Transcription
The word "goat" to begin with, the greatest of all time. Where does that come from? Muhammad Ali, who essentially coined the phrase, calling himself the greatest of all time. Right? I did a video so long ago about how LeBron James and the media were working in tandem to associate him with Muhammad Ali to build up his brand as a so-called conscious athlete. Brothers, this has been in play for a couple of years now. Ever since they won the championship in 2016, LeBron and his team and his sponsors have been trying to figure out a way to overcome the Jordan ghost. That is why LeBron James used that term because Michael Jordan acts as a spectre hovering over the entire NBA. He hovers over the entire history of basketball because nobody has ever been bigger than Michael Jordan was from about '88 to about '97 or '98. Nobody in basketball has ever been bigger than he was back then. And you would have had, and you would have had to have lived through that era to understand what I'm talking about, right? That's, "Ali, I must be the greatest. I must be. He, he is the greatest of all time." And then "goat" became a thing, you know, way after the fact.
Now, Ali's actually the most talented heavyweight of all time. He's not the greatest fighter of all time. And to be honest with you, it's probably a debate as to whether or not he's the greatest heavyweight of all time. But what he was was by far the most charismatic athlete of the 20th century, not even really close. Now, it's interesting because in LeBron and and Michael Jordan, I see a lot of Muhammad Ali versus Sugar Ray Robinson. Muhammad Ali, the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. Um, you know, people like me, when I was a kid, that's the greatest fighter of all time. And old-timers would tell us, tell me, Sugar Ray Robinson. And as I got older and learned more, I realized, yeah, they were right. The greatest of all time was Sugar Ray Robinson. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest fighter of his era. That's what he was.
I would love to have seen Ray Robinson fight against Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns, fighters of that type, that ilk. But of course, never see that. What Ray Robinson was, he, he was like a jet engine during the time of the Wright brothers. Like he was so ahead of his time with his style, with, um, you know, with how diverse he was and his methodologies in the ring. So that's what, that's what puts him into that, that, that conversation of being the greatest ever. But can we say without a doubt that Ray Robinson is the greatest boxer ever? No, we can't say that because there have been so many greats since him. And to be quite frank with you, during his time period, he was protected. That's why he was allowed to fight the same tomato cans like Ray Robinson did. Like, you know, when people say dumb [ __ ] like, Ray Robinson at one time was 121 and two and all this other silly [ __ ]. Dude, Ray Robinson did things back then that you couldn't do today. Like he would knock a guy out in one round and then fight the same guy two weeks later. Go look at the box record. The dudes that he fought, look at the highlights. Go on YouTube and look up Ray Robinson highlights. Show me the highlight reel of him knocking out a Black fighter. You're not going to find him, other than Randy Turpin in a rematch, because he was protected. He was allowed to fight certain fighters. And I'm not saying that he was not tremendous. He was phenomenal. Way ahead of his time. That's why I call him the Elgin Baylor of boxing. Like he was so ahead of his time. But to say he's definitely the greatest boxer of all time? No. That's, that's for, you know, talking heads like Max Kellerman. But Ray was, um, you know, he was certainly something special.
The argument that Ali has is twofold. One, in the arena, he had to slay the monster. He was an 8 to 1, 10 to 1 underdog against Sonny Liston. He was a 5 to 1 against George Foreman. And both times he slayed the monster that Sugar Ray Robinson never had to slay. But that's because Sugar Ray Robinson was the monster. Yes, LeBron did something Jordan never had to do. Went in and beat a 73-win team on the road, by the way, and of all places, at the free throw line. He ices the game. No, sir. Actually, actually Kyrie Irving is the one who ices the game. At the end of the day, I have nothing against LeBron James. But this guy only made one out of two free throws at the free throw line. And the LeBron James superfans in the media, some of whom I think are paid, to be quite honest with you, they just tried to overly accentuate the littlest of things because he was actually able to make a free throw late in Game 7. Was supposed to give him credit for being a clutch player. And he was great down the stretch of that series, don't get it twisted. But, but now, LeBron James knew what he was going against with those Golden State Warriors down the stretch of that series. He knew that they were broken. That's why they showed the clip of him saying that after Game 6. He said, "They [ __ ] up mentally and physically. They [ __ ] up." And he was correct. They were done. Game 5, Bogut goes down. Um, Steph Curry wasn't right mentally or physically that whole series. Andre Iguodala, no, his body just locks up on him mysteriously for whatever reason. Harrison Barnes can't make a basket. It took all that just for them to win Game 7 in the last 30 seconds. So the real question is, with all the talent that the Cavaliers had on that team, why were they not the team that won 73 games that year? That's the real question. So he knows he did something Jordan never had to do. But that's because Jordan was the Golden State Warriors, the, the team. It's not like LeBron didn't have a chance to play with a lot of great teammates. He made teams, including with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Thank you.
