LeBron polled as Team USA Basketball’s Best Player over Curry, Embiid & Tatum | NBA | UNDISPUTED

good morning white and good morning keesan Johnson yes and good morning to duck Paul what up he's back he he missed he missed Monday and Tuesday because he was still recovering from that Celtics Victory Parade right something they still won I think they still won they okay well we'll get to them in just a couple of minutes here but let's start with this we got to talk about this in a straw poll taken by the athletic guess who LeBron James Believe It or Not age 39 was voted by his peers the best player at Team USA Camp so far he got five first place votes Paul how surprising was this to you not surprising at all skip come on we noce I mean at this point you think about who voted the select team and coaches I can understand LeBron has great practice habits he's probably looking good but listen his Aura and popularity is so much on another level when these young kids go to practice their eyes are set on LeBron they probably don't even see nobody else as good as Steph is and KD think about this like when I when I went and saw Jordan for the first time that's all I saw I'm I'm I'm looking at his every move that's all they're doing they're watching LeBron's every move from what he eats before practice to how he wear his socks to to you know how he prepared for practice and and that's all you kind of looking at because he sets the standard he sets the bar by the way where did you see Jordan the I saw Jordan in college you know when I they had an exhibition game at KU and I'm hanging on to everything Jordan I I couldn't even tell you who else played well cuz I'm watching who was which exhibition who was playing it was it was Bulls versus Seattle superponics Allen field house an exhibition game preseason game okay yes it was preseason why would they pick Kansas I don't know well Roy Williams was an assistant coach Jordan at with Smith in Carolina so he had him come to KU when I was there so okay I can see why LeBron LeBron James is picked in the in in did you get to meet yeah I met Jordan got a flick with him and everything you know I told him I'm up next did you really yeah I know I got and he laughed yeah he's he look Shrugged it off you know so you know I understand why these kids will say that now I'm not saying that he probably could actually but the best player on the team is Jason tat the wait the best player on the whole team on the USA team you're talking about the second five or the skip I'm talking about the USA men's 2024 Olympic Basketball by the way in the straw pole he got zero votes a bunch of other players got votes Steph got a popularity got got we're talking about the guy who just coming off a championship yeah on the best team I mean mean come on it's a popular think about SK if y'all in the room with LeBron Steph KD and y'all playing a pickup game even though you know who Tatum is you gonna probably pick LeBron first just based off of that's LeBron that's Katie that's step like come on but we know these players are well past their Prime still great yeah but well past their Prime but if we talking about a popularity contest they G to take the C how could how could it be a popularity contest uh uh Paul when there's a number of individuals that pulled the straws or whatever and made decision that they was going to vote for LeBron James I mean you you you act like LeBron didn't just give you 268 and seven or 26 N and seven whatever those numbers are he ain't pass his age might be pass his I'm just saying but this Joker no matter it doesn't matter what Tatum did Kawai does and practice what I'm saying when these people are watching they're hanging on to everything LeBron but they looking at this is about the little weak Camp his Aura and presence is going to have you watching him like every possession no I get I get all that I understand so he's going to get evaluated differently than everybody else and what they yeah but if he but if he ain't knocking down shots and he's tripping and falling that's true running down the court you gonna see it because you watching him you gon be like man D he not making no buckets just the way he probably passing talking he you know getting everybody in their spots no I get what you said but all that is part of the reason we talking about it because he has to be able to get them in their spots he has to be able to be the coach on the floor he has to be able to do things that will keep your eyes attracted to him that's all I'm saying now if you just want to say the best player let's ask let's ask this though are they voting him the best player as far as based on what he did in Camp is this based on what he did in Camp they're saying only or is it just oh who's the best player on the on the camp just in Camp who played the best but I think I think he got a lot of those votes also because these young guys idolize no he's balling them he's actually putting down buckets and doing stuff to make you you know he's dunking and he's running the floor and he's playing defense and in practice his habits he's he's just doing things that's all I'm saying he's just doing stuff what other guys might Tatum just getting there Tatum just chilling he coming off he coming off the duckboat he getting up his shots he ain't really see from the highlights it looks like Anthony Davis though oh ad too he might he might be doing his thing but you gotta you gotta you know you got to give it up to a dude that's what did you say 40 who 40 40 he's going on 40 he'll be going on 40 years old December 30th to be able to walk into that gym skip with those young players or even the older guys the Kaw that the world the Steph Curry of the world for them to be able to look at and