Rockets legend Ralph Sampson recently appeared on the ‘All the Smoke’ podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for a deep dive into his NBA and college career. Barnes asked Sampson to rank three players: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. Sampson, who competed against Jordan in his college and professional career, admitted he was slightly biased since he had the experience of going up against Jordan on two levels.
“No, because I played against MJ in college and pro. I mean, he’s the number one, but what I like about MJ was he, you know, he could bounce back. He was a student of the game. He had built a mindset that no one had ever achieved, right? And he wanted to win,” said Sampson about Jordan.
“And he was put in a situation in the league against the Bad Boys that were probably trying to kill him, against Boston, who was trying to kill him. And you see the one against Boston where he’s doing his dance on Bird and whatever, and he’s fading, even then, he almost scored 60 points,” Sampson further added while recalling Jordan’s biggest rivals in the NBA.
“The mindset is, if you talk about mindset, he has the best one. He’s got maybe the best game, but he got the best one because if he didn’t have the mindset, the game would be sh*t.”
Therefore, he believes Jordan is No. 1 among the three because of the way he approached every game, and Kobe Bryant followed the template that was set by him to achieve a similar mentality.
“And Kobe follows that, you know, and I rank them in order because of their career right, and LeBron would be next. And everybody said if LeBron didn’t have the same mindset, well, he didn’t have to, because he’s stronger than anybody else,” said Sampson while pointing to how James’ strength gave him the benefit of not needing to build a killer mentality like the other two players.
Sampson believes that James’ body has been a blessing for him, and he is in the unique position to continue playing for half a decade longer if he wishes to do so now and contribute to championship-winning basketball on the Cavaliers.
“He can play for another five years. He’s gonna stay in shape. He’s shooting jumpers… But don’t beat anybody up with it. You’ve got to be physical. You know, he has to be physical. I hope he goes back to Cleveland and wins a championship there. They got a squad. He could go back and walk home with a championship.”
Coming off an All-NBA caliber season at age 40, LeBron James makes the game look easy due to his biological advantages, like size and athleticism. He averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 37.6% from beyond the arc in 2024-25. But keeping the longevity aside, Sampson seems to have simply ranked the players based on the number of championships they won in their careers. Jordan has six rings, Bryant had five, and James has four.
But Sampson made sure to point out that James’ physical features, like strength, worked in his benefit, and he didn’t need to have the same mentality as Jordan and Bryant to have an edge over his opponents daily.
Do you think Sampson was fair in his assessment of the three players? And can LeBron James still win a championship with the Cavaliers if he decides to return for his imminent retirement? Let us know what you think in the comments section.