After universally being considered the best player in the NBA since the start of this decade, LeBron James saw his standing among NBA players take a sizeable hit this past season.
As evidence, in Sports Illustrated’s ranking of the top 100 NBA players for this upcoming season, James only ranked at No. 3.
The magazine cited several reasons for not ranking him at the top: the number of minutes he has accumulated over the years, the emergence of younger superstars, his ineptness on the defensive end and the poor leadership he showed in 2018-19.
“Even while grappling with all of that, it’s hard to refute the idea that LeBron is still the best player alive when the games really matter,” said Sports Illustrated‘s Rob Mahoney. “In a complex matchup, there’s no one you’d trust more than James to tease out a winning strategy. If the season came down to it, no one player could do more to turn the outcome of a game.”
James’ new superstar teammate Anthony Davis was ranked as the sixth-best player in the same article. Many pundits have stated over the past two months that James and Davis will probably be the league’s best duo, or at least the most talented one.
