Transcription
All right, so now, of course, I have to include Scottie Pippen's segment on First Take with Stephen A. They submit the Max Kellerman, in which he discusses who's the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Let's see what they have to say.
Well, I will say that it's one of the best sports debates of the last two years because I don't, I don't think that even LeBron James would have taken this discussion even remotely seriously until he had won a championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And that's why, if you notice, he did not even touch on that conversation topic until he beat Golden State in 2016. That's one of, you noticed in the off-season after 2016, he started talking about Jordan and he's chasing that ghost, and he started talking about how Jordan's teammates didn't get enough credit. Why? Because LeBron James knows that in order for him to catch Jordan, he has to try to pull him down. He's not going to be able to ascend up to that mountain, he's going to pull him down.
And look, I do not begrudge the NBA for trying to push the narrative about LeBron versus Jordan. I don't begrudge the modern-day generation of fans for trying to push the narrative of LeBron versus Jordan because you shouldn't want to rep for your generation. No, my father still tells me, you know, "Boy, you're gonna learn about Oscar Robertson." Oscar Robertson with justice, British Michael, no. So every generation is gonna rep for their guy. No, my dad had Oscar, you know, a half-generation before me, they had Magic. You know, I caught Magic at the very end, Magic and Bird at the end. Of course, my generation, that's Jordan. The half-generation after me had Kobe, and now you have the LeBron guys. And that's okay. You're supposed to rep for your generation. You know, guys growing up back in the sixties, they tell you what was better than Shaq. That's part of the sports combo. It's all pretty much hypothetical and fantastical.
But LeBron James definitely has, he's edged out a definitive niche for himself. And he is, in my view, as I've stated numerous times on this channel, a top 10 all-time great player at the very least. In my view, he's probably around top 5 right now. Even though that's debatable, to me, when you talk about the top 5, it's Jordan, Russell, Kareem, Magic, and Bird. Now, LeBron is right there with Magic and Bird. I think that they're a triumvirate, and you could take, you could put two out of three of those guys in those bottom two slots in the top five, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. I still would take Bird over LeBron right now because I think that Bird played in a different era. He played in a slightly more physical era with different rules. And to be quite frank with you, it's hard to compare eras because there's just different styles of play. It's much easier to get to the basket now, which is why certain players have, you know, inflated offensive statistics slightly. And when you look at some of the metrics for greatest offensive teams of all time, a lot of offensive records have been broken in the last three years because of the rule changes. So it's hard to compare. Like, you can't compare even Michael Jordan's era to Oscar Robertson's era or Michael Jordan's era to LeBron James's era. Then Michael was playing today, he played a lot like a James Harden or Russell Westbrook. The only difference is that Michael would be much more proficient. He wouldn't be shooting 42%, he'd be shooting 52%. But he still have the ball at the top of the key, running a pick and roll, driving, kick. That's very similar to the style that he played under Doug Collins for those of you who remember back in '89. He played that style, he averaged 32, 18, 8, and he averaged a triple-double like the last 15 games of the season, damn near. So it would have been nothing for Jordan to do a lot of things that guys are doing today. But he was not as cognizant of metrics and stats as guys are today, especially LeBron. LeBron is a stat guy, so he plays for stats because he knows that's the only way he's going to catch Jordan.
Well, see what Scottie Pippen's going to say because Scottie, as usual, there's like Michael's little brother in more ways than one. And what little brothers like to do, they like to, they like to troll their big brother. And Scottie loves to troll Michael whenever he has the opportunity. He's going to co-sign somebody being better than Mike. Look, it's even a Stephen A. guy's face all up in Scottie's face because he already knows what Scottie is going to say. Remember, Stephen A. is an NBA insider. He has a lot of, he has many resources in regards to information pertaining to how these guys think. Remember, these guys are NBA players. A lot of them use recreational drugs, and a lot of them get, they drink on. So what happens when people use recreational drugs and they get, they drink on? You know, they get loose with their lips, they just start talking [ __ ] and their true feelings about guys comes out, and it gets back to people like Stephen A. So he knows how Scottie feels about Michael. That's why he has, that's why he's all up in Scotty's face right now, 'cause he's waiting for Scott to say what he knows he's gonna say. Three NBA titles. Oh, Scottie Pippen, you would know better than anyone how close is LeBron to catching Jordan. The numbers, a lot, he's right there. He probably would never catch him in terms of MVP, okay? But in terms of statistics, LeBron is right there. And when you look across the board, not just scoring, check his assists, check his rebounds. No, you don't want to throw that water on Scott. He's got it. We'll get up, up your ass. Go read about what he does it. I do down in Hawaii. You don't want to do that to Scotty. Scotty still has a lot of anger in him. He feels like he hasn't received the credit in his career that he feels he deserved for being an all-time great. That's another reason why he likes to nitpick at Michael. But Scotty knows what Michael could do. And at the end of the day, many others know the current narrative about Michael was that Michael was just a scorer. Michael was not just a scorer. He was a phenomenal all-around player. He was a tremendous defensive player. If you listened to First Things First with Chris Carter and Nick Wright, those two guys are constantly talking about the greatest shot-blocking guard of all time, and they keep talking about Dwyane Wade, the greatest shot-blocking guard of all time, with Michael Jordan. And it's not really, not close. Michael Jordan had multiple seasons of over 100 blocks, okay? He's the only player in NBA history to have more than one season of 200 steals and 100 blocks. Michael Jordan did that. He's the only player in NBA history to win NBA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. So LeBron will eventually eclipse Michael in cumulative stats, but that's not, that does not really tell the story. Let Scotty saying, Max, you listen to this because he thinks Max is gonna jump on his side. And watch out, Scotty's face turns. Scottie has a deep-seated issue with Michael. I