This notion that LeBron has gone up against all these unbeatable teams. The Golden State Warriors did not become unbeatable until the last couple of years when they got Kevin Durant. Nobody was saying coming into 2014 or 2015 that Golden State was just this unbelievable, overly talented super team. That's nonsense. Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green, they're, they're not a super team. I'm sorry. What they are, uh, they're perfect players for that system. And as we've seen over this past season, even though we're still early in the season, the NBA has caught up with them. They're still the best team, and I would still pick them to win a championship. But if they didn't, it would not shock me at all. Because just three years ago, Steph Curry was the only guy pulling up from 28, 30 feet, other than maybe Dame Lillard every once in a while. Now everybody does it. So that portion of, of, of the advantage that they had is no longer there. It's just no longer there. So we'll see how this goes. But Golden State has never been the most talented team. That, I mean, that's just nonsense. What they were were a group of players who played perfectly together. And now with KD, he's kind of brought in this, this element of, of being unbeatable because now they have two of the top five players in the NBA on just about anybody's hierarchy or anybody's scale. But that's about it. You know, LeBron James built super teams in Miami and Cleveland. He was only able to win three championships over the last nine years or so. So he's come up short. That's the real issue. I don't want to hear about how San Antonio, he's got these people. San Antonio had Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Give me a break. That's not a super team. Bosh and company, including with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and company. So he had a lot of talent around him. And yet his team wasn't always Godzilla. Right? But Michael Jordan's teams were. Right? So Max Kellerman, once again, why is it that they were not, if LeBron James is so great and as you claim he's light years ahead of everybody else, why is it that he was able to build super teams, but none of his teams played super in a regular season other than the 2013 Heat? Why is that? Because they had Michael Jordan. And it's unfair to hold against Jordan the fact that he was so great that no team was better than him. Look, when he came back for the second three-peat, he had to beat first a 60-win Orlando Magic team that had Shaq and Penny and company, that had just gone to the finals. The whole crew, Grant, that team was loaded. That, that '96 Orlando Magic team was stacked. I'm not even quite sure that Golden State will beat them. Yeah, that's right. And then swept those guys, swept them. And then went beat a 64-win team. Yeah, right. Well, sure. But then went beat the 64-win team of the. It's not like he didn't do incredible things. So that's one thing. Jordan shouldn't be, it shouldn't count against him that he was better than LeBron, and so were his teams. And therefore, because they had him, and therefore he couldn't overcome odds the way LeBron did.
