"The best X-Man": Former NBA champ who LeBron James dropped 52 points on in high school, uses quirky analogy to describe 4x MVP 

LeBron James was a legendary high school player for St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. James once dropped 52 points against one-time NBA champion Trevor Ariza, who played for Westchester High School in Los Angeles. Ariza recently used a quirky analogy to describe James as a high school player.

On the "Club Shay Shay" podcast, Shannon Sharpe welcomed Ariza and discussed a variety of topics. One of those topics was James scoring 52 points against Ariza in high school in February 2003.

The UCLA product shared his thoughts with Sharpe on how unbelievable James was as an 18-year-old. He used a comic book analogy to describe how different the future four-time NBA champion was back then:

"When you playing against elite talent, you see elite things," Ariza said. "He just was the most special out of special players. He was like the best X-Man, for real."

Trevor Ariza also denied the rumor that the reason why LeBron James came out firing and aggressive against them was because of his uncle. Shannon Sharpe pointed out that Ariza's uncle had called James "overrated", which fueled the "Chosen One" to drop 52 points on Westchester.

James scored 31 of his 52 points in the first half, outscoring the entire Westchester team at half-time 41-24. It was a crazy performance at the 2003 Prime Time Shootout in Trenton, New Jersey. He was not eligible to play the game after accepting two jerseys from a clothing store:

"This court, this basketball court, is like my house,'' James said after the game. "I think missing a game last week gave me a little more motivation.''

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LeBron James not satisfied but surprised with LA Lakers' start to the season

LeBron James of the LA Lakers

LeBron James and the LA Lakers are off to a rough start to the 2023-24 NBA season.

The Lakers have a winning 11-9 record and are seventh in the Western Conference but should be higher based on the hype surrounding them before the season started.

Following their 133-110 loss to the OKC Thunder on Thursday night, James said that they are still having trouble figuring out how to play as a team. The injuries to key players like Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt haven't helped their chemistry:

"I have no idea what we are," James said. "How? We don't have a group yet. I know what some of us individually are, but as far as a team, we don't have our group yet. We haven't logged enough minutes with our group where we know we have a starting group.

"We have the guys coming in. We got a good rhythm. We're over .500. We're 11-9 with literally not ever having our same group. That's pretty impressive."

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