think that is due to what Michael put him through his first few years in the league. Michael really said a lot of things to both him and Horace Grant that both of them have had a hard time getting past because Michael was trying to make them tougher. And Michael really did not really believe in them when they first got to Chicago. So they still have a little bit of animosity there, a lot like little brothers do. If you know, they have a temperature, a tempestuous relationship with their older brother about numbers. You're lucky I don't have more time with you. You're lucky you are. I'm looking at a dumber than average, just 16 points game for his career, all 47% shooting. Oh, would that be? Yeah, by the way, you wanted a greatest ever, just about numbers. And you know it. And less and less Westbrook, can you tell me other than scoring points and obviously shooting more, what does LeBron James do any different than you? What you did, really? What Stephen A. is saying is that the reason why Scottie is trying to promote LeBron is because Scottie sees a lot of himself in LeBron. That's pretty much what Stephen A. is implying by that question. All the metrics say Jordan speaks better than LeBron. His career averages better than LeBron. You see now, check this out. Scottie, he didn't play with an All-Star his whole career. So he didn't win it. He didn't get past the Pistons the first time he played with an All-Star. His name was Scottie Pippen. You cooked the Pistons seven games. You couldn't play in Game 7. So they beat you. Yeah, because you couldn't deal with the stress. So you left Michael out there by himself in Game 7, like this guy he faced, like Scottie faced. Guy looking at Stephen A. like, this [ __ ] trying to play me. Didn't win the championship in under seven games. As soon as he got a crew, no one gave him any props. Scottie, and you were the crew originally, not messing with no MJ. Well, look, a lot of the LeBron James fans are gonna get very upset about this, but at some times, you have to have seen things to put it in proper context. Max is saying what he's saying because he understands the difference between having to win with homegrown talent as opposed to, you know, going to teams that are ready-made, which is what LeBron basically does. All-time great player, like I said, arguably top 5, right there. But, you know, when you, when you're comparing him on an all-time scale, then you have to go through different criteria. And when you talk about what happened against the Dallas, the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Finals, when you look at the fact that he had to go to various teams to elevate his chance of winning championships, you know, it is what it is. LeBron has always been the leader on his team, and he's always been the guy that has dominated the basketball on his team. That's the difference between my career and LeBron James' career. I played with a player that was more dominant with the basketball. I played with one of the greatest scorers. Now, you see what Scotty did there? When he's, when he mentioned Michael scoring, he said, "one of the great scorers." When he mentioned him as being cutthroat, he said, "the most cutthroat." So clearly, what stands out to Scottie is how cutthroat Michael was. And that term, cutthroat, means relentless, and it also means without compassion. So once again, Michael Jordan clearly made quite an impression on Scottie Pippen, and most likely most of his other teammates during their time period together, which still hasn't had an impact on Scottie to this day. And I'm not saying that Scottie hates Michael, but it's clear that there is some back-lying history between them that Scottie still hasn't been able to move past. I mean, which is understandable, depending on what was done to you and how it was done. In two different eras, but you're not gonna compare Michael Jordan to Wilt Chamberlain. Thank you, Sky. Like, [ __ ] let me catch your ass outside.
Okay, so now Michael Smith and Jalen Hill also decided to touch on Scottie Pippen's comments regarding LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Let's see what they have to say.
Michael Smith made a statement very similar to mine in regards to the sentiment that Michael Jordan was just a one-dimensional player, which is a modern-day narrative that is promoted to try to elevate LeBron James over Michael Jordan for some strange reason. It really wasn't hard. It really was predictable. If you know Scottie, once again, Stephen A. already knew what Scotty was gonna say 'cause he knows scheme, he knows how Scottie really feels about Jordan. And notice he called him Jordan. Scottie did. Scottie called him Jordan. Didn't call him Michael. Numbers, a lot, he's right there. He probably would never catch him in terms of MVP. But in terms of statistics, the front is right there. And when you look across the board, not just scoring, check his assists, check his rebounds. Okay, yes, that's right. It's the easy way out because this, that's right, is how they gonna try to to make an even playing field. See, Michael Smith understands. But you know, Michael Smith is from my age group, so he knows what he knows the game. But you can't go to stats route 'cause I mean, the stats are out. Tell you that when I will tell you that, you know, John Stockton was a better point guard than Magic Johnson just because he had more assists. Not John Stockton was great, but he wasn't Magic. You just can't look at stats, especially cumulative stats. It's not at the top of Italy stats with Islamic armies done. Okay, I want to make sure that if it isn't making the same mistake people are making when it comes to Jordan's, he's somehow underrated as time goes on as an all-around player. Absolutely. His all-around game is greatly underrated. His passing, his defense. Michael Smith, he's talking about a video called "The Puppeteer" where shows on YouTube where shows Jordan's passing ability. A lot of videos that you can go to, a lot of different channels out there with guys that put out highlights of what Jordan used to do during his playing career, particularly with the Bulls. Once again, it is a conversation. LeBron James was phenomenal, a lot of great players, but you can't go to stats route because in my view, LeBron James and Larry Bird are on the same, are in the same level. And LeBron's stats far outpace Larry Bird's. That's because he played longer. And Larry Bird has certain debilitating injuries that inhibited him from from playing at his level of proficiency for a longer period of time as he could have. Also, during that era, they did not have the knowledge of training techniques that they have now. And also, they didn't have the performance-enhancing drugs that they have now. All right, it is what it is. Anyway, that's the issue with Scottie and Michael. Michael needs to give us a call and say, "They could keep my name out your mouth." If they ask you about me and LeBron, you plead the fifth. All right? 'Cause if you don't, I'm a send Future out there to go deal with your wife again. Nobody about that. Anyway, peace.