On Friday night, LA posted a surprise W, 130-121, against the Atlanta Hawks team of the Atlanta Hawks to start the 38th season of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.
James hasn’t shown much signs of rust aside from his NBA age. He shot 18 of his 27 from the field, grabbed 10 boards, put out 9 his dimes, and scored 47 points. The four-time champion seems all but certain to be his 19th All-Star on his team to tie the record next month.
Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu, who started in place of injured big man Clint Capela, made a bold claim regarding the all-time ranking of the Lakers’ newest all-time great star.
Around Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.comOkongwu praised LeBron James following his recent encounter with the Lakers all-time.
“For me, he’s the best ever,” Okongwu said after Friday’s game. “It doesn’t help that me and John are in foul trouble. He’s just a physical specimen going downhill. Sometimes it’s so hard. You have to foul him. He’s tough.” It’s a great cover. I’ll be seeing him again for a week from today.”
At 42:35 on Friday night, Okongwu did his best to keep the Lakers at bay. The 6’8″ big out of USC shoots from the floor in 8 of 11 innings where he scored 17 points, dropped 8 rebounds, blocked 3 shots and 2 swiped the steel.
In his 20th season in the NBA, James has an unprecedented scoring average at this point in his career: 28.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1 steal on .506/.309/.753 shooting splits. Granted, he’s no longer a level player who could elevate his cast of mediocre supports to greats (LA says he’s 15-21), but given his age and mileage, his Individual count statistics are still impractical.