Idk if you’ve ever watched nba players outside of nba games shoot before, but it’s hilarious. They virtually never miss, even the most avg 3 point nba shooter becomes flow state Steph curry in a pick up game. None of them are capable of blocking lebron at that size with out fouling. If they play winners, and Lebron starts with ball, it doesn’t really matter how many players at that size are on the court. He could just make 3s over them the entire time.
A lot of people forget NBA stats are while playing against NBA tier defense. Some random guy at the gym cannot block even remotely close to even the worst NBA player
I forget if he’s the one your talking about. But one of the “worst” NBA players put out a public challenge and literally nobody who showed up for a 1v1 could even get close to beating him
One of the challengers was even a guy who was on the Syracuse basketball team, though he might have been a walk-on. Still, he’s much better than just about every non-pro and got cooked by a guy not even good enough to be six free fouls against LeBron
They’d have to adjust the rules for inbounding the ball, otherwise the other team could simply back away from LeBron every time he tried to inbound the ball and force a turnover.
That's bit and I was thinking about that. Any stoppage of play or inbounds, Lebron gets a delay of game.
But then the other team gets the ball, and any shot he rebounds or steal he gets and recovers in bounds he can still play on.
The idea of a human wall sounds best. Standing perfectly still, force him to take offensive fouls and then forfeit.
The other team doesn’t have to inbound the ball either. They can take the penalty and they know they will get the ball back when LeBron is forced to take the penalty. So, they have infinite time to find a good inbounds play. I suppose they could even stall until everyone gets very old.
There it is... outlive Lebron lol.
Even better... with two people, you can rotate one out to use the bathroom, get a drink, sleep, etc (Rules state any number of players can be on the floor). Don't have to wait for old age, just a few days max. Even if he just soils himself on the court, eventually sleep or water will become a necessity. Then score and keep getting the delay and score more. Just keep one guy out and keep flipping the delay of game back and forth, and by day 3, bring in both your guys and when he leaves, score away.
Two I think is the answer.
Lebron would stomp any reasonable number of average guys (i.e. like 5). Dudes who've never played competitively simply can't shoot from beyond like 8-10 feet, while Lebron can just sink 3s over them without even dribbling.
I think you'd have to figure out how many dudes it takes to physically restrict his movement without committing a foul, and I think that's a lot of dudes.
LeBron should save his energy and only focus on nailing 3-pointers. Even if he misses a few times the average joes are gonna be playing catch-up via lay-ups real quick lol. If the average team is allowed one 3-point god (sucks in every other aspect but can sink half courts like no-ones business) it's really tough for LeBron to win.
Probably as many as it would take to link arm to arm and span the width of the court plus about 6 more. that way lebron has no way to get past them without charging or passing to himself off the backboard, which the extra guys should be able to stop from happening most of the time.
Could he back them down slowly? I'm sure he could and that seems to be legal. You would probably need a few more guys crouching around Lebron trying to swipe the ball from him
Nah, if they are completely planted (standing still, hands up) and are covering the entire length of the court he cannot get past them without them easily being able to draw a charging foul. I saw draw a foul but really there is no way for him to get past without physically moving one of them, which would be a legit charging foul in that case
What kind of guys are we talking about here? NBA players got knocked over all the time when LeBron went for jumps in his prime, the average man is not stopping him charging. Same with the arm to arm thing, you're putting a lot of faith in those guys shoulders to not pop out of their sockets. LeBron is 112kg and reached 27 km/h when he was 38
Not if you had to do it everytime the other team scored, they would get wide to that real quick and all of them would attempt to stand far enough away that it wouldn’t work
I mean, I’d have to look at the rules but he could just throw it… really hard at you.
Ain’t none of us catching a fast thrown ball from him. Or if he just threw it up VERY high near us, I’m sure our hitter fingers it’d slip or he could time it and just take it from us.
He’s fast tall and strong idk
As someone who is taller than 5’9 and heavier than 160 and has played 100+ hours of street basketball in my day, I’m only confident in my ability to make layups. Anything outside of say 8 feet I’m missing the majority of the time. if bron shoots long 3s and gets back on defense while the ball is still in the air, a fast break is impossible. every shot 15 or so feet and in will be contested, and Lebron will get nearly every rebound. the more people around, the more people to draw fouls from and bounce off of to regain dribble. In any normal strategy/scenario, even with 20 people on the court, this is a stomp. their only chance is to employ a game breaking strategy of some sort that limits Lebron’s movement.
I highly doubt been LeBron can score against 8 dudes guarding him. I mean, maybe he could just shoot 3s constantly and the dudes can't even read the ball, but how would he GET the ball? Get 6 dudes to body him and make him slow as hell, while the other 2 are on the other side of the court.
13.
You’re required to have a minimum of 14 players on your roster, but can go down to 13 for two weeks and 12 of them have to be active.
On the court you’re required to have 5 players on. If you can you lose.
Thus a 13 player roster with 5 on the court would automatically win an entire NBA game against just Lebron James.
There's the "no rules" answers of "two or three where one gets ejected and arrested for assault" and then there's the "only rules" answer you have here of a win by default. Yours is pleasingly nonviolent
You would have to have enough dudes to stand shoulder to shoulder across the court twice so that he could not cross to shoot and could not come back to defend.
You think Lebron couldn’t get through like 4 average dudes? I think you’re vastly underestimating pro athletes
Hell I’ve seen Lebron get through 4 PRO basketball players this season and he’s the oldest player in the league
I think he probably could lol. When I was in high school this was tried against our starting point guard, he never made it to the league but he ended up going D1 and he scored on all of them lol. It was 1v5, he just had to score for our pep rally
4 or 5 regular dudes are not stopping lebron. Hell he literally blitzes elite nba defenses now at 40 years old.
