Taking an in-depth look at every top five NBA Draft pick that LeBron James and Michael Jordan played with in their NBA careers.
One of the most overstated and overused arguments during any debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James in the neverending GOAT debate is the amount of help each one had to win NBA championships during their career. Almost always taken out of context is how one player played with a lot more All-Star or All-NBA talent than the other did throughout their time in the NBA. What is never explained is at which point each of those players was in their career, and the only thing taken into account is the end result of their partnerships.
The same thing can be said about the amount of top-five NBA Draft picks that LeBron James and Michael Jordan played with in their careers. LeBron James played with a total of 11 players throughout his career who were selected in the top five of their respective drafts. Michael Jordan has only played with one player of such caliber.
Well, today, we are going to add some context to the time each of those players spent with either Michael Jordan or LeBron James while exploring what each of these teammates was actually able to contribute at this point in their careers. What will be revealed is that this isn’t the argument at least one side of it thinks it is, and it should never be used as a statement in the GOAT debate again.
These are the top 5 NBA Draft picks who played with LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
LeBron JamesShaquille O’Neal – 1st Pick Of The 1992 NBA Draft
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Years Played With LeBron James: 2010
At one point in his career, Shaquille O’Neal was the most dominant player in NBA history. Between the years 2000 and 2006, he would win four NBA championships, three Finals MVP awards, and an MVP award with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. He was a two-time scoring champion and the most unstoppable two-way force in the NBA in his prime. From the way that fans use this argument in favor of O’Neal, you would think that this was the version of Shaq that LeBron James played with.
The truth is, it wasn’t even close to the same. Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James would only get the chance to team up much later in Shaq’s career with the Cleveland Cavaliers. O’Neal would be 37 years old and only able to stay on the court for a total of 53 games at 23.4 minutes per game. During that time, O’Neal would average 12.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game. The Cavaliers would win 61 games but fall in the second round of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics.
As a result, James would leave the very next summer to join the Miami Heat and O’Neal would join Boston as a free agent. It’s safe to say that Shaq was a long way removed from his days as the most dominant player in the game when he and LeBron tried to make magic happen in 2010.
Ray Allen – 5th Pick Of The 1996 NBA Draft
Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2013 – 2014
Ray Allen’s impact alongside LeBron James during their short time together would be much greater than O’Neal’s was. By the time Allen reached the Miami Heat for the 2012-13 season, he was already a 15-year NBA veteran who was also 37 years old and well past his prime. He was still one of the greatest three-point shooters in NBA history but no longer a starter who could effectively play 30.0 minutes per night.
Still, Allen played a crucial role in the 2012-13 Miami Heat team that went on to win the NBA championship. During Game 6, Allen would hit one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history to send the game into overtime against the San Antonio Spurs. James would lead the charge in overtime as well as Game 7 as the Heat went on to win their second straight NBA championship.
Other than the three-pointer to save Game 6, Allen averaged just 10.3 points per game over his two seasons with the Heat which was far from the 25.0 points per game he scored at his peak. He was never an All-Star or All-NBA player with James at his side either. After their loss in the 2014 NBA Finals, Allen retired at 39 years old having won two NBA championships with the Celtics and Heat.
Dwyane Wade – 5th Pick Of The 2003 NBA Draft
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Years Played With LeBron James: 2011-2014, 2018
Dwyane Wade is the first of three players that LeBron James played with from his own draft class in 2003. Wade was just five seasons removed from leading the Miami Heat to an NBA championship in 2006, winning Finals MVP honors. Wade is the first player here who could still be considered a star when playing with James and the two accomplished incredible things together.
During their time together, Wade and James would go to four straight NBA Finals from 2011 through 2014 with the Miami Heat. They would win NBA championships in 2012 and 2013 with wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. Toward the end of their stint together in Miami, Wade began to struggle with knee injuries that left him limited in what he could do on the court. Wade and James would also spend a short time together in 2018 with the Cavaliers which amounted to nothing in the end.
Overall, Wade averaged 22.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.6 steals from 2011 through 2014 alongside James while making four All-Star teams. James and Wade formed one of the best duos in NBA history and could have accomplished a lot more together had Wade remained healthy a little longer.
Chris Bosh – 4th Pick Of The 2003 NBA Draft
Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2011-2014
The third member of the Big Three in Miami was Chris Bosh, another top 10 pick from the 2003 NBA Draft. Prior to joining Miami with Wade and James, Bosh was a 22.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game player and a perennial All-Star. With the Heat, Bosh was willing to make sacrifices to his game in order to help the team win, becoming a third option rather than the team’s go-to guy, and it would pay off.
