LeBron James has drawn the ire of the media for his play and comments plenty of times over the years, and he is coming under fire once again. James raised plenty of eyebrows when he made a very bold claim regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show.”
Antetokounmpo is one of the most dominant players in the NBA today and is capable of scoring 30 points a night in his sleep. James reckons that Antetokounmpo would be wreaking a lot more havoc if he played in the 1970s, as he claimed the Bucks forward would score 270 points in a game in that era, via Legion Hoops.
That was a bit of an exaggeration, and ESPN’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo took offense to it. Russo ripped James on “First Take” for that claim.
“I’ll say this to LeBron, has he heard of Julius Erving? Giannis is not as good as Julius Erving,” Russo said on First Take. “… Do you think that Julius Erving scored 270 points in a ‘game’? Or average 50 a game?”
“Has [LeBron James] heard of Julius Erving? Giannis is not as good as Julius Erving.” 😳 @MadDogUnleashed didn’t appreciate LeBron saying Giannis would score “250 points a game” in the 70s 👀 pic.twitter.com/MwL3dB0W7b
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 26, 2025
Russo was furious that James disrespected the players of the 1970s with that kind of a comment. He made it clear that Antetokounmpo isn’t better than all-time greats like Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played in that era. If they never came close to up those kinds of crazy numbers back then, then Antetokounmpo wouldn’t have either.
Russo also added that Antetokounmpo is undoubtedly a great player and he wasn’t trying to disrespect him in any way. He just couldn’t believe that James would say such a thing.
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
James certainly went overboard with that claim. If he had just stated that Antetokounmpo would have been a great player in the 1970s, no one would have batted an eye. The 40-year-old is now facing criticism that he could have so easily avoided.