{"id":676394,"date":"2026-05-17T08:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T08:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676394\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T08:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T08:38:08","slug":"darryn-peterson-and-2026-nba-draft-prospects-name-their-goat-share-first-lebron-james-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676394\/","title":{"rendered":"Darryn Peterson And 2026 NBA Draft Prospects Name Their GOAT; Share First LeBron James Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA\u2019s GOAT debate has mostly come down to Michael Jordan<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a>, and they were the only two names brought up by 2026 draft prospects during an interview with Bleacher Report<\/a>. The prospects were asked the first person that came to mind when they heard the word GOAT.<\/p>\n

Mikel Brown: \u201cMichael Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caleb Wilson: \u201cLeBron James.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darryn Peterson: \u201cBron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nate Ament: \u201cMichael Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Cenac Jr.: \u201cLeBron James.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaiah Evans: \u201cLeBron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kingston Flemings: \u201cLeBron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brayden Burries: \u201cIt\u2019s like hard. Michael Jordan, but LeBron, too, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kylan Boswell: \u201cMichael Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The more popular pick here was James, which was to be expected. Jordan\u2019s glory days were long before these prospects were born. Heck, they weren\u2019t alive when the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> drafted James in 2003. He has been in the NBA throughout all of their lives, which is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

James just wrapped up his 23rd season in the NBA and has gas left in the tank to carry on. He is already the only player to play a 23rd season, and no one would be surprised if he plays a 24th. The longevity is mind-boggling.<\/p>\n

James has won four NBA titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, one scoring title, and one assists title so far. He is the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer, and you wouldn\u2019t fancy any of these prospects\u2019 chances of surpassing him one day.<\/p>\n

As for Jordan, he won six NBA titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles. The resume is better, but as time goes on, he will become a less popular pick.<\/p>\n

Getting back to James, with him being in the NBA before these prospects were born, they were asked to share their first memory of him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AJ Dybantsa: \u201cHe was probably on the Heat with the headband, dunking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darryn Peterson: \u201cFirst thing that come to mind is coming back 3-1 from the Warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brayden Burries: \u201cHim dunking on what was it? Jason Terry?\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaiah Evans: \u201cThe chase-down block. I seen that on TV live. I was like, \u2018Whoa.’\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Darius Acuff: \u201c2016. I watched him play in person, him and Kyrie [Irving]. It was great, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kylan Boswell: \u201cI think watching like YouTube highlights of him hitting the game-winner against the Warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caleb Wilson: \u201cProbably when he did the step thing [silencer celebration], or maybe like 2016 Cavs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keaton Wagler: \u201cWhen I was watching just a regular season game when he was on the Heat with Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Boozer: \u201cProbably him doing a dunk or something. I don\u2019t even know, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikel Brown: \u201cAs vivid I would probably say is like when he\u2019s playing the Spurs. I had my Miami Heat jersey. Told my parents, \u2018Make sure you wash it,\u2019 so I could wear it every time he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kingston Flemings: \u201cI can\u2019t tell you my first memory. My favorite memory, though, when he got that block on [Andre Iguodala]. Well, we were listening it on the radio. We heard the miss. We heard him come down, and it was just crazy hearing it on the radio. And obviously, I saw it after. I envisioned it, but it didn\u2019t do it justice. I didn\u2019t know he ran from the corner all the way to getting it almost top of the backboard. I didn\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of these players pointed to anything from James\u2019 first stint with the Cavaliers from 2003 to 2010. If you remember watching any of it live, well, you might officially be old now.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d imagine these youngsters wouldn\u2019t have thought they\u2019d get an opportunity to share the court with James when they first saw him play. He\u2019s somehow still here, though, and is fully capable of making life miserable for each and every one of them on the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s GOAT debate has mostly come down to Michael Jordan and LeBron James, and they were the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-676394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}