era’: ‘These boys want it easy’

Three-time NBA champion Mario Elie — who won two titles playing for the Houston Rockets and one with the San Antonio Spurs — called LeBron James’ case as the greatest basketball player of all time into question due to the teammates he has joined forces with over the years.

“All these guys wanna join each other…and play with each other,” Elie said of today’s NBA. “No, I wanna beat you. I wanna beat you. LeBron, you say you the G.O.A.T. — why you joinin’ [Chris] Bosh and — you know what I’m sayin’? We wasn’t doin’ that in the ’90s. Like Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon) callin’ [Michael] Jordan, ‘You wanna link up?’ And callin’ [Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson] up, ‘Y’all wanna link up and play?'”

He continued.

“These boys want it easy right now,” he said. “It’s the AAU era right now. … Everybody want it easy. LeBron want Anthony Davis. Who else you want, LeBron? You talkin’ ’bout you the G.O.A.T. Come on, man. … Great player, love him, but everybody wanna play buddy ball.”

It’s up for debate whether James played with any elite talents early on in his career during his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but that all changed when he decided to join the Miami Heat ahead of the 2010-11 campaign.

He spent four seasons of his pro career in Miami, and during that span, he played alongside one of the top shooting guards in the history of the sport in Dwyane Wade. On top of that, Bosh — who earned 11 All-Star appearances over the course of his 13-year NBA career — was James’ teammate as well.

The trio of James, Wade and Bosh won two NBA titles together in 2012 and 2013 and reached the NBA Finals in four consecutive seasons.

Fast forward to James’ second stint in Cleveland, and he once again was part of a star trio, this time with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Irving is widely regarded as one of the most skilled players of all time, and Love was a scoring and rebounding machine at his peak (even though his role changed once he got to Cleveland).

James, Irving and Love helped lead the Cavaliers to their first title in franchise history in 2016 as they won the championship series in dramatic fashion. Cleveland rallied all the way back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the Golden State Warriors in seven games thanks in large part to the efforts of the trio.

Currently, James is on the same team as one of the best big men of this generation in Davis. The two won a title during their first season together back in 2020, but the Los Angeles Lakers haven’t made it past the Western Conference Finals since then.

While it takes more than just star power to win a title in today’s NBA, there’s no denying that James has played with his fair share of elite talent over the years.