Luka Doncic and LeBron James being on the same Los Angeles Lakers makes fans think they should be title contenders. However, LA’s roster deficiencies mean they are far from it. And in making a comparison between Luka and James Harden, Rich Paul made a bold NBA title claim about the latter.
Doncic and Harden’s heliocentric offensive play leads to frequent comparisons between the two. However, during his prime, the Beard never had a teammate as legendary as James. And Paul contends that if he had, his career would have looked extremely different in terms of rings.
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Rich Paul believes James Harden would’ve had 3 rings if he played with LeBron 👀
“If you’re saying Luka is James Harden 2.0.
You know what I would do? I would go back and look at how the teams were constructed around James Harden. I can almost guarantee you, there was no LeBron… pic.twitter.com/OlZbitCy7c
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) January 7, 2026
“If you’re saying this [Luka] is James Harden 2.0. You know what I would do? I would go back, and I would look at how a team was constructed around James Harden, and I would look at my current team,” Paul said on the Game Over podcast.
“I can almost guarantee you there was no LeBron James on that team with James Harden, because if it was, he would have three rings. Can guarantee you that.”
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Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and guard Luka Doncic walk to the bench. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
This is a bold statement for Paul to make about Harden and Doncic, and slightly disingenuous. It does discount the fact that LeBron in 2018 was a very different beast from the current 41-year-old version. These debates can be interesting, but there is no real way to prove any of these points.
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