This is the 1st in a series of six articles about the top NBA superstars who hope to dethrone King James as the best player on the planet over the next decade.
As reigning MVP and odds on favorite to repeat again this season, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the superstar most analysts believe will dethrone LeBron James as the king and best player on the planet over the next decade.
As a likely back-to-back winner of the league’s regular season MVP, some have already the anointed Giannis as the new king, although that honor is premature since he has never won a championship or made it to the Finals. While the 6′ 11″, 240 lb 25-year old Antetokounmpo has the physical tools and potential talent to be the next king, he’s still going to have to develop a consistent jumper and the mental toughness to win a championship.
With just seven NBA seasons under his belt, Giannis Antetokounmpo possesses the greatest physical talent and athleticism of any of the current challengers looking to dethrone LeBron James as the king of the NBA. Should he continue to hone and develop his basketball skills and grow and mature as a competitor, there’s no question Giannis has the potential to take the throne from LeBron and hold onto it for the rest of the decade.
What happens this season and next will tell us a lot about the trajectory of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s career. To take full advantage of his potential, Giannis needs to make it to the NBA Finals and ideally win a championship. While failing to reach those goals wouldn’t eliminate him from replacing LeBron, it would likely result in his leaving Milwaukee and joining a team with other superstars, which could change the dynamic of his career.
Giannis may be the favorite to become king of the NBA for the next decade but he’ll have to develop a consistent jumper and the mental toughness to win a championship and hold off a host of older and younger superstars.
This is the 1st in a series of six articles about the top NBA superstars who hope to dethrone King James as the best player on the planet over the next decade. Over the next week, I will also post articles featuring Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Luka Doncic, and Zion Williamson, whom I consider the other five legitimate candidates to wear the crown as king of the 2020’s like LeBron James did for the 2010’s.
Predicting which professional basketball superstar is going to take over the throne from LeBron and become the king of the next decade is not an easy task because the winner will not only need to be the best player in the league but will also have to win multiple MVP awards for the regular season and Finals as well as multiple NBA championships. Thus, co-stars and supporting cast with whom each superstar plays are likely to have a huge impact on how their careers progress and their chances evolve. In a way, predicting the winner must involve predicting his team’s future success.
The challenge is made even more difficult because a decade is a long time and it’s logical to presume the winner will be a player who dominates the second half of the decade rather than the first half. Since the six candidates to take the crown from LeBron range in age from 21 to 31-years in age, the younger candidates who are still developing and have a lot more to prove and are at a disadvantage now could have an edge down the road. Long shots now, younger candidates like Luka and Zion might have a better shot at winning than older candidates like Kawhi or KD.
What I’ve tried to do with each article is evaluate the candidate’s chances based on the above criteria. I’ve kept the articles brief in the hopes everybody will read them and hope to create some good discussion about each candidate’s advantages and disadvantages. Hope you will read, enjoy, and comment. Thanks.