NBA Stars DeMar DeRozan and Paul George Discuss Which LeBron James Was Better

DeMar DeRozan and Paul George share their personal experience with LeBron James

One of the newest debates that keeps NBA fans engaged is which team brought the best out of LeBron James.

While there’s no right or wrong answer, stars Paul George and DeMar DeRozan discussed it on a recent episode on George’s “Podcast P with Paul George”.

After spending four years with the Miami Heat and winning back-to-back championships, James rejoined the Cleveland Cavaliers. He delivered them their first championship but he had to play the Toronto Raptors three times in the playoffs. DeRozan, who was on those Raptors teams, said he didn’t see much of a difference between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat.

20 years in and it's still hard getting past LeBron in the playoffs 😅 pic.twitter.com/TGDM7HwrMr

— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) May 16, 2023

“The way he read the game, dictate the game, control the game and it necessarily never had to be with scoring,” DeRozan said. “The Miami Bron, that motherf***er was incredible. You know what I mean? Same as Cleveland. But at any given moment, he could turn it on and get you 45, get a win. I think this Bron is being more of the IQ for everybody.”

George saw it a little differently. When playing with the Pacers, he also had to go up against James and the Heat three times. The Pacers were one of the NBA’s best defensive teams but it didn’t matter to James. He used his basketball IQ to expose their defense in the playoffs.

“There were moments where he would call s**t out when we playing him,” George said. “He’ll just blow up the whole play, like ‘Nah it’s going over there, it’s going over there!’. He knows his plays down to a tee and he knows your plays down to a tee.”

DeRozan then blamed James for his departure from Toronto. He felt the Game 3 buzzer-beating floater he hit over OG Anunoby is what ended his time with the Raptors. George chuckled and also admitted James was the reason he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017.

“Yeah I think he put me away too, man,” George stated. “That was my last in Indy, he got me up out of there, too.”

Cory Nelson is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He attended Northern Virginia Community College. He can be reached at corymckenzienelson@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @CKenzyNelson. You can also check out his personal blog HERE.