Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has been fortunate enough to play with some of the best players in NBA history, but he’s also been lucky to have the perfect role players during his championship runs.
Throughout his illustrious 22-year career, James has had some of the most ideal role players on title teams and the most recent one was Alex Caruso, who was a pivotal rotation piece during the Lakers’ 2020 championship run. Caruso went from unknown undrafted free agent to an ace defender for the Lakers, guarding every position on the floor and doing the dirty work to help Los Angeles win games.
Caruso now finds himself back in the NBA Finals as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who will take on the Indiana Pacers. Oklahoma City is a sizable betting favorite over Indiana and they joined previous Lakers teams as one of the biggest favorites in a Finals series.
James broke down the Pacers-Thunder series on a recent episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash and name-dropped Caruso as one of Oklahoma City’s key bench players and one of his favorite past teammates:
“And then they come off the bench with one of my favorite teammates of all time in Alex Caruso who is the ultimate Swiss Army knife. We’ve literally seen him guard Giannis, we’ve seen him guard the Joker, we’ve seen him guard Ant, we’ve seen him guard Julius Randle, we’ve seen him guard Jamal Murray throughout this whole postseason. And you look at plus-minus after the game, AC will have five points, three rebounds, two assists and his plus-minus will be a goddamn plus-17.”
Caruso has long been considered one of the best defenders in the league because of his toughness, instincts and willingness to take on any assignment no matter how many touches or minutes he gets. He’s the ideal player to have as he can make an impact without the basketball in his hands, something that James and other players can certainly appreciate.
It still stings to this day that the Lakers allowed Caruso to walk in free agency, though he remains a popular player in Los Angeles and the fans will surely be rooting for him when the Finals officially tip off.
LeBron James trolls Mind the Game doubters
With LeBron James enjoying his offseason, he’s had more time to appear for episodes of his podcast. The podcast initially drew some skepticism as pure X’s and O’s content doesn’t normally do well, but after seeing success with the platform, James trolled any doubters.
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