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Over the last few days, people have been talking about 17-year-old Cooper Flagg and the performance he put on as a member of the Select Team while scrimmaging Team USA. The 6-foot-8 forward, who many predict will be the first selection in next year’s draft and will attend Duke University in the meanwhile, trounced the grown men preparing to compete in the Summer Olympics in Paris.
Nonetheless, there was no doubt that the best player at Team USA’s training camp was a familiar figure who has dominated the NBA for long stretches over the last two decades: LeBron James.
“Seventeen-year-old Duke phenom Cooper Flagg might have been the surprise star of Team USA training camp, but the real plot twist was that an NBA legend more than twice his age, 39-year-old LeBron James, was the best,” the two authors wrote. “James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer who is months away from the start of his 22nd season, was voted the top national team player in camp in a straw poll of Olympic camp participants conducted by The Athletic.”
At least one player was surprised that after all these days, James still appears to be at or near the top of his game.
“That’s what I told my brother after the first day, I was like, dude’s 40 and he’s the best player on the court,” said Amen Thompson, a Houston Rockets forward who voted in the poll because he participated in camp as a select team member. For the Los Angeles Lakers this past NBA season, James averaged 25.7 points, 8.3 assists, and 7.3 rebounds a game while shooting 54% from the field and 41% from three. He has showed little, if any, deterioration, and with a new two-year contract, he may be able to remain an elite player for one or two more seasons.
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