Chris Bosh has been the go-to LeBron James analyst among former athletes during this renaissance season for The King and his Lakers. In a new interview at Complex Sports, Bosh was asked to again make a determination on who James’ best-ever teammate was.
The debate began recently when Kendrick Perkins and Dwyane Wade both expressed their belief that Anthony Davis complimented James better than anyone else with whom he’s played. While Bosh admitted James and Davis may fit better than any co-star James has ever run with, he still believes Dwyane Wade is the answer. The reason has more to do with sacrifice more than anything.
Here’s how Bosh explained it to Alex Wong at Complex Sports:
Do they complement each other? Hell yeah, they do. Has LeBron always had that No. 2 guy? Every time he’s won, yeah he has. But as far as ranking teammates, it’s tough to rank. You know who I’m going to choose. It’s Dwyane Wade for me, because Dwyane said, LeBron, you need to be the guy, you’re the No. 1 option, and I’ll figure everything out, you just go ahead and be comfortable being who you are. On top of that, just the effect they had on the game, I’ve never seen anybody do what they did. The steals. The lobs. The dunks. You could play highlights of those two forever. That stuff is classic. I haven’t seen anything like that before or after. As far as I’m concerned, that’s how I feel. Dwyane was a great complement to him. Just cue the highlights.
Bosh is right in pointing out that, for the first time, James has a roster and scheme that allows him to feed Davis and generate easy offense, which puts Davis in position to look absolutely incredible most nights. This as opposed to Wade, who was so great in 2011-12 that he was able to adjust his game, remain impactful, and still empower James to take over in Miami on their way to the first Heatles championship.