LeBron James the king of basketball seemed not to be forever. In the NBA player rankings, which have been defending for the last eight years in a row, he has dropped to the third place after taking first place.
In the NBA player rankings announced by US sports media ESPN, James ranked third. ESPN announces the ranking of players' stats prior to the start of the new season every year since 2011. This is the first time James has missed first place in the survey.
Local basketball experts expect Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard to compete for the first and second spots announced on the 28th.
James's drop was due to a significant drop in the number of regular league games played last season. In the 2017-2018 season, he played 82 games, but last season, he played 55 games in the aftermath. Regular season scores averaged 27.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.3 assists, which were not significantly different from previous season scores (27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 9.1 assists).
The team's performance is also based on its influence on the ranking. While James played for the Miami Heat and Cleveland, he won the postseason protagonist after putting his team on the championship for eight consecutive years, but last season's he didn't even go to the playoffs at the Los Angeles Lakers.
James Harden and Anthony Davis came 4th and 5th in the NBA player rankings, leaving only the first and second place announcements. Sixth to tenth places were Stephen Curry (Golden State), Nikola Jokic (Denver), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia), Damian Lillard (Portland), and Paul George (LA Clippers).