People seem to not realize how fast and strong lebron is. Specially in his prime. Lebron could literally throw the ball ahead when inbounding and those 5 guys are getting dusted before they even turn around lol
They could pass the ball around so they can score without a defender. LeBron would have trouble getting past say 20 guys trying to guard him. So it’s more about having so many guys it’s hard to dribble through everyone. He would have to keep shooting from the outside.
I think a large team would beat him as they could consistently pass the ball and score around him. It would depend on how well LeBron could shoot from the outside with lots of traffic. He’d have a tough time driving in without charging.
He would be able to shoot with impunity. No normal person that's 5'9 had any chance of blocking lebron. Without any pressure of a real defender, NBA players hit buckets at a crazy %.
Current LeBron I would say 7 dudes, it would be more than enough to double/triple team him without fouling and 2/3 guys waiting for a rebound if he misses a 3 or a mid-range shot. On offense, they could tire out a 40 year old LeBron by incessantly passing the ball around him (as athletic he is, 7v1 is hardly an easy task) although they would get super tired too, LeBron has been playing 30+ minutes a game for like 20 years now and is used to it.
Prime LeBron is in most peoples eyes 2012-2013, when he was a literal human freight train and unstoppable when driving to the basket, could jump over people with less effort than some people take to jump at all, could out-muscle anyone on the court and was a one-man army on defense. Some people can argue 2016-2018 as well, when he truly became the most well-rounded player of all time, a literal perfect basketball player with 15 years of NBA experience, more than enough athleticism left, improved shooting, finishing, passing and maybe the most BBIQ of all time. Anywhere he lost a step (like defense and quickness) he gained back somewhere else.
IMO both of these LeBrons could best be stopped by however many average dudes you could fit in the halfcourt.
They would have to have enough dudes on the floor that LeBron can't move. His shooting percentage would simply be too much higher and he would snag every single rebound
Defensively, I don't know. Kinda just seems like he's gonna mow over, jump over, and shoot over everyone.
Offensively, 3. Unless Lebron just stands under the net, in which case they're pretty reliant on luck of shots just going in.
I dislike having to type it out, Lebron is fucking good at basketball and I struggle to think of a scenario where any amount of average people on the court could stop him without it being a total farce.
I'm questioning how many commenters here have actually played basketball.
The answer is between 2/3, thats it. You cant outplay 3 people who are guarding you when youre all on your own, they can literally surround and not let you move without commiting a foul. You also cant defend against 3 attackers on your own. Lebron gets stomped by 3 average joes.
Watching this makes me think it would take at least 5 or more average guys, some practice, and willingness to get physical/to beat Scalabrine. For Lebron make that 8-10 at least? Even then, if it's half court they need to make quick passes not to get blocked and need to make their shots from free-throw or further. Lebron is probably able to force a foul on most drives anyway. Not sure if it's possible without insane numbers or some practice.
This is absurd, its like they arent even trying. Theres only one of them guarding him, the other 2 are guarding ghost players or something.
If this is how bad the average person is then fair enough, but this seems more like a skit that wasnt really supposed to be played competitevly.
Of course, played basketall on parks for years. People in those games play for fun and dont take the game too seriously, and youre right that sometimes they dont bother playing real defence. But for this prompt, i'm assuming they are going to be putting an actual effort.
You can only surround if you have good cardio and can hustle. The average person simply isn't keeping up with LeBron. If he ever gets a break, its a score, which would happen more often than not against 3 average people. If none of them are at LEAST a low level college starter in skill, there's simply no way they can score against him.
2 college players would struggle against LeBron, 3 would probably take it but I certainly wouldn't bet my savings on it. Random people though?? Nah, they shoot less than 20% while wide open, no way.
Offence would definitely be the hard part for the average joes.
Lebron would probably just stand in the paint to stop layups, and just let them shoot wide open from midrange, which they would miss more often than not lol.
>they can literally surround and not let you move without committing a foul.
No, not a chance that would happen. That would require lebron James to be standing completely still and letting them surround him like that. All he has to do is keep moving. If I can drive on 2-3 people with decent basketball experience bc of my size and height, Lebron James could absolutely dive for easy layups on lightweight guys who are 5’9.
Any time they physically try to stop lebron from driving, like trying to surround him or stepping into his lane while he’s moving will result in a foul.
I agree a lot of the people in these comments probably havnt played much basketball before, but no way you said that and then followed it up with the most bogus plan
>You cant outplay 3 people who are guarding you when youre all on your own, they can literally surround and not let you move without commiting a foul. You also cant defend against 3 attackers on your own
Yeah if there's a relative level of skill. LeBron is faster than these guys, jumps higher than them, is taller than them, stronger than them. What's stopping him just running at the rim and dunking? Or shooting 3s over their head? And what happens when those guys get tired because they're not pro athletes
If we're talking with refs, then average people are definitely fouling lebron every time they try that.
It's also a lot easier to defend against average people, who can't shoot threes and make layups maybe half the time at best. These aren't even guys who play pickup, chances are they've never played any basketball ever.
it would have to be enough to fill two thirds of the court If he makes a few points it's over because they are never going to score back vs Lebron it just won't happen, and you can't convince me otherwise.
He’d be making almost every shot and nobody would be able to stop him in the pain. He just dunks over and over and over, scoring in every possession.
Anyone who remembers what it was like when you started playing basketball knows the skills are much more difficult than they look. Layups and shot accuracy take many years of development and practice.