Two, and this is where LeBron has some, has a case here, if you include in greatness your legacy in terms of the impact you make on people's lives off the field of play. Now you're going into political [ __ ] once again. This is LeBron James super fan [ __ ] 101. Well, you know, because LeBron gets on TV with an oversized check that actually is not even coming from his bank account. It's coming from his quote-unquote foundation, I.E. his Ponzi scheme. Or it's really a check that was written for him to show, and it was written by Nike. Let's give him credit for that. No, I'm not giving him credit for that. That has nothing to do with being a GOAT, sorry, or being the greatest player in your sport. LeBron James has shown something that, that there was a false dichotomy in the past. There was Ali, who's a voice for social consciousness and made sacrifices to make change. Not that LeBron has made those kind of sacrifices, nowhere near, nowhere near. But that's how they're trying to promote him, and you're falling prey to it right now because you're desperate to give him credit for silly [ __ ] for getting on TV and, and, um, cursing, cursing about Donald Trump. I mean, this dude's a clown, man. And then there was Jordan, who has seen as more of a corporate sellout. But as you've pointed out in many, has he's done a lot of charitable work, but he kept it quiet because he didn't want to offend corporate sponsors and such and make too much noise about it. Of course not. He wasn't going to [ __ ] up his money because back then you didn't get $40 million a year. You got, he was getting $2 million a year. Michael Jordan was so no, he wasn't [ __ ] up his money, nor should he have. LeBron James needs to thank Michael Jordan for affording him the lifestyle that he has because now he can get tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars from Nike for sneakers that ain't nobody wearing. When's the last time you heard somebody say, "Oh man, I got to get them new LeBrons"? Ain't nobody wearing them. Them ugly ass shoes that he wears look like little kid sneakers. Them LeBron James [ __ ] sneakers. To this day, you could put Air Jordans on the screen and people could tell you what year they came out. I don't even wear Jordans. I could tell you what number the Jordans are, especially like the first 13 of them, first 12 or 13 of them. And I don't even wear them shits. But nobody wears LeBron James' sneakers. But he's still getting hundreds of millions of dollars from Nike in a sneaker contract. And that's what gives him the freedom to talk this [ __ ] that he talks about. And it was, and that's because Michael Jordan made Nike. Nike was a running shoe before him. They were not even in competition to snag a prime athlete before Michael Jordan. So Michael Jordan made these dudes, man. I mean, I'm just talking facts. That's it.
It was kind of seen as an either or. Are you going to be like Ali or you going to be like Jordan? And LeBron has shown you can do both. You can have enormous corporate success and be a voice for the voiceless. You can do both, as long as the corporation is the entity that's putting it in your head to do that. Once again, Nike is telling LeBron to talk that [ __ ]. They're telling Williams to talk like that. And if that's what's in their heart, then cool. But if you're just acting like a revolutionary, that you're no less of a pawn than somebody who's quiet on things that they, they want to speak out about because they don't want to offend their corporate sponsors. You're the same pawn, just turned inside out. And, and in that sense, he has created a large and great legacy. Yeah, but I will say to you, in response to that, whereas I don't disagree with you, I think that LeBron, believe it or not, and I don't know if anybody's ever said this, some of the things that he does, he owes in large part to Jordan, bro. I've been saying that for the last year and a half. You need to subscribe to my channel. Setting the stage for him being able to do it, not by just elevating the brand that is the NBA into a global entity the way that Michael Jordan helped pull it off, but also some of the things that LeBron does in the community and what have you. You got to remember, you still have people, despite the times that we're living in, want you to shut up and dribble. Want you to keep your mouth shut. Don't want you to be outspoken. Don't want you to do nonsense. There's no one that does not want LeBron James to speak. Just speak according to knowledge. The reason why athletes are told to be quiet is because they speak according to their feelings. And when you have a prominent person who's speaking according to their feelings and not knowledge, that's going to affect millions of people who quote unquote look up to them. That's why they're put under such greater scrutiny whenever they talk [ __ ] because you have a great platform, you have great power. So it's really incumbent upon you to speak things according to knowledge and wisdom and not your damn feelings. And LeBron James speaks like a damn 13-year-old girl. He speaks according to his feelings, not according to what he knows. Because once again, other than basketball, he don't know [ __ ]. He just doesn't.
