Mario Chalmers made headlines on Monday after he came out with a statement about former Miami Heat teammate LeBron James not being feared in the NBA. This was a bold claim that has unsurprisingly taken a life of its own. For his part, former NBA star turned analyst Chandler Parsons has shared his two cents worth on the issue at hand.
Parsons has slapped LeBron with a Kevin Durant-sized truth bomb about striking fear in their opponents' hearts. According to Parsons, he feared KD more than he did the Los Angeles Lakers superstar:
“There's harder matchups one-on-one,” Parsons said. “When I was playing I feared guarding Kevin Durant more than I feared guarding LeBron James just because of his ability to score in iso, the way he can break you off. The way you can play great defense, he can shoot over you. LeBron is more passive.”
To be clear, Parsons is not throwing shade on LeBron. He is merely making a point about Durant being a more challenging one-on-one matchup as opposed to the Lakers talisman, simply because of the fact that the latter is a pass-first type of player who just loves to get his teammates involved.
Parsons made it abundantly clear, however, that LeBron James is still as imposing as they come on the basketball court:
“But let's not get it twisted,” he continued. “There is fear when you see this man coming downhill on you. Or even when you're going for a layup and you know he's coming behind you to block your layup off the backboard.”
.@ChandlerParsons and @bansky share their thoughts on Mario Chalmers saying nobody fears LeBron like they did MJ 👀#RunItBack with @MichelleDBeadle pic.twitter.com/M5BaZd4BnI
— FanDuel TV (@FanDuelTV) March 21, 2023
The man has a point here. KD is the type who will try to score on you at any given opportunity. In fact, Durant does seem to take pleasure in making his defenders pay merely for doing their job. LeBron James doesn't exactly fall in that category. Nevertheless, it does not take away from his greatness one bit.
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