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Former NBA player compares LeBron James to Deion Sanders as athletes America likes to build up then tear down

Deion Sanders Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

There are certainly some similarities between Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and recent media darling Deion Sanders, with their groundbreaking successes in their respective sports being one.

Justin Anderson, a swingman who last played in the NBA for the Indiana Pacers in the 2021-22 season, believes that Sanders, James and Stephen Curry are in the same boat in that the U.S. has built them up only to break them down.

The Sanders craze has undoubtedly swept the nation, with his early success as the University of Colorado Boulder’s football coach attracting widespread attention.

However, some people still dislike him for his brash and outspoken personality. In a similar vein, James and Curry are generally seen as beloved figures, although they still have a lot of haters and critics for various reasons.

Even so, Sanders’ ability to transform an ill-fated football program into a winner has captured the fancy of a lot of fans. When the two-time Super Bowl champion took on the assignment as Colorado’s head coach, he had the unenviable task of changing the course of a team that went 1-11 in the 2022 season.

Impressively, after just two contests against the reigning runner-up Texas Christian University and longtime rival University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the squad already got to improve its record from the last campaign.

Its comeback win against Colorado State University on Saturday after facing an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter allowed Sanders’ team to go 3-0 early in the season. Furthermore, the Sanders effect had celebrities like Kawhi Leonard watching the game live.

Even James appeared to be tuned into the match, as evidenced by his posts on X.

Only time will tell how many more wins Sanders can bring to Colorado. But based on his track record, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him find continued success.

His NFL career saw him win Defensive Player of the Year honors once and get named first-team All-Pro six times. To top it off, he also played nine seasons in Major League Baseball, helping the Atlanta Braves reach the 1992 World Series. The feat made him the only athlete to participate in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.