« Luka Doncic will never be as strong as LeBron, and here’s why »

Elevated to the rank of star upon his arrival in the league, Luka Doncic has often been the subject of comparisons with LeBron James. Asked about the subject, a former teammate of the King swept away this rapprochement, revealing the differences between the two men.

Whether thanks to his size, his versatility on the floor or his precocity, he did not have to wait long to see his name brought closer to that of the greatest. Just arrived in the NBA, Luka Doncic immediately made it clear that he was not going to take long to impose himself there. Something to imitate the flash emergence of a certain LeBron Jamesfifteen years earlier.

Luka Doncic still not as dominant as LeBron

Over his four seasons in the league, Luka has regularly seen observers link him to LeBron. The King himself has already had occasion to do so, and has even recently made him his favorite player on the circuit. However, according to Iman Shumpert and his remarks on Vlad TVthe young Slovenian rear would simply not have the necessary stuff to be the subject of such analogies!

No, he’ll never be that strong. Have you seen LeBron? The guy is 2m06 tall, he runs super fast, he jumps super high, he can adapt to any situation… We can’t even blame Luka. He has a different style of play and has other strengths. But if we have to compare the two when they cross the halfway line, it’s something else when LeBron arrives at full speed compared to Luka.

Despite all his talent, Luka could therefore only blame Mother Nature for his inability to reach the level of LBJ:

You can’t ask him to get bigger, to get so powerful and to jump so high. He is as he is now, and he is very efficient like that. But I don’t think it’s the same caliber of player.

Shumpert goes even further to justify his point, and distinguishes Doncic from two other legends also out of reach according to him:

I don’t think Luka has the same athletic ascendancy that LeBron had at the same age, or Kobe or Mike. And that’s usually what makes the difference. Like, even knowing their moves, they were able to pull off crazy stuff that nobody could do anything about.

Conversely, Luka will sooner or later come up against a glass ceiling according to the 2016 champion:

After a while, someone will succeed in stopping his step-back. I haven’t watched James Harden do this for that long without winning, to say Luka is going to get there. I could be wrong, but I don’t see the same kind of dominance in Luka and LeBron.

Luka Doncic may impress in these playoffs, he is still far from a LeBron James in the eyes of Iman Shumpert. Not sure that the King himself is so hard on the nugget of the Mavericks!