PHOENIX — The respect for Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James extends far and wide throughout the globe, and you can count Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal as one his admirers.
It’s always interesting to see the discourse on James – obviously one of the best players to ever grace a basketball court – and the differences between players who have competed against him and people such as you and I, who will never get the opportunity to match up against him.
It’s also been a pleasure to dive deep inside of Beal’s mind in his series of Andscape diaries, where he works with Marc J. Spears and lets loose from his own personal perspective.
In his most recent entry, Beal touched on a variety of topics, though his view on James was notable:
“LeBron is obviously one of the best to ever do it. It’s always surreal to play against him and see somebody you also admired and looked up to growing up. But it is cool, it’s uplifting, it’s encouraging. It’s motivating to just see what he’s doing in here in Year [21]. Still doing it at a high level … But it just speaks to his dedication to the game. His wanting to be the best. It’s always fun to play against him because he’s a true competitor, because he knows everybody that he’s playing against whether you’re a rookie or a 15-year player.
“That part of playing against him makes young guys really gravitate toward him and really understand how cool he is, how cool of a teammate he is and how he’s at the level he’s at because of his competitive spirit. For him to know [players] one through 15, know your plays, know your system, it’s not easy to do. On top of going out and dominating the game — physicalitywise, IQwise — he’s very untouchable in a lot of ways.
“It’s always an honor for me. I always take pride in that competition because he goes hard, he competes at a high level and it makes the game fun. It makes the game that much better. But I’m a fan, and his success and his story’s unlike anybody else’s ever to play the game.”
The Suns and Lakers have completed all five games against each other, with LA winning three-of-five. Phoenix won their most recent matchup on Sunday, which Beal missed due to injury.
