Luka Doncic and LeBron James led the way as the Los Angeles Lakers got their eight-game road trip off to a good start with a victory over the Denver Nuggets. It was an impressive comeback victory for the Lakers, even though the Nuggets were without their superstar center Nikola Jokic.
Jokic is objectively considered by most to be the best player in the game today as a three-time MVP as well as an NBA Finals MVP when he led the Nuggets to a championship in 2023. And despite the Lakers and Nuggets growing a bit of a rivalry over the past few years, the respect between James and Jokic is extremely high.
This was seen as LeBron made sure to go over to Jokic on the Nuggets bench during the game and dap him up. And when asked about it, James simply said he wanted to pay respect to one of the greatest players to ever play the game, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s the utmost respect. For the greats of the game, for the greats of today, for me for the greats of the past, for the greats that come after. Jokic is one of the greatest players to ever play this game. For me to see him and go over and just pay my respect, that’s easy.”
James and Jokic have faced off numerous times over the past few years as the Lakers and Nuggets met in the postseason regularly. But in LeBron’s eyes, none of those games compares to the epic meeting in the 2024 Olympic semifinals between Team USA and Serbia, which he called one of the best games he’s ever been a part of:
“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in. It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in. I’ve played in a lot of great games, NBA Finals games, Olympic games, high school games, regular season games. That ranks right up there with one of the greatest games I’ve ever played in and I’ll never forget that moment.”
That contest saw James and Stephen Curry lead a massive fourth quarter comeback to lift Team USA to victory over Jokic’s Serbian squad on their way to a gold medal. Quite simply, when two all-time great players have shared the court for multiple hard-fought battles, the respect between them will always be great.
LeBron James shouts out Lakers’ teammate Luka Doncic
James’ streak of 21 consecutive seasons being named a starter for the NBA All-Star Game came to an end this year. However, his Lakers teammate Luka Doncic was the leading vote getter for this year’s contest and LeBron made sure to shout him out for this accomplishment.
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