Ronnie Fields Ranks Michael Jordan And Kobe Bryant Above LeBron James In GOAT Debate
Former CBA player Ronnie Fields was asked to rank Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James on the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast. Presented with an unordered list, Fields kept his list in the same sequence, saying that Michael Jordan was the best out of the three, followed by Kobe Bryant, and then LeBron James in third.
Ronnie Fields was one of the most talked-about high school basketball prospects in the 1990s. He played high school basketball between 1992 to 1996 at Farragut Academy in Chicago, and even played with NBA legend Kevin Garnett during his time there. As a senior at Farragut Academy, he averaged 32.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 4.5 blocked shots per game.
Fields was considered one of the best high school prospects in the country, and there was talk of him entering the NBA directly out of high school. Fields looked set to be a stand-out in the NBA, and at his young age, he would’ve found great success in the league for years to come.
A brutal car accident that injured his neck significantly altered his career. By the time he recovered, the NBA Draft was over, and no team was going to draft a player with a major neck injury. He was set to play college basketball for DePaul University in Chicago after leaving high school, but his poor academic qualifications left him ineligible to do so.
Fields would enter the 1996 Continental Basketball Association (CBA) Draft. He played for the Rockford Lightning for the first few years. Fields declared for the 1998 NBA Draft but didn’t get picked. Fields would spend the rest of his career bouncing around from the CBA (until its discontinuation), to playing in the Philippines, several teams in the United States Basketball League, Venezuela, Greece, and even Lebanon.
Fields was once expected to be a major star in the NBA, with many tipping him to enter the league directly out of high school like his teammate, Kevin Garnett. But the car accident would change the trajectory of his career and his life.