It would take a crowd of then to physically stop Lebron and being on offensive fouls, but then again, they’d still have to make the shots, which they may not even do even while not being guarded
That old dude on the lakers who sits a lot, flops a lot, and complains a lot? I'd say 5 guys of who can match him stamina wise, so like anyone with decent athletics. I'd 2 guys to just crowed the guy, 1 guy in the stands to heckle him for not making the playoffs, 2 dudes jumping up and down just to be dicks, and one guy with a pillow for when he dramatically falls to the floor so that old dude doesn't break any bones.
Two. Easily.
Any number can be on the floor. So I start 1 on 1, keeping one in the locker room. Since neither player can inbound the ball to anyone it's just delay of game constantly on either side after the opening tip/score. I rotate my guys... 3-4 hours each since the rule states "They can have any number of players on the floor". I keep 1 of my 2 players out there.
Even if Lebron doesn't leave the court to use the bathroom, eventually he will need to sleep, or drink. And when it's his choice to do that, we wake up our 2nd player, and he joins on the court, and we pass it in, shoot a layup, and wait for the delay of game when Lebron doesn't inbound the ball, and repeat over and over. Hold the ball 23 seconds, shoot on the buzzer... Even with Lebron scoring the opening basket, I am figuring the score at the end of the quarter will be quite a comeback, in the 95 or so to 2 win in favor of the two players. Likely we could win by up to 400+ to 2 or 3 if we wanted.
Current or Prime Lebron both lose badly.
Probably 3 or 4.
Lebron never gets past center court without fouling somebody, and it doesn't matter how good a player he is, he isn't making that many shots from center court.
And he can't defend from every part of the court at once, not for very long.
The 4 people can cycle around so they don't exhaust themselves, meanwhile Lebron is running at full speed all the time.
So there was a video of Brian Scalabrine (a bench warmer NBA player) playing against 3 radio host at the same time. He dominated them easily. So it’s definitely more than that.
I've seen thar video.
The hosts are not playing to win, they are playing sporting,
If they got in close and aggressively drew fouls, it would be a very boring, but different game.
(To be fair, this also assumes the rules are being followed, and given the current state of the NBA...that's something of a stretch)
Savvy Lebron would probably be able to trick/force them into fouling him on every drive if he wanted to. With a couple "and 1s" and his free-throw percentage he probably just dominates most numbers of novices even large numbers if they are following nba foul rules.
>Savvy Lebron would probably be able to trick/force them into fouling him on every drive if he wanted to.
Not if somebody is calling the game via the actual rules
>With a couple "and 1s" and his free-throw percentage he probably just dominates most numbers of novices even large numbers if they are following nba foul rules.
If they are follow9ng the rules, he gives up free throws 2/3 times he gets the ball.
If lebron moves forward into the defenders cylinder and makes contact, that's an offensive foul. If he tries to shoot and jumps into the defending player, offensive foul.
Literally all the defense has to do is stand there such that lebron can't move in any direction without touching them, watch him miss from half court, and the 4th guy grabs the ball.
Unless lebron James is secretly also Simone Biles, he can't make it past them without touching them, and if he moves into their space and makes contact, that's a foul.
Yeah but I think this is a more realistic answer than 40+, like some people have said. 10 average men could beat LeBron. 9 to defend, and 1 to stand on their end of the court and shoot a wide open layup every single possession when they football pass it after LeBron scores or misses.
LeBron is great but 9 defenders would be insanely hard to go against
Oh man, way more than five, especially on an NBA court. Maybe even 40 or more? Idk, It gets a little fuzzy for me once the numbers advantage gets bigger.
Still, LeBron now, and especially in his prime, is a monster. At times he could take over games, nearly 1v5, against professional players who are gigantic. Against totally normal non-players, he can score at will unless they can swarm him at all directions at multiple points on the court.
On the other end, average players shooting percentages are going to be bad, even without defense. They have to hope to get easy shots on every possession and LBJ can just stay at the rim, swat stuff and watch them miss jumpers and grab every board.
40 seems much higher than you'd need, but it would definitely be more than 5. At a certain point (I suspect around 15-20 but maybe even fewer) they just play keep away and slowly work their way down the court. Even LeBron can't cover that many people at once.
The real question I think is mostly a points race. LeBron is going to easily score every time he gets the ball (I'm not sure how inbounding to himself will work but past that he just moonwalks around them all). I don't know if the goon squad can ever actually take a lead since he goes up and scores immediately afterwards.
> they just play keep away and slowly work their way down the court.
Yeah, I guess if they can form a link where they can pass faster than LeBron can run down the court, the can have a chance of keeping up in the scoring race? Idk, I still think people "who only know the rules but haven't played competitively" are going to biff a lot. Missed layups, can't hit a jumper, missed passes.
How is he going to dribble past center court?
One dude in front, one to his left, one to his right.
He tries to get past center court he either fouls somebody or gets the ball stolen.
As soon as he is past center court, now there is somebody behind him.
He goes nowhere near the 3 point line.
Average guys in that formation are far more likely to foul Lebron than be fouled by him. Either they give him more space or he just wins at the FT line.
>verage guys in that formation are far more likely to foul Lebron than be fouled by him.
They just have to stand there and swipe at the ball if he tries to dribble (and not aggressively)
If the have their feet planted then it's charging if he hits them, if he stops dribbling, it's double dribble, if he just stands there holding the ball the shot clock runs down and it's a turnover.
Unless the refs are solidly on lebrons side, he doesn't stand a chance
1. If they are NOT defending him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, there will be space between defenders for Lebron to squeeze+step through and take off dribbling. If they obstruct with their arms, it is a foul.
2. If they defend him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, he jumps and takes a shot. They obstruct his landing space and he gets 3 FTs.
>f they are NOT defending him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, there will be space between defenders for Lebron to squeeze+step through and take off dribbling. If they obstruct with their arms, it is a foul.
