Transcription
Alright man, peace. So, as usual, ESPN has found a way to contrive another LeBron James Michael Jordan comparison segment. Of course, they're going to talk about it. I'm gonna chime in tonight. It's going to play his 1072nd regular season game. Why is that interesting? Well, that's the same number of regular season games Michael Jordan played in his career. I can say I was at that final game Michael played. Thank you.
Now, LeBron is just 32 years old. He's got a lot of years left. He says MJ was 40 years old, but you have to remember he spent four years in college. He left for nearly two full seasons to play baseball. He was out another three seasons before coming back to play with the Wizards. So that's even more reason why it's an equivalency to try to compare their two careers because they had two totally different career paths and career arcs, and they played in two totally different eras and played in two totally different styles.
I think that even LeBron, as much as he idolized Michael Jordan as a child, has realized that as he's gotten older. And you know, when you get old and you and you grow into the fullness of your manhood, you start to see things from a different perspective. You don't look at people with awe anymore like you did when you were a child because you understand how to get things accomplished. When you're a child, you look at adults and you see how they do things on an everyday basis, and there's a bit of awe there. When you grow into the fullness of who you are as a man, then you can say to yourself, "Oh, I did what he did." So there's no, there's no reason for me to look at him with awe.
Even Jordan said when they asked him about if he was intimidated by players when he came into the NBA, he said, "No, because they put on their gym shorts the same way I do." Undeniable. During last year's Eastern Conference Finals, if it is amazing, no, it's really not amazing because you're trying to, you're trying to run LeBron James clips side by side with Michael Jordan clips as if to try to imply to the viewer that they play the same style of game, and they don't. They don't play the same style at all. That's why it's so interesting to me whenever LeBron says that he powdered his game after Jordan, because he doesn't play like at all. On MJ's all the way downs and his socks, single-ism for my name to come up in a discussion with the greatest basketball player of all time, it was like, "Wow."
You see him. Michael Jordan, some was like a god. I think I fell in love with the game because of Mike. Wearing number, because of Mike, I did pretty much everything that MJ do when I was a kid. I shot fadeaways before I should have. Our legs, never my leg and fold it down, so you saw the red part. I wore black and red shoes and white socks. I wore short shorts 'cause you so you can see my under shorts underneath. I didn't go boy, but I'm getting a [ __ ] please. You've been bald for the last ten years. Alright, you've been bald since you started. You using all them Peds, allegedly. Alright, allegedly.
But uh, once again, his name was on the Biogenesis ledger. I have to set it every time I make that statement because I know somebody gonna listen to the video for the first time and claim, "Why am I saying that?" Alright, LeBron James, his name was on that Biogenesis ledger, and he had a growth removed from his jawline back in 2009. Look it up. Alright, that's neither here nor there. I give LeBron James a lot of credit for really divesting a lot of authority over his own career path to Michael Jordan by saying that he looked up to Michael Jordan. That's very hard for a lot of grown men to do. So that makes me look at and say that I wish that Michael Jordan had reached out to him when he first came into the league and, you know, been at least some type of a guru for him or spent golly for him to help him along.
But I think that, you know, one of the main reasons why that never occurred was because LeBron James and him are two totally different eras. And while LeBron was a player, Michael was the owner, and you have tampering issues that are involved. And especially due to the fact that LeBron James is not dealing with Michael, even even in a business capacity, he's not a member of Brand Jordan. He's just signed with Nike. There would have been a conflict of interest for am I going to be speaking to him now? Kobe Bryant, Michael could reach out to Kobe and talk to Kobe because, you know, first off, they did play in the same era, even though Kobe was a youngster. But also, they have a very similar mindset. They have a very similar style of play.
And once again, the irony is it, as I've already stated, LeBron James talks about how he patterned his game after Jordan, even though he doesn't play like at all. But Kobe Bryant will say he patterned his game after Magic, and he played nothing like Magic did. And Kobe did everything in his power to emulate Michael Jordan to the to the highest degree. So it's just interesting.
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No, you didn't. You didn't do everything Mike did because you didn't enter the dunk contest. Stop lying.