go man he running the floor up and down he's doing this with Steve Curry even had to take a side talked to the coach the other day said man is thisal after the first practice after the first practice is this Satur is this normal for him and everybody SPO and everybody like yeah well this the same guy that we been know forever SPO and tyo both said it's every dribble of every practice that's the way he takes it yeah yeah I mean it's a reason that he's been around this long y it's a reason he's been great this long too so I'm not surprised but at the same time you got to understand what I'm saying I'm coming from a when you come out there yeah you're watching just him as a young player yeah and it's it could be easily you know you know explained like hey that's LeBron that's my vote they all I hear you and and they all the select team players got votes in this poll so so a lot of those are are fans and LeBron only got five it's not like he was a runaway now they also voted the best player on the select team and it was just a runaway for Cooper flag cuz he just took over the three scrimmages yeah okay I don't even know see listen who's on the select team who else SK haime hwz okay HZ psky pton priter yeah uh pton P was on there yeah yeah the select team is we need some bodies man that's practice squad yeah no no no no I was on a select team but I'm saying they need some bodies though yeah they need to play yeah that's fine you were on the SL team against so I played on the select team I going into my sophomore year at college and we almost beat the Dream Team okay you played the Dream Team we played the Dream Team on National Television skip this was on national TV we played it was me Tim Duncan uh we had Chanty bips on the team brev Knight y almost we almost beat the Dream Team the one with Shaq elijan Gary Peyton Pippen no Jordan okay second 96 the second the second dream team we almost beat them on National you wouldn't have beaten the first Dream Team would beat the second one in the real game either we played him in a real game this was a real game on national TV in Arbor Hills y'all better pulled us up you we was up I think we was up 20 on them they had Stockton Barkley I think I had a about man I don't even think I score skip just just just just the name alone the names alone just the names you talk about Stockton and Barkley and Shaq and the dream stop y'all may have was up 20 SK we was up a du oh God stop it we was up a d y'all might have been up 20 you can YouTube YouTube this game you probably were up 20 skip that's probably true right but there's no way y'all was beating him it's just not going to happen you know who picked it up Scotti Pippen picked him yeah y get let me tell you one possession I caught the ball on the sideline I just get in the game so I catch the ball on the sideline I'm close to the Baseline and Scotty he came up and pressur me you know this is my first kind of NBA defense man I couldn't even see where to pass the ball I thought I was getting trapped skip it was just Scotty by himself and then he just knocks the ball out my head and that was like my first real taste of NBA right there I was like oh wow okay okay I was like oh okay this was real this is real so were you impressed with what you saw from Cooper flag the other day at 17 going up against these I saw some highlights I was very impressed okay yeah absolutely he going against Anthony when you going against top tier NBA talent and you 17 years old and you you're productive like that of course you got to be impressed all right back to LeBron when when I saw this last night I I was surprised and extremely impressed because that's pretty significant and I give you some select teams just going to be in awe of LeBron James but when you're going on 40 and you played 21 years and you can walk on that floor and it's just five sessions it's it's a couple practices and three scrimming and you can get voted the best player on the floor it's significant to what you're saying it's it's why he's doing this at a high level for so long because he's in great condition and he takes it extremely seriously so I watched the whole fourth quarter of the third scrimmage in which Cooper flag just took the game over down the stretch the the team usa1 7473 hung on but LeBron was extremely engaged in the game and that's why he he got these votes because he was taking it more seriously it looked like to me than anybody else out there and he was communicating and directing traffic and making sure the ball went to the proper place at the proper time and he took some shots he drove the B he he was playing it like it really mattered so that's what they're saying is to your point what are those numbers from last year 2 268 and seven okay it's it you know I that's top 10 that's like that's real numbers I'm looking at these practices and and this just came to me right now and I'm seeing how hard they play why can't we get this in the allstar game ain't these the allstars right here basically why we can't get this in the allstar game middle of the Season probably this is the summer yeah but the middle of the Season you try was you like like you're not really winning nothing in the allstar game I wish we you winning a gold medal in this you you did you you going harder against the the college select but you win you preparing to go win a gold medal you are and and you know you're on a pretty hot seat right now because the disgrace would be if you come back with a silver or bronze right so it's a little different where in the allstar game it's a little bit of a think about it it's a break it's for you to kind of chill I just hate when you get I love seeing all the stars together competing you know what I'm saying I like seeing