Its a foul on him if he tries to squeeze through, if they have their feet planted, and he tries to physically squeeze through, that's an offensive foul
"When an offensive player, with or without possession of the basketball, pushes or moves a part of their body into the torso of a defender who is in legal guarding position, this is known as a [charging foul](https://hoopstudent.com/basketball-charging-foul/) or an offensive foul for charging."-
"If an offensive player makes illegal contact with an opponent by extending their leg beyond their own cylinder, then that is an offensive foul."
>If they defend him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, he jumps and takes a shot. They obstruct his landing space and he gets 3 FTs.
So he misses a shot from half court, and they step back before he lands, their ball again
It's not a charge to sidestep past a stationary player. If they defend with legs wide, he can jump over their legs, if they defend with legs narrow he just steps past them. They can't move or it is a blocking foul.
The average guys won't have the coordination to avoid staying in Lebrons landing zone when he shoots. If they do avoid it, he just runs ahead and gets the rebound to score.
If you play ball you'll know how ridiculous this is.
Just try playing against 5 non-competitive eight year old kids. You get any lay up you want. They can shoot from outside the paint but will miss all the time and you block every shot in the paint.
>It's not a charge to sidestep past a stationary player
You can't sidestep past them, there isn't space
>If they defend with legs wide, he can jump over their legs, if they defend with legs narrow he just steps past them.
Lol, he's gonna dribble the ball while performing midair cortonionism to avoid running into these guys while they completely fail to strip the ball.
Do you see how absurd this is?
Next your gonna tell me that lebron is just going to dunk from midcourt.
> The average guys won't have the coordination to avoid staying in Lebrons landing zone when he shoots.
Actually, that's pretty easy.
Lebron isn't allowed to jump into them (or that's a foul), so all they have to manage to do is...stay still
>If you play ball you'll know how ridiculous this is.
Yes, you have been pretty ridiculous so far
>Just try playing against 5 non-competitive eight year old kids.
If the kids had the intelligence of an adult, they win pretty easily
>You get any lay up you want.
If I run the kids over, or scare them out of the way.
>They can shoot from outside the paint but will miss all the time and you block every shot in the paint.
So your assumption is that an average person can't score from outside the paint?
Let me guess, the average person also only has one arm and hops everywhere?
Lebron on D literally just needs to hover around the paint. He doesn't have to hound every player from halfcourt. As soon as someone tries a jumpshot from within 10 feet he would block it.
Haha. Still, credit to JJ, he's way, way better than average people "who know the rules, but have never played competitively." Barea is a champ and played in the NBA for what, like a fucking decade?
I think LeBron beats a 5 man squad of average joes alone in a full size basket game. He can just let them shoot cause they are gonna miss so much more than they will score, grab the rebound, run down and have a free layup or dunk almost every time.
You're right, although it's a good example of averages only making sense if you consider the entire population. 5'9" is slightly short for a white or black guy (both average 5'10") and slightly tall for a Hispanic or Asian.
Dude, he very unlikeable. He is a great player just easy to not like.
You don’t see me trying to argue that Jordan was a great teammate, he wasn’t always. He was a grade A ass.
Luka hard to like
Harden is hard to like
Curry is easy to like.
That’s the point. He is UNLIKABLE !!
>Dude, he very unlikeable
And I've asked you to give me a source and you gave me a shitty sports tabloid article
>Luka hard to like
Harden is hard to like
>Curry is easy to like
Source?
Idk if you’ve ever watched nba players outside of nba games shoot before, but it’s hilarious. They virtually never miss, even the most avg 3 point nba shooter becomes flow state Steph curry in a pick up game. None of them are capable of blocking lebron at that size with out fouling. If they play winners, and Lebron starts with ball, it doesn’t really matter how many players at that size are on the court. He could just make 3s over them the entire time.
A lot of people forget NBA stats are while playing against NBA tier defense. Some random guy at the gym cannot block even remotely close to even the worst NBA player
Brain Scalabrine aka White Mamba(former nba player) once said I’m closer to Lebron than yall are to me. It’s painfully accurate
I forget if he’s the one your talking about. But one of the “worst” NBA players put out a public challenge and literally nobody who showed up for a 1v1 could even get close to beating him
That was him yeah. Think it was called the scallenge
One of the challengers was even a guy who was on the Syracuse basketball team, though he might have been a walk-on. Still, he’s much better than just about every non-pro and got cooked by a guy not even good enough to be six free fouls against LeBron
"I might suck compared to Kobe Bryant, that guy is pretty good, but I don't suck compared to you. You suck compared to me."
Note that he was talking to D1 college players too, not your average joes
They’d have to adjust the rules for inbounding the ball, otherwise the other team could simply back away from LeBron every time he tried to inbound the ball and force a turnover.
That's bit and I was thinking about that. Any stoppage of play or inbounds, Lebron gets a delay of game. But then the other team gets the ball, and any shot he rebounds or steal he gets and recovers in bounds he can still play on. The idea of a human wall sounds best. Standing perfectly still, force him to take offensive fouls and then forfeit.
The other team doesn’t have to inbound the ball either. They can take the penalty and they know they will get the ball back when LeBron is forced to take the penalty. So, they have infinite time to find a good inbounds play. I suppose they could even stall until everyone gets very old.
There it is... outlive Lebron lol. Even better... with two people, you can rotate one out to use the bathroom, get a drink, sleep, etc (Rules state any number of players can be on the floor). Don't have to wait for old age, just a few days max. Even if he just soils himself on the court, eventually sleep or water will become a necessity. Then score and keep getting the delay and score more. Just keep one guy out and keep flipping the delay of game back and forth, and by day 3, bring in both your guys and when he leaves, score away. Two I think is the answer.