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It's always cool to hear guys talk about their basketball heroes. That's a great graph. It does show you how close they are in regards to productivity over the course of the same number of games. As we all know, those of us who pay attention, the differences between Michael Jordan and LeBron James are outside the numbers. But when you look at the numbers, you know, like they say, numbers never lie. Well, numbers don't lie, but they can be used to skew the truth. I mean, what, no, when we truly investigate these numbers, and I always say this, I said this back from when I was young, the worst decision that Michael Jordan ever made was to come back and play with the Wizards. And the only reason why he did it, quiet his cap, was because he was promised by a Poland that he'd be able to buy the, by the, the franchise if he came back and did that and assisted them and, you know, upping their profile.
So even though Jordan gets on TV and he says, "Oh, well, you know, I did it because, you know, for the love of the game, and I had one last ditch, I had to scratch," so and so forth. He's told people who are really close to him, like like Ray Lewis, you know, who's his Omega Sci-Fi brother, he told him that if he could've did it again, that he would not have come back to play with the Wizards. And Michael knows that that was a big mistake. I mean, Jordan's averages at the end of his tenure with the Bulls, he was averaging like 31.5 for his career, but on 52% shooting. Like he had numbers that would not have eclipsed, you know, a lot of, a lot of all-time great players career-wise. But as far as proficiency-wise, it would have been untouchable. But those two years with the, with the Wizards have really lowered, have really brought him back to the pack, you know.
So when even when you factor in those two years, the fact that he almost won 70% of his regular season games shows you how dominant he was with the Bulls. Even though he doesn't get much credit for a lot of those wins and a lot of those victories because everybody likes to give so much credit to Scottie Pippen. I mean, it's pretty interesting. Scottie, Michael's always been great talking about LeBron, but he never specifically mentored LeBron. It's not like he's basement years working out together, anything. Well, once again, he couldn't do that because for the majority of LeBron's career, LeBron has been an owner or a co-owner. And I, one time, a minority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Charlotte Hornets, and then eventually a majority owner. So it's kind of hard to reach out to him, you know, when you're in that capacity in the NBA.
Of course, Michael does not even look at Magic and Larry as competitors for his title of greatest player ever. I think that the only guys that Michael looks at as competitors for his title for the greatest player of all Kareem and Bill Russell. That's it. He doesn't look at Magic and Larry on his level in regards to that to those distinctions because they were not able to keep it going as long as him. Absolutely. And that cannot be underestimated. When you have a guy like a Jordan, who you could look at every day and say, "I want to be better than him," and look at his numbers and say, "I want to pass his numbers." Michael Jordan never had that.
Well, Michael Jordan came into the NBA. There were no wing players that had ever done anything that he was aspiring to do. The league was dominated by big men. So if you were talking about all-time leading scorers, you're talking about Kareem. If you would talk all-time leading champions, you're talking about Bill Russell. Nobody had ever done what he was aspiring to do. That's why, once again, that's what that's what makes him the greatest player in NBA history in my view. Even though I don't mind the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or the Bill Russell arguments, because they are valid. But for a guy, nobody had ever done a shooting guard lead their team to as many multiple championships as he has done in his career, leading the, leading the team in a big man dominant era without a dominant big man at all, really. A throwaway big man, Bill Cartwright, and Luc Longley, and those guys. Those guys were cast-off.
Smith, now, as I stated, the only guy, the only other player in a big man era who led his team to multiple championships with Isiah Thomas. Alright, and this is why I have Isiah Thomas just outside of my top ten. I saw a brother say that Isiah Thomas, his top ten, brother. If you want to put him there, I really, I wouldn't argue with you that hard because Isiah Thomas was that great. As a little man, he was the all-time greatest little man to ever play in the NBA. Look at LeBron. Look at him. Michael as he dunked the ball. LeBron was looking at Michael with that same sentiment, like Will Smith had, "Daddy, how come you don't love me?" like Will Smith on The Fresh Prince. "How come he love me, Uncle Phil?" and say some.
