LeBron James and J.J. Redick released the first episode of their new podcast, “Mind the Game”, on Tuesday morning, and the first episode offers a glimpse at the kind of conversation the two will have on their weekly show.
The first episode dives into greatness and what each thinks are the defining characteristics of great players, with LeBron highlighting an understanding of the history of the game and those that came before you, a deep love for the game, and a high basketball IQ. The last part of that is what they dive most into, breaking down what’s a learned trait and what’s just a natural gift when it comes to processing the game. They also discuss one of Redick’s additions, “competitive stamina,” highlighting James’ recent performance leading the Lakers back from a big deficit to beat the Clippers.
As the two note, it’s something very different about today’s NBA compared to just 15 years ago, when a 15 to 20-point lead in the fourth quarter meant the benches got emptied for a long time. As Redick pointed out at the 30:00 mark of the podcast, you just can’t do that anymore, and LeBron explained exactly when that changed: when Stephen Curry entered the NBA.
“You can’t do that anymore,” LeBron said. “You know why? Because I believe in ‘08, ’09 or whenever that little lightskinned f**ker came in the league that’s in Golden State, he changed that whole narrative. He did. He singlehandedly changed the no lead is safe. It’s like Pat Mahomes right now — Love that guy by the way. Love Steph.”
That led to Redick pointing out that he’s not sure anyone has ever been more influential on the game of basketball than Steph, pointing out the game’s fundamentally changed largely due to how he plays the game. LeBron agreed, while also making sure to highlight Allen Iverson as another figure that influenced the game in a massive way, and how the two (with very different styles of play) were similar in the way they drew in fans, particularly kids.
“When it comes to influence, since I’ve been watching the game, the most influence on the game – and we all know what Mike did for the game – Steph and Allen Iverson are the two biggest influential guys on our game since I’ve been watching and covering,” LeBron said. “One, they’re 6’3, 6’4 if you wanna look on the back of the basketball card — you’re always a lot taller on the back of the basketball card. Allen Iverson and Steph, they were just so relatable and kids felt like they could be them. They were guys that was not always counted on. They were small in stature. And they just defied the odds. So you got AI who was like, unbelievable crossover, cornrows and arm sleeve – everybody wears and arm sleeve now because of Allen Iverson. And he’s going in the trenches, laying it up over bigs. And now you’ve got Steph who’s shooting it over the Empire State Building. It’s like, those two are the two most influential when you say the game and how they changed the game and the kids, those are two guys you wanted to watch every night.”
It’s very cool hearing LeBron talk about other players greatness. While I’m sure Jordan and Kobe Bryant have arguments to be on the short list as well, his point about how kids in particular gravitated towards Iverson and Curry is absolutely correct. Seeing someone smaller dominate in such a unique way on the court does feel more attainable for kids than becoming a LeBron-type who is physically dominant, and we’ve seen the explosion of guards that shoot from distance across basketball since Curry — and kids with handles like Iverson in the years after A.I.