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'Nice Guy Like LeBron James' – Charles Barkley Dismisses NBA MVP from Michael Jordan’s ‘Killer’ Mentality Club

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Joseph Varghese | Last updated Sep 4, 2025 11:20 AM ET

Ever since LeBron James came into the NBA, the media and fans have been comparing him to Michael Jordan. His Airness has been that symbol of excellence when it comes to a basketball player.

Many players have come into the league, and every time the media tries to compare them to either of these two greats or any other great player from the past.

For instance, when Anthony Edwards was playing well, some media circles tried to hail him as the 2nd coming of Jordan. Charles Barkley was quick to extinguish those fires, believing no one comes close to his former best friend.

He even went ahead to label such comparisons as the ‘plague’, believing players tend to suffer when they do not live up to their hype. However, comparisons are normal in any sport.

Reigning league and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now considered one of the best players in the league. This time, the Round Mound of Rebound himself came up with a comparison while speaking on The Ringer.

I think Shai is a great, great player. To me, he’s more like LeBron. He’s a really nice guy. He’s not out there trying to kill you.
Charles Barkley said

The Hall of Famer believes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a ‘nice guy’ just like LeBron James. It is not a bad thing, as he did end up winning the 2025 NBA title with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Just that it is not a trait that the great Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had.

Charles Barkley details how Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James are different

While talking about the best players in NBA history, Charles Barkley praised Magic Johnson and Larry Bird for making the NBA what it is today. He then went on to detail how the best 3 players in history are different.

The three best players I’ve ever seen are Michael, Kobe, and LeBron, and I’ll tell you the difference between the three. Michael and Kobe were dangerous. They will kill you. LeBron is a nice guy, and that’s not a knock. He’s still great, great, great, but he’s a nice guy. Michael and Kobe weren’t nice guys. They’re different.
Charles Barkley said

The 62-year-old is not knocking LeBron James while calling him a ‘nice guy’. Just that it was different from the killer mentality Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had.

The two approaches are different, yet have brought tremendous success for each of the three. The Lakers’ star could have won more titles and cemented himself as the GOAT as the ‘nice guy’. But history has it differently.

Thompson twins grew up wanting to be like LeBron James

Nowadays, any draft pick or young prospect wants to emulate LeBron James, Stephen Curry, or Kevin Durant. Not many talk about Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, as the game has seemingly evolved past their skills.

So we wanted to be tall. Our parents, my mom’s like 5′ 6″, my dad’s like 5′ 11″. So we wrote, like 6 9 all over the bed, because that’s how tall we wanted to be. Because LeBron was like 6′ 9″.
Amen and Ausar Thompson said

The twins mentioned, while on the Young Man and the Three podcast, that at the time, they did not use quotations on those numbers, and understood later on that it was weird to put those two numbers together.

The Thompson twins revealed that they used to write “69” on their beds growing up because they wanted to be 6’9” like LeBron

“Looking back, it looks kinda weird.”

“No apostrophe, nothing.”

( @OldManAndThree / h/t @MrBuckBuckNBA )

pic.twitter.com/dGfZltALUG
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 4, 2025

But their dreams of reaching that height almost became true as they both outgrew their parents to become 6′ 7″ forwards and play in the NBA. Now, both are battling to become some of the best players in the league.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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