that and so like this is to me when I watch these USA practices and you got Steph passing Brown passing it to Steph KD coming off the screen getting the ball from Tatum like that that like that's that's like a dream watch right there you can sit in on those practices you want to kind of see that in that kind you're not gonna get that in allstar game yeah not in the middle of the Season all right I mean it used to be that way we know that Kean you brought this up now I'm going to go one level deeper on LeBron's dedication at this point I am convinced you are correct about this and you're chuckling about it but I do believe he sees the golden opportunity so to speak to win a third gold medal and he can say I have one more than Jordan one more than Jordan I did not I did not say that today I said that yesterday yesterday and going to reemphasize your point and validate your point because I am with your point because Jordan played in 84 when when he was the is before his rookie year coming off his final year at Carolina and he led that team in scoring with 17 a game and then he played again in 92 the real dream team and he was second in scoring on that team to Barkley it was 17- 15 in point 18 to 15 and that was it in 96 he said I'm going to let the other they can all have their goals I did this so so I got that so then LeBron participated as a 19-year-old after his rookie year he participated in ' 04 when they had the Calamity lost to Argentina in the semifinal 89 to 881 so he lost that one and then what what they get I think they got silver that year so then he comes back in ' 08 the redeemed team and they win and he was second in scoring and then he played in 12 and they went again and he was third in scoring on that team so he's got the two with one loss Jordan has two with no losses once again no losses for right no losses and you can't tell me that LeBron isn't smart enough to say I'm going to go cherry pick third I'm going to go Cherry Pi him picking cherry picking a third yeah does nothing to for him well he can say well I got that over him too he's just trying to build how much stock do we put in a USA gold medal as far as your basketball resume because I feel like we suppos to win gold every time like I feel like I feel like you go to Olympic USA Basketball here here go to gold right now well they thought that that's why they had the redeem team yeah but I just feel like that's an automatic gold medal no it used to be like like you could put me on the team today I could get dressed today put me on the team and and then I come back and say hey I got a gold medal too yeah but it ain't the same you got to be a participant man man I'm on the team no you got to be a participant you can't just be chill you going to get a gold medal if you play with the USA basketball that's what they thought in in in uh what was it what year was that skip they lost 2000 uh 044 that's what they thought 04 they thought they could just roll out NBA names yeah and they got smack Stars none of the Stars was playing that year Well Iverson played for what it's worth and Kean said he didn't take it seriously but it was Iverson Tim Duncan probably took it pretty seriously I would say right yeah I I would I just don't think that for them they just that that core group was young they was having fun they was having fun they were so young cuz Dwayne was 22 Yeah Le Dwayne it just waser Meo was 20 I think and LeBron was 19 so you had talk about your Peak super stars a lot of them been no we understand we understand that but the but the the the conversation was that it didn't matter at once upon a time where you could just pick NBA they pick the logo and just put it over there and we would just run through I mean we didn't realize how much the world had caught up yeah at the time I understand you know because think about this I my dreams was crushed in college because I thought they were still taking college players right before you know that 96 so that like 92 like when '92 came the first Dream te I was like damn there go my my dreams of being an Olympian because I wanted to play in the Olympics because they was taking the college players then yeah you know so I was like man when I was high school I want to be in the Olympics so then that that killed my dream so that just shows you the progression of how the world has caught up to where we felt like at that point in 2004 we could just put any NBA players out there okay yes and it didn't work and and Argentina had five guys who pretty much grew up together playing basketball and they all job was the leader of that team Noone did you play against him at all scolto you remember these guys I I played in the world games in 2002 on that team where we was the first team to lose a lot of those games it was in Indiana no I was on that team like you was one of those huh yeah so I you saw I think you kind of saw it coming from that so like we had a group of guys it wasn't our top of the top stars on this team but we didn't even medal in these games and this was in Indiana and this is my first time seeing job Argentina uh at the time it was uh it was Yugoslavia and these other teams and and I was just like man if we don't put the right team out here I'm looking at these teams in the world games something wrong will happen and I chose like you know after that experience SK I chose I didn't want to play the Olympics in 2004 because I was like I don't know if we gonna have the right team and I don't want to be a part of a team that's gonna be the first that get clipped that get clipped in the last High years you have a chance to play an4 yes and you said what I didn't I didn't I chose not to yeah I chose not to would you have changed the the outcome I I regret I had a chance