If Michael called up LeBron, LeBron would drop everything that he's doing. I guarantee you that. You know, you know, that guy iconically set a state, a precedent for these players that they have something to reach for every day. Do you think though, of me? I mean, we know how competitive Michael is, correct? Either just after, after Terrence told it was competitive. I know you still do the golf, when the poke at the car with him. I mean, what does he want? I mean, I think it's gotta mean something to him that he's still the greatest player ever. He doesn't want anyone to eclipse him in that. I think it means a lot to one day, of course. How could it not? If you're considered the greatest to ever do something in any field, you always want to hold on to that, you know, to that title, to that label, as long as you can, particularly while you're alive.
And I've already stated this, the Mount Rushmore of athletes is Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, and Jim Brown. As far as American sports, and nobody's going to transcend or to overcome those athletes. You know why? Because if you notice what all four of those athletes have in common, none of them lead their respective leagues in any one one category. None of them. If you were to look at Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, none of them lead their respective sports in any stat. But what they do lead their respective sports in is esteem by the populace at large and also by the print media. So it's going to be very, very hard for any athletes to overcome the dominance and prestige that's been established by those four athletes. Very hard.
I can see maybe, as I've stated, I could see maybe Tom Brady, if he can win one or two more championships, moving Jim Brown out of the way, possibly. An extremely dominant. Alright, Michael Jordan dominated his era. And the problem with LeBron James is that LeBron dominated his era from the standpoint of being the best player, but he has not dominated in championships. And that's why the Golden State Warriors have thrown such a big monkey wrench and into his legacy. Because if it wasn't for them, the league had pretty much set it up to where LeBron was supposed to win, you know, three or four of the next five championships after he had come back home from Miami to Cleveland. He was supposed to get at least three to four more championships because they had pretty much set it up to help him get as much help as possible. But that still means when Golden State came out of nowhere, that basically nullified the sentiment that they were trying to create for LeBron.
Take some time off and come back and do it again. I don't think any of these players will be able to duplicate what he's done. But it's great to see that these players are playing. No, there's not gonna be anybody who's gonna win six out of six championships. The player movement in the league is too much now. It's gonna be too difficult to maintain championship teams for, you know, that length, at that time period. And then also, the Bulls had a completely different roster from the first championship team to the second championship three-peat team, other than Michael and Scottie. So even back then, there was a huge turnover. But Jordan showing his greatness was able to win with a totally different cast of guys, other than 16 years old. That's amazing.
Jordan was about ready to do his last comeback. But, you know, LeBron just talked about how he wishes they were actually closer. Then one of the reasons why they're not is that Michael is the owner of a team. It's a rival of it. Ding. I've already stated that that's obvious. I believe that Michael would like to speak with LeBron. You know, Michael has always shown himself to be relatively open and engaging with other professional athletes. You know, I'm sure that he has a great deal of respect for LeBron and what LeBron has accomplished. I do think that Michael most likely believes that something is rotten in Denmark in regards to LeBron's physique. But that's neither here nor there. It is what it is. Who knows? That may have been performance-enhancing drug use going way back in professional sports, even back into the '90s. So who the hell knows what's really going on in the sports world?
But, you know, just to get back to the point, I believe that Michael would have no problem engaging in a, you know, in a rapport, in a relationship with LeBron to help guide him in certain things that LeBron might not know about. As I stated previously, as I stated in the past, Michael Jordan is the one who told Charles Barkley to not accept cash from Nike, but to ask for stock points. That's how you make sure that shouldn't, that should never go broke. You know, those are the type of things that if LeBron doesn't already know that Michael could inform him about. They have rival shoe lines. They're both competitors, man. Please. LeBron is not no competitive. Michael Jordan's challenged to sell his shoes. Let's knock it off.
Certainly, when LeBron talked about chasing him, I don't think Jordan wants him to get there. I think he's happy he's only got three titles. He most likely is. But I don't think that Michael Jordan stays up at night hoping that LeBron James loses in the finals. I believe that Michael Jordan knows and understands that the moment that LeBron James had that implosion against the San Antonio Spurs, he had no chance in any realistic person's mind of ever catching Michael Jordan's legacy. That just wasn't going to happen. Thank you, sir.
