In his 23-year NBA career so far, LeBron James has made a name for himself as one of the greatest sportsmen of all time. He has cemented himself as one of the very best athletes the world has to offer, and he is not done because he plans on playing more.
This has firmly placed him in a special group of two alongside Michael Jordan. There is an everlasting debate about who is the greatest of all time, or GOAT, between the two men, and it might never go away.
LeBron James names a person he considers his GOAT inspiration
Throughout his career, LeBron has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, and the Los Angeles Lakers. He is 41 now, which is usually an age when players are already retired. However, that is not the case for such a special player like James, who is ready to keep playing for another team.
Excellent longevity is probably LeBron’s best argument for being the GOAT, which is reminiscent of people outside of basketball. In terms of music, Jay-Z is a similar figurehead to James. In fact, LeBron himself sees him as the inspiration he needs to succeed.
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Of course, like most basketball players who grew up in the 1990s, James looked up to Jordan. Unfortunately, the two GOAT candidates never got to interact with each other much, so James has looked to other people and sees them as inspirations, and for him, it’s Jay-Z.
“I say MJ was my biggest inspiration as far as basketball, but I never got the opportunity to hang with him or talk to him or whatever. But Jay is like my big brother. He’s the one who’s given me so much game and has taught me so much. And I’m always thinking about him any time I’m doing something business-wise or making a decision,” James said to Boardroom’s Rich Kleiman about being inspired by Jay-Z.
With James winding down his NBA career soon, he will look back at his career and see that he was successful. He will probably be the GOAT for a lot of people, and he will probably look to be the man who can inspire the younger people like Jay-Z did for him.