to play in OA I regret not playing that that's my only regret in the NBA is not playing in the OA Olympics did you play in any no no no after my world games exper right that was it that was it we' had to roll out of wheelchair for him to get the gold medal but anyway um back to LeBron I don't think that LeBron James is sitting around saying I need my third gold medal so I could pass Jordan in the gold medal world he need all the help he can get that's just another point to say I'm the goat but the skip you you that's your in your mind you feel like there's this LeBron James thing that that that he sits around smokes his cigars swirls his wine and says I need to get one more Notch up on Jordan how could I do it play an extra year hot dog the basketball and fill up the points and assist to the I could just separate myself from him but the conversation isn't about the total numbers at the end of the day it's really not because as long as you play but Jordan didn't play as long as LeBron LeBron LeBron's going to have bigger numbers longer higher numbers than anybody cuz he's playing forever they're called Longevity the longevity numbers is going to be there no they will but nobody those conversations aren't coming up based on the numbers that's that's where you go with it I warn you as soon as he wins his gold and he almost certainly will win his third gold a big story a big new narrative will be he's got three Jordan only had two watch it it'll Trend it Trend that because Jordan because Jord because in all honesty see like Paul just said a minute ago you could roll anybody out except that team that lost M and get a gold medal in you can do that Jordan could have 10 of them by now if he just played on the team so not he only played in two Leon in his fourthly exactly so it it's not it's not like that that's to you but watch what the world does yeah but the world is some people in the world just want to have a conversation that's all they want to have an argument a ation about that nobody's counting gold medals okay so now let's talk quickly about threats the second betting favorite is Team Canada who they are playing on FS1 tonight at 10:30 Eastern in a practice game just a a pre-olympics exhibition game that team features Shay gilis Alexander and Jamal Murray and RJ Barrett and Dylan Brooks and L Dort and Trey ly and I can go on and on they they've got a decent Squad do they pose any threat they just got more NBA players than the rest of the teams they do and that's why they're the second betting favorite that's only reason but they got two really good ones hey man ain't no listen if they lose us ain't losing to Canada yeah they that's what I said they lose just like hey look just like Kendrick didn't lose to Drake oh man don't go us a losing to Canada and nothing come on now nothing come on skip well they they their roster is it's it got a couple cool names right Murray Could score here and there if he's hot obviously sh if he's hot he can do some stuff but outside of that they have no bigs no right I mean Tre L is a decent player but he's just not we got MB okay I got it yeah bam who else we got ad yeah so it's like that just right there alone not even thinking about Curry and LeBron and KD and book and in in Kawai and go on and it just it doesn't N I don't see it happening for that matter LeBron is 6' 9 in tall and they don't have that kind of an answer you know like Shay and and Jamal they're if we wanted Tove to can do the best team with the best second best odds we should run away with gold we should I mean I don't know enough about the gree the Greek te don't matter if this is the team they say is the second best I know they say this is the if you take us out of it Canada's a favorite right you know what if you and I just feel like we way better than them if you could combine Canada and France you you'd have something because France got all the hot cuz they got wimy and goar but they don't have enough after that right at least we don't think they do well they got bat they got some they probably got some Frenchies we don't know nothing about it's possible yeah unless you you can bring back I mean uhe Tony Parker Tony Parker then you'll have something yeah uhuh so it's a done deal we'll eat them like some french fries too that way this cinches it LeBron is the goat correct what if gold medal well no he got voted the best player on our team right that's and if this straw poll was going on in in the Dream Team Jordan would have been the guy think about it with the Dream Team yeah remember those were practices and all the they he would have been the guy they would have been like he was the best guy in practice yeah no they actually said that okay interviews this was in interviews when you look at Magic oh well they just saying they said it like yeah so there you go no I know I'm saying there you go saying the NBA now belongs to him it's his world right so there you go yeah and he was not 40 at the time no he was 29 yeah on on the Dream Team he was 29 this dude's 40 on whatever team this is almost 40 thanks for watching Undisputed fans do you want more highlights from the show make sure to click that subscribe button for all the exclusive content from Undisputed

Channel: UNDISPUTED

Views: 251,960

Keywords: skip bayless, fox, fox sports, fs1, undisputed, richard sherman, michael irvin, keyshawn johnson, new undisputed, fox sports 1, sports, sports talk, sports news, nba, basketball, the association, eastern conference, western conference, sports show, sports debate, nba news, nba talk, basketball talk, basketball news, 2024, lebron james, curry, embiid, olympics, team usa, team us, tatum, best players

Id: XU2EFgpMfh8

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2024