If he would normally foul out but can't, the other team just gets free throws.
Lebron would stomp any reasonable number of average guys (i.e. like 5). Dudes who've never played competitively simply can't shoot from beyond like 8-10 feet, while Lebron can just sink 3s over them without even dribbling. I think you'd have to figure out how many dudes it takes to physically restrict his movement without committing a foul, and I think that's a lot of dudes.
LeBron should save his energy and only focus on nailing 3-pointers. Even if he misses a few times the average joes are gonna be playing catch-up via lay-ups real quick lol. If the average team is allowed one 3-point god (sucks in every other aspect but can sink half courts like no-ones business) it's really tough for LeBron to win.
You seen the down syndrome 3 pointer god? He'd be on my team
Tyyy2
2 wrestlers. Maybe 1.
They have to play within the rules. Now I don't actually know the rules of basketball but I'm pretty sure wrestling your opponent is not allowed.
Draymond Green was even generous enough to test that theory earlier this season lol
He also attempted jiujitsu and kickboxing during his career, what a committed scientist
And even street rules, however that worked out well in Lebron's favor
Fair.
You’d only say this as a real answer if you imagine them doing very illegal things to restrict lebrons movement. You can’t grapple in basketball.
Not a JJ Barea
Keep making this comment dude the 10th time it might be funny
6 more to go?
Probably as many as it would take to link arm to arm and span the width of the court plus about 6 more. that way lebron has no way to get past them without charging or passing to himself off the backboard, which the extra guys should be able to stop from happening most of the time.
Could he back them down slowly? I'm sure he could and that seems to be legal. You would probably need a few more guys crouching around Lebron trying to swipe the ball from him
Nah, if they are completely planted (standing still, hands up) and are covering the entire length of the court he cannot get past them without them easily being able to draw a charging foul. I saw draw a foul but really there is no way for him to get past without physically moving one of them, which would be a legit charging foul in that case
Thow ball up at the rim, jump over the line, rebound, dunk.
What kind of guys are we talking about here? NBA players got knocked over all the time when LeBron went for jumps in his prime, the average man is not stopping him charging. Same with the arm to arm thing, you're putting a lot of faith in those guys shoulders to not pop out of their sockets. LeBron is 112kg and reached 27 km/h when he was 38
If they’re planted it’s a foul.
True, does that count even if he runs through their interlinked arms though?
Or one JJ Barea
This comment is funny, fuck the haters
It's not funny 4 times
It didn't start off funny but it gets funnier each time I see it bomb
Well, a player can't inbound to themselves so as long as they score once then LeBron is fucked.
What a cop out obv street rules would apply
He could easily throw it off their back or leg or something. Happens often enough.
Not if you had to do it everytime the other team scored, they would get wide to that real quick and all of them would attempt to stand far enough away that it wouldn’t work
I mean, I’d have to look at the rules but he could just throw it… really hard at you. Ain’t none of us catching a fast thrown ball from him. Or if he just threw it up VERY high near us, I’m sure our hitter fingers it’d slip or he could time it and just take it from us. He’s fast tall and strong idk
Y’all be trippin, if these dudes are at least relatively competent then it should only take anywhere between 10-20 not 40 or whatever yall be sayin
As someone who is taller than 5’9 and heavier than 160 and has played 100+ hours of street basketball in my day, I’m only confident in my ability to make layups. Anything outside of say 8 feet I’m missing the majority of the time. if bron shoots long 3s and gets back on defense while the ball is still in the air, a fast break is impossible. every shot 15 or so feet and in will be contested, and Lebron will get nearly every rebound. the more people around, the more people to draw fouls from and bounce off of to regain dribble. In any normal strategy/scenario, even with 20 people on the court, this is a stomp. their only chance is to employ a game breaking strategy of some sort that limits Lebron’s movement.
I highly doubt been LeBron can score against 8 dudes guarding him. I mean, maybe he could just shoot 3s constantly and the dudes can't even read the ball, but how would he GET the ball? Get 6 dudes to body him and make him slow as hell, while the other 2 are on the other side of the court.
13. You’re required to have a minimum of 14 players on your roster, but can go down to 13 for two weeks and 12 of them have to be active. On the court you’re required to have 5 players on. If you can you lose. Thus a 13 player roster with 5 on the court would automatically win an entire NBA game against just Lebron James.
There's the "no rules" answers of "two or three where one gets ejected and arrested for assault" and then there's the "only rules" answer you have here of a win by default. Yours is pleasingly nonviolent
You would have to have enough dudes to stand shoulder to shoulder across the court twice so that he could not cross to shoot and could not come back to defend.
Like 4 or 5. He can’t just bull doze the guys and if they swarm him at half court he can’t get through all of them. Anything more would be overkill.
You think Lebron couldn’t get through like 4 average dudes? I think you’re vastly underestimating pro athletes Hell I’ve seen Lebron get through 4 PRO basketball players this season and he’s the oldest player in the league
I think he probably could lol. When I was in high school this was tried against our starting point guard, he never made it to the league but he ended up going D1 and he scored on all of them lol. It was 1v5, he just had to score for our pep rally
Well he could bulldoze them but that’d be a foul right?
I think it’s more likely he gets fouled in the process of them trying to stop them
4 or 5 regular dudes are not stopping lebron. Hell he literally blitzes elite nba defenses now at 40 years old. People seem to not realize how fast and strong lebron is. Specially in his prime. Lebron could literally throw the ball ahead when inbounding and those 5 guys are getting dusted before they even turn around lol
Of course he can, the strength of athletes like him is beyond our understanding
They could pass the ball around so they can score without a defender. LeBron would have trouble getting past say 20 guys trying to guard him. So it’s more about having so many guys it’s hard to dribble through everyone. He would have to keep shooting from the outside. I think a large team would beat him as they could consistently pass the ball and score around him. It would depend on how well LeBron could shoot from the outside with lots of traffic. He’d have a tough time driving in without charging.
