By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For two decades opposing teams have searched in vain for flaws in LeBron James’ game and their inability to contain him is reminiscent of generational talents from across the spectrum of sports, NBA Hall of Famer Joe Dumars said on Tuesday.
James is 36 points away from surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career record of 38,387 and his complete game reminds Dumars of 20-times major tennis champion Roger Federer.
“I’m a huge tennis guy and what I’ve said to people about Federer is that he had no holes in his game that you can attack,” Dumars told Reuters hours before the Lakers tip-off against the Thunder in Los Angeles.
“Big serve, big return, forehand, backhand, volleys – everything. That’s LeBron in basketball.
“I’ve seen people try to make him shoot his outside jump shot, and he’s made them. He’s made enough to be the all-time leading scorer.”
Dumars, who won two championships with the Detroit Pistons as a player before serving as the team’s president of basketball operations from 2000 to 2014, said he knows first hand how hard it is to slow James down.
“Can you imagine the amount of stuff people have thrown at him, trying to guard him? My teams tried everything on him,” he said.
“He’s been seeing that for 20 years and he’s been beating it for 20 years.”
James’ greatness is also reminiscent of boxer Muhammad Ali, the enigmatic American heavyweight who captivated the world.
“I was a kid when Muhammad Ali was fighting, but I remember,” Dumars said.
“Because you see these phenomena and you just go, ‘I’m really lucky to see a guy like this in his prime’.”
NBA defenses may not feel so lucky, and relief does not seem at hand with the 38-year-old James showing no signs of slowing down.
He is averaging 30 points per game and was selected to his record-tying 19th All-Star game last month.
If he continues to play at this level in the coming years he won’t just break the all-time scoring record, he could put it out of reach permanently.
“Former players, coaches, we’ve all been talking about that. Can someone break this, but here’s the thing – we don’t know where the number is going to end up at,” he said.
“It’s going to be maybe 22, 23, 24 years that you have to play at a super high level.
“I know in the NBA we’ve never seen that before.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Davis)