From 2011 through 2014 with Miami, Bosh would earn four All-Star appearances while helping the team make four NBA Finals appearances and win two NBA championships. He averaged 17.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game over the course of those four seasons as well as one of the best third options in NBA history. Just two seasons after LeBron James left Miami for Cleveland again, Bosh was forced to retire from the NBA after developing blood clots that jeopardized his health.
Carmelo Anthony – 3rd Pick Of The 2003 NBA Draft
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Years Played With LeBron James: 2022
Everyone who has watched Carmelo Anthony play during his 19-year NBA career knows that he is headed for the Basketball Hall of Fame in just a few short years. Anthony is a top-10 scorer in NBA history as well as a 10-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA Team selection, and a former scoring champ. His talent as a three-level scorer was matched by very few at his peak but that would not be the same Carmelo Anthony we saw play with LeBron James.
In 2022, Anthony joined the Los Angeles Lakers on a one-year deal at the age of 37. He would go on to appear in 69 games total with 59 of them coming in a role off the bench, playing 26.0 minutes per game. He would average 13.3 points per game that season on 44.1% shooting overall and 37.5% from three. Anthony was nowhere close to the player he was in his prime and bringing him up as a top-five NBA Draft pick bears no meaning on the player he was during his time with James on the Lakers in 2022.
Dwight Howard – 1st Pick Of The 2004 NBA Draft
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Years Played With LeBron James: 2020, 2022
Dwight Howard was the first pick in the 2004 NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. There, he would become one of the most dominant two-way players in the game, winning three Defensive Player of the Year Awards and leading the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals. Howard would not join James until the 2020 season when his game had declined into a shell of what it once was.
During the 2020 season, Howard would serve an important role off the bench for the Lakers in their pursuit of an NBA championship. In 18 playoff games, Howard would average just 5.8 points and 4.6 rebounds off the bench as the Lakers indeed went on to win the title. After a season away, Howard returned to Los Angeles for the 2022 season. He would only play 12 games though and the Lakers would go on to miss the playoffs entirely.
Dwight Howard is yet another example of how this statistic can be misleading in a number of ways.
Derrick Rose – 1st Pick Of The 2008 NBA Draft
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Years Played With LeBron James: 2018
The usage of Derrick Rose in this argument is probably the worst example out of all of them. After becoming the first pick in the 2008 Draft, Rose would go on to become the youngest MVP in NBA history in 2011. In 2012, Rose suffered the first of two knee injuries that would completely derail his career and rob him of a chance to become one of the greatest point guards ever.
Rose and LeBron would not share the court together until well after the injuries in 2018 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The worst part of their time together is that it didn’t even last 20 games before the Cavaliers shipped Rose out for next to nothing. In 16 games with the Cavaliers in 2018, Rose averaged 9.8 points per game playing less than 20.0 minutes per game. I am begging you to stop referencing Derrick Rose when we talk about LeBron James’ best “help”.
Russell Westbrook – 4th Pick Of The 2008 NBA Draft
Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2021-2022
The Russell Westbrook era alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Lakers cannot be called anything but a disaster. At the peak of his career, Westbrook was an MVP and scoring champion who was leading the Thunder to some of their best seasons in franchise history. He was a walking triple-double during the mid-2010s and even averaged one for the entire season with the Wizards in the year prior to joining the Lakers.
Once he arrived in Los Angeles, it became immediately evident that the fit was horrendous. Westbrook struggled to get acclimated to playing with so many weapons, poor shooting, and bad turnovers. During their first season together in 2021, the Lakers failed to reach the NBA playoffs, making this one of the worst failed superteams ever.
In 2022, Westbrook would be dealt at the trade deadline in a series of moves that changed their season around. Overall, in 131 games as a Laker, Westbrook averaged 17.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 7.2 assists on 43.4% shooting. The experiment ended with Lakers fans loathing Westbrook and with Westbrook finding a home with the in-town rival Clippers.
Kevin Love – 5th Pick Of The 2008 NBA Draft
Credit: Allison Ferrand-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2015-2018
Before joining LeBron James in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers, Kevin Love was the primary option for a struggling Minnesota Timberwolves franchise. In six seasons with Minnesota, Love would earn three All-Star appearances while averaging 19.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. In the summer of 2014, the Cavaliers made a bold move for Love by trading number-one overall pick Andrew Wiggins in exchange for him to form a Big Three of Love, Kyrie Irving, and LeBron James.
Over the next four seasons, the trio would advance to three straight NBA Finals together from 2015 through 2017 and make history in 2016. In the 2016 Finals, the Cavaliers would overcome a 3-1 deficit to the 73-9 Warriors, capturing the first title in franchise history. Love averaged 14.7 points and 8.8 rebounds on that championship run.
Even after Kyrie Irving left for Boston in 2017, Love remained with the Cavaliers for all four seasons of LeBron’s second stint in the city. Over those four seasons alongside James, Love would average 17.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game on 43.3% shooting overall and 37.7% shooting from three.