Scottie is trying to communicate to Brian Windhorse that no matter what you're trying to say, and I understand what Brian's trying to say, he's saying that over a process of time, Jordan's, you know, Jordan's legacy is going to fade to a degree because LeBron has superseded him in regards to who the preeminent basketball athlete is in the world to this younger generation. That's understood. But once again, Michael Jordan is a name that, you know, it's always going to be known because it resonates from the mountaintop, just like a Babe Ruth. Alright, they had the same level. Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, no, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali. You know, especially Ali, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan. Those names, everybody knows. I mean, Babe Ruth retired from baseball way back in the 1940s, and people still know who he is. The greatest. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Scottie.
I will say that when LeBron came in, we did you see LeBron look? When did you see LeBron look? When Michael hugged Dwyane Wade, wait, he just shook his head and rewind it back. Now look, Michael, Michael gave LeBron a pound. Watch LeBron look on his face when when he said Dwyane Wade come up and hug Michael. Look, LeBron looking back like, "Daddy, how come you didn't hug me?" LeBron came into the league. He followed in his footsteps of Jordan. And now players were coming into this week. Now these rookies, they're following in the footsteps of LeBron, and he will extend on beyond his career that way. And it's not a direct line.
I mean, what I think is interesting about LeBron James is that, yes, he will be compared to someone in terms of, "Did you win six rings?" and kind of in that same column as Michael Jordan. But he's made a little bit of his own column by winning the title for Cleveland, bringing back the first pro-sports title there in more than 50 years. Yes, and Jordan was also the guy who won the first NBA championship for the Bulls. Two people seem to neglect that for some reason. They make such a huge deal about LeBron bringing, bringing a championship to Cleveland. Well, Jordan won the first NBA championship for the Chicago Bulls.
Once again, activist equals loudmouth. Activist equals theatricality. Activist equals, "Look at me, put me on camera." Once again, have we caught the person who was sprayed [ __ ] on LeBron James's front gate yet? Have we caught that person yet? Please. And I stated this in the past, the key, the key letters in the term activist is "act." Alright, but we'll never be able to do or say that he's greater. Scotty, you said a little bit more than that. You said that LeBron was a better playing in there, Michael. Okay. You said that he got his teammates involved more than Michael does. That's why you took flak. It wasn't just about you staying that he was going to surpass Michael statistically, okay? Alright, so now let's see what Steven and Max Kellerman have to say about this issue with LeBron James and Michael Jordan. James is seven years younger. Talk about minutes. Brian Windhorse, an article on espn.com today that says LeBron James is through. Today's young players were up to not Michael Jordan fighting.
Well, look, I mean, this once again is just another contrivance, another attempt to piece together the Michael Jordan versus LeBron James full rivalry. Of course, the young players are going to look up to LeBron James. They're all 19 years old. They didn't even see Michael play with the Bulls. I mean, they probably didn't even see him play with the Wizards. I mean, Michael retired back in 2003. We're talking about 14 years ago. A lot of guys coming into the league today were five and six years old when Michael retired from the Wizards, and when we're talking about when he retired from the Bulls back in '98, why these guys were not even born yet or just born with their favorite while growing up. David, did you agree?
Well, I agree from the perspective if you're talking about business, because LeBron James has transcended Michael Jordan has as well, but he didn't necessarily pull dudes up and showed them how it's done. LeBron James is not only a business. That's not accurate. As I've already stated, he did so with Charles Barkley. Five. Michael has helped a lot of guys who ended up getting signed with Nike. So that is that is erroneous. But, you know, that's that's part of the narrative on Jordan. But from a certain perspective, I understand what Steven is coming from when if you want to talk about LeBron James's homeboys who is who he has assisted in placing in strategic positions to help them out, you know, in their business endeavors, others the weigh-in is unlike in them about expanding their horizons beyond the court of play.
