NBA veteran Lance Stephenson is currently trying to battle his way back to the league.
He was recently drafted by the Denver Nuggets’ G League affiliate, and the 31-year-old is trying to get back to the NBA for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
Stephenson recently spoke with Betway Insider about his career. Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James came up, and Stephenson talked about how he earned a reputation as a great defensive pest on James in the 2010s.
“It was a great challenge,” Stephenson said. “My teammates said: ‘Pick up on him, don’t let him get nothing easy, we’re gonna have your back.’ And I knew from the jump that they weren’t just gonna have me playing one-on-one with him.
“That’s what helped me a lot because I knew if I pressured him, I knew four other guys were gonna be there for me, be held accountable and have my back all the time.”
After being competitors for multiple years, Stephenson and James wound up playing on the same team during the 2018-19 campaign. Both players were members of the Lakers that season. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t able to crack the playoffs.
Stephenson has career averages of 8.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. He’s a lifetime 44.4 percent shooter from the field and 31.5 percent shooter from deep.
The former second-round pick has nine years of experience at the NBA level, and he’s hoping to add to that number in the near future. Time will tell if he finds himself on an NBA team soon.
