NBA

Ex-NBA Player Iman Shumpert remembers LeBron James’ Miami Heat version as ‘the scariest’

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During his 20-year career, it’s hard to choose which version of LeBron James was the strongest, especially considering he’s won championship rings with every team his played for in the NBA. According to his former teammate Iman Shumpert, his ‘scariest’ version was back when he wore the Heat jersey.

In a recent episode of “All The Smoke” podcast with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, the ex-Cavs player reminisced on his many memories alongside the current Lakers superstar.

“I think the best version I saw of Bron was…you remember the year that Dirk won? That next year they came back,” Shumpert recalled. “When him and D Wade vowed to not shoot, not settle for threes, and they played their whole first season and they wasn’t shooting no threes. They was just, it was vicious. I was like, ‘Bro, what the f**k are we supposed to do with that?”

The 33-year-old was humbled by King James’ talents, and was glad to have him as a teammate years later in Cleveland.

“I was like, looking at the league. What am I going to do about that? Like what is that, n***a? They running fast. They big as s**t. I’m like ‘D Wade and Bron literally passing it back and forth and just downhill, downhill, downhill. I feel like that was the scariest Bron to deal with,” he said.

Shumpert then teamed up with him for four years with the Cavaliers and has always showered praise for the potential GOAT. Now, why would he consider LeBron’s best version to have been in Miami?

Well, not only did the 38-year-old conquer two back-to-back NBA titles with the South Beach franchise, he also possesses the club’s record for most points in a game with 61 against the Charlotte Bobcats back in 2014.

In July 2022, even James believed that the best version of his game was played in Florida. “I spent like seven years and then I went to Miami that first year and everything was about like still what everybody else thought,” he said. “And then I was literally like ‘I don’t give a f**k about what anybody else think. I’m him.”

Shumpert recalled a fierce game against the Boston Celtics to explain LeBron’s greatness

Shumpert just can’t get enough of LeBron. In an episode of his own show “IMAN AMONGST MEN” with Miles Brown, he recalled a game against Boston to further explain the foward’s mighty talent.

“We played Boston in the playoffs and I can’t remember the set he called a set. It was basically us playing pinch post,” Iman narrated. “Bron asked for this cause he said like somebody was like playing lazy on the weak side… So he wanted that man gone. So they call a timeout and Bron says he wants a shooter in there… We came back with a lineup set for just this set.”

Shumpert remembers James entering in coach mode, while playing and leading the squad on court at the same time. “We get a rebound, we getting ready to push. He’s like, ‘walk it down, run it again’. But he saying like Boston quite as f**k. They ain’t said sh*t.”

“They quiet cause they like, ‘Huh, like you gonna tell us all, we know to play’. He like, yeah,” the former player recalled. “He like, no, don’t do that stand right there. And when he said it, the man didn’t know what do no more. I was like bro, I’ve never seen power like that. Not like that.”