Kyrie Irving – 1st Pick Of The 2011 NBA Draft
Dec 30, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) dribbles the ball against the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2015-2017
The next two players are two players whom LeBron James was fortunate enough to play with in their primes and win NBA championships with. The first of these players is Kyrie Irving who played with James on the Cavaliers from 2015 through 2017. Prior to James’ return to Cleveland in 2014-15, Kyrie was already an established Rookie of the Year and NBA All-Star averaging 20.7 points, 5.8 assists, and 1.4 steals per game.
Together, each of their powers would be taken to the next level as the duo would earn three straight trips to the NBA Finals. In 2016, Kyrie Irving was just as important to the Cavaliers’ first NBA championship as James was. He averaged 25.2 points, 4.7 assists, and 1.7 steals per game to help lead the Cavaliers to the promised land.
In the NBA Finals itself, Irving would connect on the game-winning dagger three-pointer that completed the greatest upset in NBA Finals history. In his three years with James at his side with the Cavaliers, Irving averaged 22.4 points, 5.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game on 46.5% shooting from the field. What they accomplished together as teammates will go down in NBA history, but what could have been if Kyrie wanted to continue is a big what-if in NBA history.
Anthony Davis – 1st Pick Of The 2012 NBA Draft
Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Years Played With LeBron James: 2020-Present
The last player who was a top-five pick in the NBA Draft and played with LeBron James is current teammate Anthony Davis. After the New Orleans Pelicans selected him first overall in 2012, Davis would play seven seasons with the team as one of the best two-way players in the game. Davis would earn six All-Star appearances, three blocks titles, and three All-NBA Team selections while averaging 23.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game.
In 2019, Davis would finally ask to be traded from New Orleans and the Los Angeles Lakers jumped at the opportunity to pair him with LeBron James. In their first season together in 2019-20, Davis and James would reach elite levels of play at the perfect time as the NBA restarted in the Bubble at Disney World from the pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On that championship run, Davis would average 27.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game to help secure their 17th championship as a franchise.
In the time since that championship run, both Davis and James have had their struggles with staying on the court. Injury after injury has hindered their progress as a duo and as a team over the last three seasons. In 2023, the Lakers would advance to the Western Conference Finals only to be swept by the NBA champion Denver Nuggets.
Michael JordanScottie Pippen – 5th Pick Of The 1987 NBA Draft
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Years Played With Michael Jordan: 1988-1998
I really hate to give any ammo to the “Jordan is 1-9 without Pippen” crowd, but Scottie Pippen is easily the best teammate that Michael Jordan ever had. That being said, the “1-9 without Pippen” argument is just as bad as using Shaquille O’Neal and Derrick Rose’s playing time with LeBron James against him.
Yes, it just so happens that Scottie Pippen was on the Bulls with Jordan when he got past the first round. Yes, it took a few years for Pippen to develop into an All-Star and All-NBA talent alongside Jordan and he did not make the immediate impact that people think he did when they spew that nonsense. However, Pippen’s role on the Bulls was immense as a defender and playmaker alongside the greatest player that ever lived.
In 11 seasons together, Jordan and Pippen would win six NBA championships by way of two three-peats from 1991-1993 and from 1996-1998. In those 11 seasons, Pippen earned 10 All-Star selections and eight All-Defensive Team selections. He also earned seven All-NBA Team selections while averaging 17.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.1 steals per game. While Pippen was super important to the Bulls’ championship runs along with Michael Jordan, the people who act like he somehow saved MJ have zero standing in making that argument.
How Many Top Five Draft Picks Did LeBron James And Michael Jordan Play With?
As you can see, the level of talent that LeBron James has been fortunate enough to play with in his career has been elite. He has played with a total of 11 top-five picks but if we break it down to the amount of those players who were in their prime, it is more like five. Shaquille O’Neal, Ray Allen, Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony were nowhere close to the best versions of themselves whenever they shared the court with James in their careers.
When he was able to play with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis in their primes, he was able to win NBA championships, and expectedly so. As for Michael Jordan, he was given just one top-five draft pick in his career and they wound up becoming one of the greatest duos in NBA history. He and Scottie Pippen would win six NBA titles together while yes, also having other above-average to good players supporting them at all times.
So, what does this all mean? It proves once again that every NBA superstar has needed elite talent to win in the NBA. When it comes to top-level teammates, James has had more help in that regard and has delivered every single time with an NBA championship. All Jordan needed was an All-Defensive and All-Star teammate who could complement his game perfectly. Jordan and Pippen grew together while James played with all of his top-five picks after they had been established in the NBA for quite some time. How do you interpret the information we laid out before you?
