When it comes to great basketball minds, Jerry West is one of the best we have ever seen. Recently, he had some remarks that some would consider a hot take, but make sense when you really take the time to think about his statement. While appearing on the Rich Eisen Show, West talked about two of the best players in the game right now; Nikola Jokic and LeBron James. West compared the two talking about their extremely high basketball IQ.
“He is like LeBron James. The brilliance of him as a player, but more importantly his mind, his mind makes everyone better. These things rub off on your teammates… These kind of players are rarities, and that’s why they’re so highly coveted.”
With these remarks, it is clear that Jerry West has a ton of respect for both of these future Hall of Famers.
Lakers Legend, Jerry West, Compares Nikola Jokic to LeBron James
Nikola Jokic’s Career
Nikola Jokic is coming off a year where he led the Denver Nuggets to their first franchise title, much like LeBron James did for the Cleveland Cavaliers. For his career, the Joker has already won two league MVP’s, a Finals MVP, a Conference Finals MVP, one championship, and has made five All-Star appearances and been selected to five All-NBA Teams.
On top of this, Jokic is already averaging insane career numbers of 20.2 points, 10.5 total rebounds and 6.6 assists per game. As if that were not impressive enough, the Nuggets superstar also possesses a career player efficiency rating of 27.7 and has led the league in this category for the past three years. All in all, it is scary to think that Jokic is in the middle of his prime and has already accomplished so much in this league.
LeBron James’ Career
What is there to say about LeBron James? He is in the great of all time debate for a reason and has an extremely impressive NBA resume. The man is a four-time champion with three different teams. Not to mention, he has made multiple All-Star appearances, and is a four-time league MVP. His career numbers are also out of this world.
James has averaged 27.2 points, 7.5 total rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game. On top of this, he also had a career player efficiency rating of 27.2. One can see why Jerry West compared James and Jokic recently, especially from a basketball mind perspective after watching the two of them and comparing their numbers.
