Doc Rivers: 'No doubt' LeBron is top 5 all time

Having seen him close up for nearly a decade in the Eastern Conference, former Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers knows all about LeBron James.

And in Rivers' estimation, given the way James has dominated the league since breaking onto the scene as a teenager, there's no doubt that he's one of the top five players of all time.

"LeBron has a different game," Rivers told "The Dan Patrick Show." "We're so used to seeing skill looking graceful. We're not used to skill looking so powerful. I think that rubs people wrong. But LeBron, statistically, championships-wise, he is one of the top five players to have ever played the game."

James' case is ironclad. He already has three Finals MVPs, four MVPs (only three players have more), and three championships, and the 31-year-old clearly has plenty more in the tank.

When it's all said and done, it wouldn't be a surprise for him to finish as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with quite a few more championships to his name.

And yet there remains plenty of push-back, especially from the older talking heads, who insist James would never crack the pantheon. Charles Barkley, for example, insists that he would never add James to his top five.

Rivers attributes that phenomenon to the permanency that comes with the passage of time. They're missing out on what James is doing in the present.

"Players of the past are bigger than life to us and it's almost impossible for us to ever move a current player in front of them. Just statistically speaking, and visually since I was the coach of the Celtics ... we had a 3-2 lead then watched him score 45 (in 2012), he is in the top five. There is no doubt."