The debate over the greatest player in NBA history will continue through the rest of time, or at least as long as people care enough to argue about it. But NFL great Tom Brady just put his stamp on the discussion in definitive fashion.
Brady, while participating in a panel at Fanatics Fest in New York City over the weekend, coronated LeBron “King” James as the best to ever lace em’ up and step onto a basketball court. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar happened to be sitting on the panel with Brady, arguably the greatest football player ever, when he made the comments.
Tom Brady on LeBron James:
“You’re witnessing the greatest ever and I hope you all appreciate that.” pic.twitter.com/0qs51eUL6Y— BronMuse (@BronMuse) June 21, 2025
Tom Brady on LeBron James:
“You’re witnessing the greatest ever and I hope you all appreciate that.”
“He’s always done things the right way,” Brady said on Saturday, June 21. “You’re witnessing the greatest ever, and I hope you guys all appreciate that.”
LeBron James Recently Criticized NBA’s Ring Culture
Getty LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.
James recently drew criticism for comments he made about “ring culture” around the NBA and how analysts and fans oversimplify discussions about the greatness and all-time rankings of individual players based on what is, at its core, a team accomplishment in winning a championship.
“Like, okay, ‘You weren’t a great player if you never won a championship,'” James said during the June 17 edition of the “Mind the Game” podcast with co-host Steve Nash. “Or, ‘If you’ve won one, then you can’t be in the same conversation as this person.'”
“I don’t know, man. It’s just like you sit here and tell me that Allen Iverson and Charles Barkley and Steve [Nash] weren’t f****** unbelievable,” James continued. “Like, ‘Oh, they can’t be talked about or discussed with these guys because this guy won one ring or won two rings. It’s just weird to me. It’s like saying Peyton Manning can’t be in the same room as [Tom] Brady or [Patrick] Mahomes because he only has one ring. They don’t never discuss that in their sport.”
Ring Culture Big Part of Discussion Around Tom Brady Being Best NFL Player Ever
GettyFormer NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
Manning actually won two Super Bowl rings during his career and, in fairness to sports analysts everywhere, ring culture discussions absolutely happen around NFL quarterbacks.
Brady’s longevity, like James’, and the numbers that come along with it are among the top reasons why critics so frequently characterize Brady as the best to ever play his sport. However, the seven Super Bowl rings and 10 title game appearances to Brady’s credit are also collectively an enormous part of that discussion almost every time analysts have it on sports-centric television or radio programs.
James has 10 NBA Finals appearances of his own and four championship rings to go along with them. However, people often cite Michael Jordan’s six rings and perfect six-for-six record in the Finals or Kobe Bryant’s five titles in the arguments against James as the best basketball player of all-time.
Boston Celtics great Bill Russell won 11 titles in his career, though most who use ring culture to claim Jordan and Bryant as better than James in the annals of history do not place Russell above them all. That seems to be an obvious contradiction in the arguments, though competing eras also come into play in the discussion, as Russell won all of his rings in the 1950s and 1960s.