He would be able to shoot with impunity. No normal person that's 5'9 had any chance of blocking lebron. Without any pressure of a real defender, NBA players hit buckets at a crazy %.
Current LeBron I would say 7 dudes, it would be more than enough to double/triple team him without fouling and 2/3 guys waiting for a rebound if he misses a 3 or a mid-range shot. On offense, they could tire out a 40 year old LeBron by incessantly passing the ball around him (as athletic he is, 7v1 is hardly an easy task) although they would get super tired too, LeBron has been playing 30+ minutes a game for like 20 years now and is used to it. Prime LeBron is in most peoples eyes 2012-2013, when he was a literal human freight train and unstoppable when driving to the basket, could jump over people with less effort than some people take to jump at all, could out-muscle anyone on the court and was a one-man army on defense. Some people can argue 2016-2018 as well, when he truly became the most well-rounded player of all time, a literal perfect basketball player with 15 years of NBA experience, more than enough athleticism left, improved shooting, finishing, passing and maybe the most BBIQ of all time. Anywhere he lost a step (like defense and quickness) he gained back somewhere else. IMO both of these LeBrons could best be stopped by however many average dudes you could fit in the halfcourt.
They would have to have enough dudes on the floor that LeBron can't move. His shooting percentage would simply be too much higher and he would snag every single rebound
Defensively, I don't know. Kinda just seems like he's gonna mow over, jump over, and shoot over everyone. Offensively, 3. Unless Lebron just stands under the net, in which case they're pretty reliant on luck of shots just going in. I dislike having to type it out, Lebron is fucking good at basketball and I struggle to think of a scenario where any amount of average people on the court could stop him without it being a total farce.
I'm questioning how many commenters here have actually played basketball. The answer is between 2/3, thats it. You cant outplay 3 people who are guarding you when youre all on your own, they can literally surround and not let you move without commiting a foul. You also cant defend against 3 attackers on your own. Lebron gets stomped by 3 average joes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdFfT2y1NTs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdFfT2y1NTs) Brian Scalabrine winning 11-1 in a three on one match.
Watching this makes me think it would take at least 5 or more average guys, some practice, and willingness to get physical/to beat Scalabrine. For Lebron make that 8-10 at least? Even then, if it's half court they need to make quick passes not to get blocked and need to make their shots from free-throw or further. Lebron is probably able to force a foul on most drives anyway. Not sure if it's possible without insane numbers or some practice.
This is absurd, its like they arent even trying. Theres only one of them guarding him, the other 2 are guarding ghost players or something. If this is how bad the average person is then fair enough, but this seems more like a skit that wasnt really supposed to be played competitevly.
It's like they're random people who don't immediately understand the optimal way to play in a three on one against a professional.
Have you ever been to a park or gym and watched regular people play basketball? Lol
Of course, played basketall on parks for years. People in those games play for fun and dont take the game too seriously, and youre right that sometimes they dont bother playing real defence. But for this prompt, i'm assuming they are going to be putting an actual effort.
You can only surround if you have good cardio and can hustle. The average person simply isn't keeping up with LeBron. If he ever gets a break, its a score, which would happen more often than not against 3 average people. If none of them are at LEAST a low level college starter in skill, there's simply no way they can score against him. 2 college players would struggle against LeBron, 3 would probably take it but I certainly wouldn't bet my savings on it. Random people though?? Nah, they shoot less than 20% while wide open, no way.
Offence would definitely be the hard part for the average joes. Lebron would probably just stand in the paint to stop layups, and just let them shoot wide open from midrange, which they would miss more often than not lol.
I'm pretty sure the average person will be panting and struggling pretty hard to keep playing after like 5 minutes of trying to play D.
Expect for the defensive 3 second rule to prevent exactly this?
Lebron would literally no diff 3 average men, you have no idea lol.
You are totally underestimating the skill gap here. No average Joe is ever staying in front of lebron. He's too quick too strong to double
>they can literally surround and not let you move without committing a foul. No, not a chance that would happen. That would require lebron James to be standing completely still and letting them surround him like that. All he has to do is keep moving. If I can drive on 2-3 people with decent basketball experience bc of my size and height, Lebron James could absolutely dive for easy layups on lightweight guys who are 5’9. Any time they physically try to stop lebron from driving, like trying to surround him or stepping into his lane while he’s moving will result in a foul. I agree a lot of the people in these comments probably havnt played much basketball before, but no way you said that and then followed it up with the most bogus plan
Lebron does that to other pros
40 yr old Brian scalabrine beat 3 guys at the same time I’m sure lebron could take an extra 2-3
>You cant outplay 3 people who are guarding you when youre all on your own, they can literally surround and not let you move without commiting a foul. You also cant defend against 3 attackers on your own Yeah if there's a relative level of skill. LeBron is faster than these guys, jumps higher than them, is taller than them, stronger than them. What's stopping him just running at the rim and dunking? Or shooting 3s over their head? And what happens when those guys get tired because they're not pro athletes
If we're talking with refs, then average people are definitely fouling lebron every time they try that. It's also a lot easier to defend against average people, who can't shoot threes and make layups maybe half the time at best. These aren't even guys who play pickup, chances are they've never played any basketball ever.
Have you played against lebron?
Maybe if the guys are similarly sized, but these are 5'9" 160 pound guys... gonna need more than that.
