Drexler disagrees with LeBron: Superteams began long before '96 Rockets
If LeBron James is keen on knowing when superteams truly originated in the NBA, Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler recommends he go further back in the history books.
During a recent appearance on the "Road Trippin" podcast, James said he considers the '03 Los Angeles Lakers (Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone) and '96 Houston Rockets (Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley) as the first-ever NBA superteams - something Drexler respectfully disagrees with.
"You know, I love LeBron and anything he says is gold. But I'd really like to give you a different opinion," Drexler told ESPN's Coley Harvey at the BIG3 opener Sunday. "The Big Three was Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), (James) Worthy and Magic (Johnson), way before (Larry) Bird, (Robert) Parish, (Cedric) Maxwell and (Kevin) McHale and Dennis Johnson. Those great teams always had four, five great players. Not only three, they had four to five great players.
"The early Celtics from the '60s with Bill Russell, (John) Havlicek, (Bob) Cousy and Sam Jones, that was the first Big Three. So it goes further back from that."
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James' comments came shortly after Golden State Warriors All-Star Draymond Green accused The King of starting the superteam trend with the Miami Heat in 2010 when LeBron joined forces with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.