But if you're talking about just being a competitor and a winner, LeBron James ain't on the same level as Michael Jordan. I don't. Thank you, sir. I don't care what anybody says. He learned to have a killer instinct. Michael Jordan had it from day one. Not to mention the fact that LeBron James has you as religiously relied on others to close or in absolutely, whereas Michael Jordan did that himself. Those kind of things are the things that I point to to say that there's a different level when it comes to Michael Jordan. But LeBron James is great, and he's a phenomenal businessman, a role model than any aspiring athlete out there or any athlete that's currently in existence. And, you know, the thing is that LeBron James is definitely a great businessman in regards to the the multitude of things that he has his hands in. But Jordan makes so much money just what Brand Jordan. Like he makes so much money. I mean, that Brand Jordan enterprise has made him a billionaire. With all the things that LeBron is doing, he still is not approaching a billion, a billionaire status. So sometimes it's not how many businesses you have, is how successful the business that you have is.
I think you missed the point, Stephen. It's not that LeBron is that can, is the finisher, the closer that Michael Jordan is. But even the fact that you focus on closing speaks to the Jordan s legacy. In other words, after Jordan, Harold Bloom writes about this critic, writes about Shakespeare and talks about the anxiety of influence. After Shakespeare, all writers are living under his shadow and being compared to him. That was Michael Jordan. Agreed. That's why, as I've stated, Michael Jordan has created that. Didn't mean that their persona of Michael Jordan, the ghost of Michael, even LeBron James put it, is even greater than the person himself. Much like as Max come and put a Shakespeare, that's why you have the term Shakespearean. You also have the term Jordan-esque. You know, when when you start to have those type of suffixes apply to your name, that means that you have created a whole, a whole movement behind your accomplishments. The basket, why everyone wanted to be like Mike. Even Kobe Bryant, who got close, was basically doing his best Michael Jordan. That's all he was doing. His best Michael Jordan impersonation. Come on. That wasn't one move that Kobe did that was his own move. Every last move was Jordan's moves.
The first player who did a new thing? Yes, he wears 23. Yes, there's some Jordan in his game. But he kind of combined Jordan and Magic. No, sir. First of all, LeBron was not the first great player to come along who was in the center. All right, that's just erroneous and silly. But I mean, if we just want to take it there, LeBron, as I've already stated, has nothing in common with Jordan or Magic's game. LeBron is nowhere near the passer that Magic was, and he's not, he's nowhere near the scorer that Michael Jordan was. He is a great scorer because of his overall size and the skill level that he possesses for his body type. As I've stated, he's like a combination of Scottie Pippen, then Karl Malone, escape the anxiety of influence. And if Jordan is the greatest modern player of all time, I don't believe that LeBron escaped the anxiety of influence. I believe that he was able to, you know, to fulfill it, to transcend it, because of the, the, the very intelligent move that he made to go down to Miami and get assistance from Dwyane Wade, who had attributes and characteristics that he lacked, that being an ability to come through in the clutch and make clutch shots, and also to assemble such a, you know, such a, an overwhelming amount of talent on one team with the Miami Heat, that they almost won by default. Like they really had no business losing to the Dallas Mavericks. You know, told LeBron James was very intelligent to do that because I think that here stood even-steven that he did not have the intangibles to win a championship.
The first postmodern NBA player, and in that way, he has influenced the generation who looked to him and say, "I want to be like him." Look at Lonzo Ball. Lonzo Ball playing for the Lakers said, "No, not Kobe. I wanted to be like LeBron." And in that way, LeBron has influenced the generation of players who want to be like LeBron. Well, when LeBron first came in the NBA, he couldn't shoot either. So I see, well, I see what Lonzo was talking about. Yeah, in certain ways, the way the previous generation wanted to be like Mike. He's not Jordan. No one has been. Alright, that'll do it. Stevie J is gonna bring us home with final take, right?
Well, no, Steven, they is not gonna bring us home, but a damn thing anyway. This was an interesting conversation. The stats, the stats were very, very, very revelatory in regards to how close they are in regards to their career accomplishments in the same amount of games. Of course, Jordan scored more points. LeBron had more rebounds and assists, which you'd expect because of how he plays. But it's going to be very interesting to see how LeBron ends his career. Anyway, peace.