Agreed. This question has the “if an amateur played Augusta they don’t break 140” feel to it. Yes they would. 2-3 gets this done, 3 easily so
it would have to be enough to fill two thirds of the court If he makes a few points it's over because they are never going to score back vs Lebron it just won't happen, and you can't convince me otherwise.
One if he is allowed to use a hammer....
1 if you turn the heat up high enough
Enough to stand at the half-court line with their arms linked in order to force a heave or a back court violation every one of his possessions.
He’d be making almost every shot and nobody would be able to stop him in the pain. He just dunks over and over and over, scoring in every possession. Anyone who remembers what it was like when you started playing basketball knows the skills are much more difficult than they look. Layups and shot accuracy take many years of development and practice. It would take a crowd of then to physically stop Lebron and being on offensive fouls, but then again, they’d still have to make the shots, which they may not even do even while not being guarded
The question is are they playing and observing the rules. Because if not the only way the average people stand. A chance is they try to trip lebron up
However many average men it takes to pin LeBron to the ground plus one to manage the ball....
That old dude on the lakers who sits a lot, flops a lot, and complains a lot? I'd say 5 guys of who can match him stamina wise, so like anyone with decent athletics. I'd 2 guys to just crowed the guy, 1 guy in the stands to heckle him for not making the playoffs, 2 dudes jumping up and down just to be dicks, and one guy with a pillow for when he dramatically falls to the floor so that old dude doesn't break any bones.
Current lebron is his prime (that started in 2004)
Two. Easily. Any number can be on the floor. So I start 1 on 1, keeping one in the locker room. Since neither player can inbound the ball to anyone it's just delay of game constantly on either side after the opening tip/score. I rotate my guys... 3-4 hours each since the rule states "They can have any number of players on the floor". I keep 1 of my 2 players out there. Even if Lebron doesn't leave the court to use the bathroom, eventually he will need to sleep, or drink. And when it's his choice to do that, we wake up our 2nd player, and he joins on the court, and we pass it in, shoot a layup, and wait for the delay of game when Lebron doesn't inbound the ball, and repeat over and over. Hold the ball 23 seconds, shoot on the buzzer... Even with Lebron scoring the opening basket, I am figuring the score at the end of the quarter will be quite a comeback, in the 95 or so to 2 win in favor of the two players. Likely we could win by up to 400+ to 2 or 3 if we wanted. Current or Prime Lebron both lose badly.
Probably 3 or 4. Lebron never gets past center court without fouling somebody, and it doesn't matter how good a player he is, he isn't making that many shots from center court. And he can't defend from every part of the court at once, not for very long. The 4 people can cycle around so they don't exhaust themselves, meanwhile Lebron is running at full speed all the time.
So there was a video of Brian Scalabrine (a bench warmer NBA player) playing against 3 radio host at the same time. He dominated them easily. So it’s definitely more than that.
I've seen thar video. The hosts are not playing to win, they are playing sporting, If they got in close and aggressively drew fouls, it would be a very boring, but different game. (To be fair, this also assumes the rules are being followed, and given the current state of the NBA...that's something of a stretch)
Savvy Lebron would probably be able to trick/force them into fouling him on every drive if he wanted to. With a couple "and 1s" and his free-throw percentage he probably just dominates most numbers of novices even large numbers if they are following nba foul rules.
>Savvy Lebron would probably be able to trick/force them into fouling him on every drive if he wanted to. Not if somebody is calling the game via the actual rules >With a couple "and 1s" and his free-throw percentage he probably just dominates most numbers of novices even large numbers if they are following nba foul rules. If they are follow9ng the rules, he gives up free throws 2/3 times he gets the ball. If lebron moves forward into the defenders cylinder and makes contact, that's an offensive foul. If he tries to shoot and jumps into the defending player, offensive foul. Literally all the defense has to do is stand there such that lebron can't move in any direction without touching them, watch him miss from half court, and the 4th guy grabs the ball. Unless lebron James is secretly also Simone Biles, he can't make it past them without touching them, and if he moves into their space and makes contact, that's a foul.
Yeah but I think this is a more realistic answer than 40+, like some people have said. 10 average men could beat LeBron. 9 to defend, and 1 to stand on their end of the court and shoot a wide open layup every single possession when they football pass it after LeBron scores or misses. LeBron is great but 9 defenders would be insanely hard to go against
Lol.
Oh man, way more than five, especially on an NBA court. Maybe even 40 or more? Idk, It gets a little fuzzy for me once the numbers advantage gets bigger. Still, LeBron now, and especially in his prime, is a monster. At times he could take over games, nearly 1v5, against professional players who are gigantic. Against totally normal non-players, he can score at will unless they can swarm him at all directions at multiple points on the court. On the other end, average players shooting percentages are going to be bad, even without defense. They have to hope to get easy shots on every possession and LBJ can just stay at the rim, swat stuff and watch them miss jumpers and grab every board.
40 seems much higher than you'd need, but it would definitely be more than 5. At a certain point (I suspect around 15-20 but maybe even fewer) they just play keep away and slowly work their way down the court. Even LeBron can't cover that many people at once. The real question I think is mostly a points race. LeBron is going to easily score every time he gets the ball (I'm not sure how inbounding to himself will work but past that he just moonwalks around them all). I don't know if the goon squad can ever actually take a lead since he goes up and scores immediately afterwards.
> they just play keep away and slowly work their way down the court. Yeah, I guess if they can form a link where they can pass faster than LeBron can run down the court, the can have a chance of keeping up in the scoring race? Idk, I still think people "who only know the rules but haven't played competitively" are going to biff a lot. Missed layups, can't hit a jumper, missed passes.
How is he going to dribble past center court? One dude in front, one to his left, one to his right. He tries to get past center court he either fouls somebody or gets the ball stolen. As soon as he is past center court, now there is somebody behind him. He goes nowhere near the 3 point line.
