• The debate that likely won't go away whether you want it to or not — who is the greatest basketball player of all time? Well, LeBron James weighed in on the topic — and he says it's him. The Lakers forward, speaking on the ESPN series "More Than An Athlete" that chronicles his life, said the Cavaliers' NBA Finals comeback from a 3-1 deficit over the 2015-16 Warriors, who went 73-9, made him the greatest.
Chris Hine's NBA short takes
January 2, 2019 at 6:05AM
"I was like, that one right there made you the greatest player of all time," James said. "Everybody was just talking how [the Warriors] were the greatest team of all time, like it was the greatest team ever assembled. For us to come back, the way we came back in that fashion, I was like, 'You did, you did something special.' "
Michael Jordan has not commented.
• The Thunder already have a former MVP in point guard Russell Westbrook, but another member of the Thunder is compiling an MVP candidacy — Paul George. George is averaging 26.4 points and one advanced metric says he is one of the best in the league. According to ESPN's real plus-minus, which attempts to measure a player's contributions to winning regardless of who is on the floor with him, George is third behind only James Harden and Anthony Davis. He has also contributed 7.82 wins to the Thunder, second behind only Davis.
• But Harden is going to be hard to beat again. Harden's 43-point performance Monday over Memphis was his fourth straight game with 40 or more points. Houston was languishing near the bottom of the West a few weeks ago. They were tied for fourth entering Tuesday.
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The “sticky” ball that coach Chris Finch so deplores showed up for the first game, after a preseason when offense happened smoothly. On defense, “resistance” was missing, the coach said.
