Jalen Rose suggests LeBron James is fifth greatest NBA player ever

"First and foremost," Rose said, "we can't have an 'MJ versus LeBron' conversation because LeBron has got to leapfrog some other people on the Mount Rushmore. 

"You ever heard of a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? You ever heard of a guy named Bill Russell? You ever heard of a guy named Earvin 'Magic' Johnson? When did LeBron pass Magic?"

Meanwhile, fellow ESPN personality Mike Greenberg said he has King James as the fourth greatest player in NBA history. 

Russell won an NBA-record 11 championships during his storied tenure with the Boston Celtics. Johnson won five rings with the Lakers dynasty of the 1980s. Abdul-Jabbar is the Association's all-time leading scorer. 

Earlier during the season that was halted on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, James passed Kobe Bryant to climb to third on the career scoring list. After James accomplished that feat, Jordan Greer of Sporting News wrote why he believes the three-time champion could eventually catch Kareem: 

Since being drafted in 2003, James has averaged roughly 2,000 points per season, which means 2 1/2 seasons of typical LeBron would push him ahead of Kareem. Even accounting for a dip in performance — maybe Father Time finally catches up with him, or Anthony Davis emerges as a 30-point-per-game guy — James would still be in good position. If he drops to 20 points per game, he could reach Abdul-Jabbar in three-plus seasons. That sounds farfetched on the surface, but Abdul-Jabbar scored 23.4 points per game in his age 38 season.

While James has been a physical freak for the bulk of his career, a groin injury sidelined him for 17 games during the 2018-19 season. He turns 36 years old in December, and there's no way of knowing when play will resume during the virus outbreak. If the current campaign is shortened and the start of the subsequent season is delayed -- both realistic situations as of April 20 -- James will be robbed of handfuls of games to accumulate career points.