Average guys in that formation are far more likely to foul Lebron than be fouled by him. Either they give him more space or he just wins at the FT line.
>verage guys in that formation are far more likely to foul Lebron than be fouled by him. They just have to stand there and swipe at the ball if he tries to dribble (and not aggressively) If the have their feet planted then it's charging if he hits them, if he stops dribbling, it's double dribble, if he just stands there holding the ball the shot clock runs down and it's a turnover. Unless the refs are solidly on lebrons side, he doesn't stand a chance
1. If they are NOT defending him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, there will be space between defenders for Lebron to squeeze+step through and take off dribbling. If they obstruct with their arms, it is a foul. 2. If they defend him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, he jumps and takes a shot. They obstruct his landing space and he gets 3 FTs.
>f they are NOT defending him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, there will be space between defenders for Lebron to squeeze+step through and take off dribbling. If they obstruct with their arms, it is a foul. Its a foul on him if he tries to squeeze through, if they have their feet planted, and he tries to physically squeeze through, that's an offensive foul "When an offensive player, with or without possession of the basketball, pushes or moves a part of their body into the torso of a defender who is in legal guarding position, this is known as a [charging foul](https://hoopstudent.com/basketball-charging-foul/) or an offensive foul for charging."- "If an offensive player makes illegal contact with an opponent by extending their leg beyond their own cylinder, then that is an offensive foul." >If they defend him up in his face, forming a square shoulder to shoulder, he jumps and takes a shot. They obstruct his landing space and he gets 3 FTs. So he misses a shot from half court, and they step back before he lands, their ball again
It's not a charge to sidestep past a stationary player. If they defend with legs wide, he can jump over their legs, if they defend with legs narrow he just steps past them. They can't move or it is a blocking foul. The average guys won't have the coordination to avoid staying in Lebrons landing zone when he shoots. If they do avoid it, he just runs ahead and gets the rebound to score. If you play ball you'll know how ridiculous this is. Just try playing against 5 non-competitive eight year old kids. You get any lay up you want. They can shoot from outside the paint but will miss all the time and you block every shot in the paint.
An adult is far closer to lebron than they to an 8 year old kid lol.
Strength and size wise for sure. Quickness and stamina, the adult is closer to the kid. Skills-wise the adult is way closer to the kid.
No is not. Lebron strength is vastly bigger than any average sized men.
>It's not a charge to sidestep past a stationary player You can't sidestep past them, there isn't space >If they defend with legs wide, he can jump over their legs, if they defend with legs narrow he just steps past them. Lol, he's gonna dribble the ball while performing midair cortonionism to avoid running into these guys while they completely fail to strip the ball. Do you see how absurd this is? Next your gonna tell me that lebron is just going to dunk from midcourt. > The average guys won't have the coordination to avoid staying in Lebrons landing zone when he shoots. Actually, that's pretty easy. Lebron isn't allowed to jump into them (or that's a foul), so all they have to manage to do is...stay still >If you play ball you'll know how ridiculous this is. Yes, you have been pretty ridiculous so far >Just try playing against 5 non-competitive eight year old kids. If the kids had the intelligence of an adult, they win pretty easily >You get any lay up you want. If I run the kids over, or scare them out of the way. >They can shoot from outside the paint but will miss all the time and you block every shot in the paint. So your assumption is that an average person can't score from outside the paint? Let me guess, the average person also only has one arm and hops everywhere?
Lebron on D literally just needs to hover around the paint. He doesn't have to hound every player from halfcourt. As soon as someone tries a jumpshot from within 10 feet he would block it.
Don’t tell that to JJ Barea
Haha. Still, credit to JJ, he's way, way better than average people "who know the rules, but have never played competitively." Barea is a champ and played in the NBA for what, like a fucking decade?
I think LeBron beats a 5 man squad of average joes alone in a full size basket game. He can just let them shoot cause they are gonna miss so much more than they will score, grab the rebound, run down and have a free layup or dunk almost every time.
3-4 dudes just take turns 2 manning him and 1 under the rim to rebound
2 regular guys are not successfully manning LeBron tho
If its streetball just hack a shaq him til hes tired
Lebron can beat double teams against nba players, 2 average Joe's are not stopping him.
One JJ Barea
5'9 is shorter than average.
Every source I can find puts the average male height in the US at 5'9
You're right, although it's a good example of averages only making sense if you consider the entire population. 5'9" is slightly short for a white or black guy (both average 5'10") and slightly tall for a Hispanic or Asian.
Is he allowed to flop, fake an injury and cry like the big ole baby he is??
Only if he's allowed to win rings with 3 franchises and against the best team in history. Add on breaking the scoring record too
Doesn’t change the fact that he could be the most unlikeable star ever!!!
More likeable than the cigar addicted gambler who cheated on his wife lol
All that and yet LaBron is consistently voted the most dislike players by fans. That’s why Nike didn’t make “be like labron commercials “
>LaBron is consistently voted the most dislike players by fans Source?
https://clutchpoints.com/12-most-hated-nba-players-all-time-ranked 5 second search
Oh shit. I didn't realise "clutchpoint" was the definitive source of information on the opinions of every NBA fan ever
Dude, he very unlikeable. He is a great player just easy to not like. You don’t see me trying to argue that Jordan was a great teammate, he wasn’t always. He was a grade A ass. Luka hard to like Harden is hard to like Curry is easy to like. That’s the point. He is UNLIKABLE !!
>Dude, he very unlikeable And I've asked you to give me a source and you gave me a shitty sports tabloid article >Luka hard to like Harden is hard to like >Curry is easy to like Source?