LeBron James is pretty high on Ben Simmons.
He might even be higher on the Philadelphia 76ers rookie than he is on Dennis Smith Jr.
Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated penned a predictably wonderful profile on Simmons, and as always, one excerpt is making the rounds within NBA circles:
“You have an opportunity,” James told Simmons early on, “to be better than me. But you can’t skip steps. You have to do the work.” Those words helped sustain him when he stumbled at LSU and helped fuel him as he rehabbed in Philadelphia. “Is this really going to happen?” he asked himself. He knew, even if others wavered, that it would. Because LeBron said so, and for a prospect of Simmons’s vintage, no endorsement means more. “Part of his greatness,” Simmons says, “is that he wants others to be just as great.”
So, like, this is a big effing deal when you really thinking about it.
Even if you’re still an irrational LeBron hater, even if you’re a Michael Jordan purist, even if you’re for some reason not totally over 2010’s The Decision, you cannot deny that James, a four-time MVP, three-time NBA champion and surefire NBA Finals ticket, is among the two or three greatest players to ever take the court. If you have him lower than No. 3 on your all-time ballot, I don’t know what to tell you—other than that he should be on it, and that he should probably, at this point, be ranked No. 1, even ahead of Jordan.
Buuuut, we digress.
James is an all-time great. And he’s saying the point-guard-in-a-power-forward’s-body that is Simmons can be better. Ergo, Simmons, in LeBron’s eyes, thinks the 21-year-old could end up being one of the five or so best players to ever set foot on the hardwood. Those, my friends, are some pretty big expectations to ferry. The good news: James, per Jenkins, told Simmons this “early on,” which means he’s been bearing this burden and still showing out like an All-Star as a rookie.
