{"id":801787,"date":"2026-07-15T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801787\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:16:09","slug":"charles-barkley-ranks-lebron-james-as-the-7th-greatest-player-in-nba-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801787\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley Ranks LeBron James As The 7th Greatest Player In NBA History"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James<\/a> is widely regarded as one of the two greatest players of all time, but Hall of Famer Charles Barkley<\/a> refuses to put him anywhere near that high. Barkley shared his list of the greatest players of all time during an appearance on The MacZone<\/a>, and James had to settle for seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got Michael [Jordan], Oscar [Robertson], Wilt [Chamberlain], Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], and Bill Russell,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cThat\u2019s my top five. I got Kobe [Bryant] six, I got LeBron seven, I got Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird and Tim Duncan, and Jerry West. Those are like my top 10 players.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s actually 11 players, not 10. Barkley has actually consistently put James at seventh<\/a>\u00a0and made it clear here that everyone is entitled to their opinion. He then expressed his frustrations with James\u2019 supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the one thing about the LeBron group,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t say he\u2019s the greatest ever, it\u2019s like you committed treason. I said he\u2019s one of the 10 greatest. And I said, I would take Michael and Kobe before I take LeBron. Those are the three best basketball players I\u2019ve ever seen in my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for some reason, when you don\u2019t say LeBron is the best, his minions go ballistic and crazy,\u201d Barkley continued. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Hey, he\u2019s the third-best basketball player I ever seen. Get over it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

So James is the third-best basketball player Barkley has seen, but he\u2019s down at seventh in his list of the greatest players of all time. That\u2019s quite interesting.<\/p>\n

Now, if Barkley had James at third, he wouldn\u2019t be getting anywhere near as much stick as he gets. Everyone is indeed entitled to their opinion, but having him that far down is a bit absurd.<\/p>\n

James has won four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, one scoring title, and one assists title. The 41-year-old is also the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer and has made 22 All-Star, 21 All-NBA, and six All-Defensive teams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to put Michael Jordan<\/a>, who won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles, ahead of James, but six players? He deserves a bit more respect than that, but Barkley isn\u2019t the kind to change his mind because someone tells him to. In the past, he has also left James off his NBA Mount Rushmore<\/a>. Jordan, Magic Johnson<\/a>, Larry Bird<\/a>, and Bill Russell<\/a> made the cut.<\/p>\n

We know there are a few things Barkley holds against James when it comes to these discussions. Most notably, he has been very critical of him for forming superteams<\/a>. Barkley said James is amazing and spectacular, but Jordan didn\u2019t have to join anybody. He won all six of his championships with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barkley recently told James, a free agent, to stop chasing the \u201cimaginary Michael Jordan ghost.\u201d<\/a> The 63-year-old doesn\u2019t want to see him try to pack his team again.<\/p>\n

Barkley has also said James would be trying to cheat his way to another championship<\/a> if he were to go to the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> or the Golden State Warriors<\/a>. He wants him to finish his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much like with Barkley, James is not going to let outside noise influence him. He\u2019ll go to whatever team he feels is best for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James is widely regarded as one of the two greatest players of all time, but Hall of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-801787","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\/801787","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=801787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}