LeBron James' legacy always takes up plenty of air time in the NBA world, but Richard Jefferson doesn't have much time for those claiming it's been tarnished by the Denver Nuggets sweep of his Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers, of course, went down in four relatively close games to the number one seed, with LeBron putting up an ultimately futile 40-10-9 statline in the fourth and final game of the series.
Talking with Channing Frye on their Road Trippin' podcast, Jefferson gave his perspective on watching the 38-year-old strut his stuff in the Conference Finals.
“If you enjoy basketball, it's fun to watch this guy, at damn near 40, play 48 minutes, go for 40 and 10. And then, people are like, well, he lost in a [Western] Conference Finals and we're going to break down his legacy. It's like, oh, shut up, people.”
Jefferson, of course, played alongside LeBron James during the Cleveland Cavaliers' title run in 2015-16, so it's easy to see why he would be defensive of such criticisms. However, he's certainly not alone.
Understandably given his age, LeBron is clearly no longer at his athletic peak, but particularly in Game 4 the Nuggets sweep was not exactly an indictment on him. Throughout the series he averaged 27.8 points on 51.9% shooting to go with 9.5 rebounds, 10.0 assists and just 2.3 turnovers. Unfortunately for LeBron James and the Lakers, a guy called Nikola Jokic was busy averaging 27.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and 11.8 assists, while Jamal Murray was seemingly hitting every shot he took en route to over 32 points per game.
They thoroughly outplayed the Lakers, something that hasn't been typical for LeBron James-led teams throughout his illustrious career. But at 38 years of age, he was still pretty damn good, and at least according to Richard Jefferson, the 4-0 loss does nothing to take away from his legacy.
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