"Maybe the smartest player I have ever seen play basketball": NBA legend Jerry West speaks about LeBron James
![LeBron James and Jerry West in 2008 [Source: Bleacher Report]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/09/2adb7-16309413222092-800.jpg?w=500)
After LeBron James won his 4th NBA championship in the 2020 NBA Finals, he demanded that he wants his "damn respect too." He quickly quieted his critics who suggested that he joined the LA Lakers just to ride off into the sunset and that his championship-winning days were behind him. Well, Jerry West, Mr Logo himself, complimented James for bringing another title to his storied franchise and said that he is "maybe the smartest player I have ever seen".
LeBron James might have a few blemishes on his resume that his critics use against him, such as his six Finals losses or the 2011 NBA Finals collapse. But even his haters cannot deny the fact that James is a basketball savant. He is a genius when it comes to the sport and his basketball IQ is simply off the charts. Many teammates and coaches would often say that he is several steps ahead of the opposition and he knows exactly what is going to happen next.
After the 2020 NBA Finals, Jerry West said:
"Well LeBron James is just an amazing player...When you watch him play, he leaves nothing on the table in terms of his personal investment in the game, his work ethic. He’s maybe the smartest player I have ever seen play basketball.”
West is one of the best players to ever lace up on an NBA court. He played from 1960 to 1974 and was known as "Mr Clutch" during his active days. He has seen it all in the NBA, from Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell dominating the paint to Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard launch deep threes. He has seen all-time greats like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan but still insists that LeBron James might be the smartest of them all.
"He plays the ultimate team game": Jerry West on LeBron James
LeBron James has had one of the best NBA careers of any player so far. He is now entering his 19th season in the league and when he retires, he might be the NBA's all-time leading scorer. He has never averaged less than 25 points per game in a season in his career except for his rookie year. That's 17 straight seasons of averaging over 25 or more and he isn't even known as a scorer but rather a pass-first type player.
Jerry West added:
“Along with his enormous size, skill level, I’m a huge fan of his...And he’s someone who it’d be fun to play with because he plays the ultimate team game.”
James is always known as the ideal team player who always gets his teammates involved. He has dominated entire quarters without even shooting the ball, just orchestrating the offense. James led the league in assists in 2019-20.
During his 2020 NBA playoff run, several LA Lakers players spoke about his intellect. In a report by Sports Illustrated, Quinn Cook spoke about James, saying:
"He knows everybody...He could be last guy on the bench on the team, but he knows he's left-handed, he's a shooter, don't go under him, he's a driver, stuff like that. He pays attention to the game, he watches the game and he studies. He helps us get prepared just with his voice."
Then-head coach of the LA Clippers, Doc Rivers said that there are a lot of players in the NBA with LeBron's body but there is nobody with his brain. Another player on his 2020 LA Lakers roster, Avery Bradley had this to say about LeBron James,
"There's a lot of play calls that I don't know...Me and Danny [Green] look at each other like, 'What play is that?' And LeBron knows where every guy is supposed to be, what you're supposed to do, the timing of everything. His IQ is just crazy."
Even LeBron James talks about his photographic memory and his ability to recall every play. James told Sports Illustrated:
"I've always had it...A lot of my friends when I was younger playing the game, they were like, 'Man, how did you remember that play? Or how did you remember that? It was so long ago.' I never thought about it. I didn't even know what photographic memory meant when I was younger until I got older. It's something that I was born with or blessed with"
Also Read: Top 5 performances by LeBron James in the 2020-21 NBA season