To do a lot of things well, think about the era that trans, you know, that precedes those things. The obstacles that a lot of guys had to go through. You had people before Michael Jordan, the Jim Browns of the world and others during the Civil Rights days, they took that position because the racism and bigotry and everything else was so overt. But then Magic and Bird made it more comfortable and helped the iconic brand that is the NBA grow even more so. And then Jordan came in and took it to another level. And once again, there were no prominent Black athletes in the '80s and '90s that was talking about race. None. But they just want to focus on Jordan because once again, they're trying to tear him down and build up LeBron James. There were none. Once again, other than maybe Barkley and Barry Bonds every once in a while, they would spaz out and say stuff about about white people. Well, there wasn't any. Good. No, Barry Sanders and Deion and, you know, Roy Jones and all those guys, Shaq, LeBron. None of them was talking about the white man back then. And then Kobe, and then LeBron. So what I'm saying is, had it not been for those periods, LeBron might not have been able to do what we're seeing him do right now. He completely agrees. To make a long story short, LeBron is a product of his environment. He's a product of what those that came before him did. And even if he understands that, he's not going to admit it because he's a politician. So politicians have to get credit for things that other people have done so that they can get elected. He deserves all the credit in the world for doing what he does, make no mistake about it. But the assistance that he's received, verily, all be that that might be the case, there are others who assisted in that regard. And I don't think we can ignore that. All right, guys, let's start another. Okay, so now they also covered LeBron James' delusional ramblings on this TV show, The Jump. So let's see what they have to say about it. That one right there made me the greatest player of all time. I was super, super ecstatic to win one for Cleveland because of the 52-year drought. Like I was ecstatic. Like obviously, I show that they, the first wave of emotion was, was y'all. Everyone saw me crying. Like that was all for 52 years, everything sports going on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped, I was like, sh-, that one right there made you the greatest player of all time. Welcome back. You just guys just heard that was LeBron talking about what happened after he won that one for Cleveland. Here's what Michael Jordan told our Michael Wilbon on that greatest ever conversation that will never die back in 2009. Take a listen to his side of things. Now, let's pay very close attention to what Michael Jordan said. And when I say pay very close attention, I mean that because the first thing that people are going to try to do is dissect his comments for hypocrisy or somebody being fake. He's not being fake here. He's being very, very particular in his words. So let's pay close, close attention to what he says and how he says it. Thanks. Um, I don't want it in a sense because I think it disrespects Will Chamberlain, uh, Jerry West, you know, all the guys that prior to me. I never had a chance to play against. Now, did you see what he said there? He said, "Prior to me, I never got a chance to play against them." He didn't say they were better than me. He didn't say, "I can't say that I'm the best because those players were better than me." He said, "I never got a chance to play against them." So see, in Michael Jordan's world, because he thinks like a man, his attitude is, we could talk [ __ ] all day, but if we never got out there on the floor, me saying that I'm better than this person who played 20 years before me, that's empty rhetoric. And that's what I mean when I, when I say certain things like on my channel, I talk about, I don't go back and forth in comments all day. Now, sometimes I read comments and I say to myself, okay, I have to do a responding to your comments about this so that, you know, brothers who listen, they might have the same question or they might have the same belief. And, you know, I can state my perspective to a mass audience as opposed to going back and forth with somebody who, not times out of 10, they ain't going to get it. So that's Jordan's attitude. In the basketball world, his attitude is, I know in my heart that I'm better than Oscar Robertson or Jerry West or Wilt Chamberlain, just like they know in their heart that they're better than me. But we're never going to get to come to a conclusion on it. So why talk about it all day? That's what he's saying. But people today, you know, they think on such a low, feeble level. Their whole thing is, no, you don't really think that, you're just saying that, not even understanding what he's saying. No one knows. You know, I never had the chance, once again, to play against those guys. You know, um, I would love to have played against him, but I never did. You know, and for you to say that I'm better than him, I mean, it's your opinion. It's their opinion. I accept that as their opinion. If you ask me, I would never say that I'm the greatest player. That's how you know he's lying. West. If he had said Oscar, if he had said Bill. Now, brothers, if you pay very close attention to what Michael Jordan said, what he stated is that it's your opinion. So we can't come to a real answer. This person, Am Al-Hassan, and normally I like a lot of things that he has to say, but you could tell he's just, he was just