NBA Veteran Defends LeBron James After Shaquille O’Neal Unravels Lakers Star’s ‘Lack of Terror’

The debate around Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James seems to be a never-ending one. There will always be some who will pick one. And this includes not just basketball fans, but NBA stars themselves. The latest of them is Shaquille O’Neal, a player who has played against all three NBA icons. He even compared and stated that LeBron is not feared like MJ and Kobe were. However, Eddie Johnson has defended King James against the claims.

“And 40,000 points later, 4 titles and still producing at 39. I would say he is respected, appreciated, admired and is looked at as a trophy we will never see again play this long,” Eddie posted in a reply on X. He further claims that he would take all of that from a player rather than fearing “playing a game that elicits no fear!”.

This came in response to Shaq’s comments on LBJ in a podcast clip from The Big Podcast. “I’ve heard players say, including myself, ‘I feared Mike.’ I’ve heard players in your (Mario Chalmers’s) generation say they feared Kobe. I’ve never really heard any player say they feared LeBron,” he asserted. Even Chalmers agreed with Shaquille O’Neal, recollecting the time he had said something similar about the LA Lakers icon.

“When I first said that, people killed me for that. I didn’t think players really feared LeBron like they did Jordan,” Chalmers stated. He believes the primary reason is that LBJ “has been through so much that he wanted to be liked“, not feared. However, it is not as if no player in NBA history has stated fearing King James on the court.

Amid Shaquille O’Neal’s comments, players who admitted to LeBron James having an on-court ‘fear impact’

Draymond Green was among the players who disagreed with Chalmers’ statement back in 2023. Green mentioned that many of his teammates were terrified of the King. “I know a bunch of people who were and still are in fact terrified of LeBron James,” he said on The Draymond Green Show alongside Tristan Thompson.

“Like, I’ve seen it. At times I’ve had teammates that were terrified of LeBron James,” he added. Even Thompson had disagreed with Mario’s remarks back then. Kendrick Perkins is yet another player who admitted to fearing LeBron’s on-court impact. So much so that he even prayed for Bron to get hurt back in 2008!

These instances leave the basketball community divided on whether LeBron James feared his opponents or not. Let us know your views on this in the comments.

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