17 July 2023 , 13:16
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NBA star LeBron James has echoed the sentiments of one NBA fan, who named Kyrie Irving as one of the best players with the ball in their hands ever in the league.
James himself is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. The Los Angeles Lakers forward has just finished his 20th season in the NBA, and is preparing for another which begins in a few months time.
The 38-year-old has played for three teams over the course of his illustrious career - Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat - winning a title with each of them. And James is known to be close friends with one of his former teammates.
Irving played alongside James for the Cavs for three seasons from 2014-17, before he left to join the Boston Celtics. The 31-year-old has since become one of the NBA’s star players, and spent four years with the Brooklyn Nets before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks earlier this year.
James and Irving have become friends off the court, and the Lakers star has shown how highly he rates his former teammate in a social media post. In his Instagram story, James used a post from ‘Hooper’ which was based around Irving.
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The post included a photo of Irving in a Mavs jersey, accompanied by a tweet on Twitter from a basketball fan. The message said: “This has nothing to do with his ‘all-time ranking’ but this is the best player with the ball in his hands we [have] ever seen.”
James used a screenshot of the post and accompanied it with a caption of his own. Agreeing with the tweet, James simply wrote: “Ever!” with several exclamation points.
Rumours around James’ future in the NBA have been doing the rounds ever since he admitted he would need to think about his future. The quotes came after the Lakers lost in a 4-0 series sweep to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semi-finals.
Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks is friends with NBA icon LeBron James (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)Since then, James confirmed in a speech at the ESPY awards that he would not be calling time on his basketball career just yet. He will now be looking ahead to what will be his 21st season in the NBA in 2023/24.
The future of Irving has also been the subject of speculation, despite him only signing for the Mavs in February of this year. There have been rumours that Irving could link up with James in Los Angeles.
However, other reports also claimed that Irving wanted the Mavs to attempt a trade to bring James to Dallas. It was reported on July 8 that Irving had been handed a new three-year contract worth $120 million (£100m), including a player option for the third year, meaning he could be a free agent after two seasons.