looking to find a way to poke holes in what Jordan was going to respond with or what he said at the time. Michael Jordan, in his heart, believes that he's better. A lot of times people say, well, you know, Michael Jordan on the floor, he would say that he's betting everybody. Of course, because you're in the heat of battle. But when you sit down and you have a chance to to analyze things in retrospect, you're not going to disrespect another great combatant, another great athlete from another era by saying I'm better than him. Because it's not a single sport. Not only do you have to prove that you're a better basketball player than that individual as a leader, but you also have to be able to galvanize your teammates and conquer that other, other person's team. So there are so many dynamics that go into it. That's why he kept saying, "It's your opinion." Because once again, when you think like a man, you don't go back and forth all day over opinions. I always say this, if people are arguing for too long, it's because either one person has no idea what they're talking about, or both people have no idea what they're talking about. Because when two people know what they're talking about and they have a disagreement, they're going to exchange facts back and forth, and it's going to be, it's going to be what it's going to be after about three to five minutes. You see people having these long-winded, long-running arguments and all that, it's because either one person or both people have no idea what they're talking about. Well, Russell, maybe Jerry, man, you're lying. You know, you look, here's the deal, dude. Jerry West scored over 20,000, 27,000 points with no three-point line and got to nine NBA Finals. If M, if you're Michael Jordan, you're going to mention Jerry West because Jerry West is considered one of the great shooting guards of all time. Of course, Michael Jordan thinks that he's better than Jerry West. But it's funny to me how people will try to poo-poo Jerry West really because he's a, he's a so-called white man. Let's be for real. But you have to mention his name because he was a peer of Oscar Robertson. And at the end of the day, he was, he was more successful than Oscar Robertson was because he got to more finals. They both won one, but, you know, Oscar had Kareem, Jerry West had Wilt. But at least Jerry West was getting to more. So of course, you mention, you mention Jerry West. And obviously, Michael Jordan considers Oscar Robertson as well, other guys. But Michael Jordan believes he's the best. Don't get it twisted. But he's not going to be presumptuous enough and disrespectful enough in the grand scheme of things to get on TV and say, I'm better than all these guys. Because how are you going to quantify that? That's just empty talk. That's empty rhetoric, man.
Dude, I don't have a problem with LeBron saying it. Whether I agree or disagree is irrelevant. Because I think he's at the very least, you think Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time. You can say he's, he's in the conversation. I, right? But he's in the conversation. As what? Like, what is LeBron James in the conversation for now? That's why I get annoyed by a lot of these super liberal people. They were talking about a [ __ ] conversation. A conversation about what? LeBron James is in the conversation for what? The greatest small forward of all time? I'll give you that. The best player of the last 10 years? I'll give you that. No doubt. LeBron James overall is the best player of the last 10 years. And there are people who might argue that, but I give him that. But the greatest of all time? No. You cannot be three and six in the finals, have a stacked team the last, you know, eight, nine years, and tell me that you're the best player ever. You cannot get outplayed in the finals by J.J. Barea and Jason Terry and tell me that you're the best player ever. That ship has sailed, man. It's gone. I love the fact you said it because we don't see players of this caliber go out and say that. You never saw, you never saw, wait to say it more than anyone. Said back, back in our day, yeah, that's called having respect for your elders. See, back when the home was presided over by the man, that's what you were taught. LeBron James was raised by a liberal Black woman. So liberal Black women, they raise their children, have no respect. That's why we've seen the incarceration rates go up astronomically since they've been allowed to take over the home. Because these little boys, they have no respect for history, they have no respect for order. So they just say any [ __ ] thing like a damn woman does. That's why we have all this chaos. You know, Kareem, you know, I heard Kareem say it. Magic Johnson. So when, when I first heard this, I, it kept, yeah, because Kareem and Magic Johnson's attitude was, we'll prove it on the court. They also were both raised by men. It kept, it brought a smile to my face because I was like, man, that's pretty cool that you come out and you say, I think I'm the greatest of all time. And he is definitely in the conversation. There's no doubt about that. Like, like, M, Jason, he's in the conversation as greatest small forward of all time. That's the, that's what LeBron James is in. Jay said it's an opinion, right? So we all have our different opinions on who we all feel is great. And probably us three right here have probably three different opinions. I know who also has an opinion on LeBron. But anyway, that's basically it on that. We'll see what, what else emerges from the mind of Mr. LeBron James in the near future.