SIKIDS.COM / 25single versatile big man. With
all due respect to Joel Embiid
and Nikola Joki ́c, I had my
heart set on a specific do-it-all
star. If NBA teams thought one
Draymond Green was annoying
to play against, wait until they
meet five (with an entire bench of
Draymonds jawing at them from
the sideline).
For a while, it worked. While
the Jameses proved tough to
defend, the Greens kept up
with the scoring in the first
half by jacking up threes, in
true Golden State fashion. But
while I could control individual
Draymonds, the computer had
created a neural network out of
basketball’s highest-IQ player.
position, in keeping with his better
overall shooting percentage. In our
scenario, however, neither player
is guarding the average player at
each position, but a swarm of a
single positionless superstar.
According to splits from
NBA.com, James has shot
24–50 (48.0%) head-to-head
against Antetokounmpo since
the 2017–18 season. In those five
seasons, Antetokounmpo shot just
11–29 (37.9%) against James. It’s
a small sample size, but hardly
cherry-picking in LeBron’s favor:
Those five seasons are Giannis’s
best, while his counterpart was
33 or older the whole time.
That’s a decent statistical
argument for James in a one-
on-one game at the playground,
but his teams are 5–7 against the
Bucks in those years. Would the
Greek Freaks’ better rebounding
numbers create enough shots to
overcome a lower percentage from
the floor? Or would the Kings be
too adept at finding each other in
the passing game?
There’s no definitive answer.
But in 2024, LeBron James Sr.
and LeBron James Jr. may be
teaming up to take on Giannis and
Thanasis Antetokounmpo. Who
needs a fictional Clone Wars when
you have a very real Family Feud?third quarter with a much more
aggressive defense and offense.
You have not stared into the abyss
until you’ve seen the “hot shooter”
icon under two different LeBrons
at the same time. Meanwhile,
my hockey-shifting strategy was
keeping the Draymonds from
getting in a rhythm. By the end of
the game, I had been outscored
31–3 on fast breaks and lost by
a similar margin.
Attempts to play the game with
a bunch of Giannises didn’t go
much better. The real Milwaukee
Bucks won a championship with
two Antetokounmpos on their
roster. I had 15 and couldn’t beat
the computer on a moderate
difficulty. Maybe the problem
was me.Accounting for the possibility
that I’m really bad at video
games, let’s try to answer the
question the more traditional
way. Through Feb. 17, James had
held opposing guards to 36.6%
shooting, forwards to 40.6%, and
centers to 50.8%. In that same
span, Antetokounmpo performed
similarly against 5s (50.4%) and
forwards (41.0%), but worse
against guards (43.1%). On the
offensive side, Giannis’s numbers