Transcription
All right, man, peace. You know, it's good to see somebody finally have the cojones to look some of these clown-ass, so-called analysts in their face and tell them the truth with no chaser. So, I got to give a shout out to Mr. Jaylen Rose. He finally, he finally, finally manned up and told some of these people the truth in regards to this LeBron James versus Michael Jordan comparison. So, thank you, brother.
So, let's see how this is covered. So, okay, so we can all agree he's perhaps having one of the, the best postseasons of his career. Our very own Jeff Van Gundy says the greatest of all time conversation between Michael Jordan and LeBron is relevant right now. And now, Jeff Van Gundy, of course, he's saying that because he's a guy who Jordan, you know, demolished in the late, in the late '90s. His teams, Jordan just ran right through them. A lot of these guys, you know, like Mark Jackson used to talk that about 10 years ago with Kobe, "Oh, Kobe's better than Jordan." You know why he said that? Because Jordan used to whoop his ass too. So, a lot of these guys, they're trying to hurt Jordan's legacy by pumping these modern-day, uh, NBA players above him, right? And there's nothing against Kobe or LeBron. They're both great players, but neither one of them are Michael Jordan. They're just not.
All right, so now the new thing is with the NBA is to pump up LeBron because, you know, according to the, um, according to the methodologies that they use to indoctrinate modern-day sports fans, the modern version is always supposed to be better than the previous version. That's how this society, you know, wants people to think that everything that comes out tomorrow is going to be better than today, and everything today is better than yesterday. So, of course, by that thinking, LeBron must be better than Michael Jordan. And it's also good for the league to promote that, you know, that we, that we found somebody to replace him. It's never good for business to have somebody who's no longer a part of your league as a participant be the standard of excellence. You always want somebody who's currently playing to be taking the game to new heights and new standards, right? And LeBron, to his credit, to a degree, you know, has, has, uh, he's created a niche for himself as an all-time great, no doubt about it. And there's no way you can say it's not close. It's, this has been a debate for a while, but for some, we haven't accepted it yet.
So, is it real now? What an ultimate compliment to LeBron that we're not even talking about his opponents in this playoffs. We're talking about an opponent who we can't even play now. Well, it's a, it's a compliment to LeBron, but it's also an insult to the modern-day NBA, right? What you're really saying is that there's not really a super dominant player in this era to come against him, right? Even in Jordan's era in the '90s, um, you had guys like Hakeem, like Shaq, right, who was super dominant. Who, when they faced up in the finals, you, you were not quite sure who was going to win. You know, in hindsight, everybody says, "Oh, we all knew Jordan was going to win." Well, that's not necessarily true. Going into the '91 finals, people didn't know who was going to win between the Bulls and, um, and the Lakers, right? Now, they try to make it like the Lakers were so old. Magic was 31 years old. James Worthy was about 30, 29, 30 years old. They were not old, all right? Now, you, you can make the case that they had a lot of tread on their tires, but they were not old, right? They said that the Bad Boy Pistons were old. Uh, no, they weren't old. Isiah Thomas was about 30, you know, Joe Dumars was, was, uh, same age as Jordan, right? They weren't old at all. Dennis Rodman was younger. Dennis Rodman was about the same age as Jordan too, all right? They just lost. They just got their ass whooped. And the previous two years, the Bulls were the ones who gave the Detroit Pistons their toughest run in the playoffs, all right? So, this, there's this, uh, there's this narrative going around that that the Pistons just beat the hell out of Jordan and they just smack, smacked him around. No, before Jordan matured as a basketball player, he was still giving them, the Pistons, their toughest run because the Pistons went into the finals and they swept the Lakers and they beat, uh, Portland in five, and that could have easily have been a sweep.
The fact that we've been talking about is an accomplishment to him. There's two things about LeBron. There's the counting stats, which for years, we all just counted stuff. We counted number of points, number of rebounds. Nowadays, we count, "Hey, if you got 35 points, but you needed 32 shots to get there, that's not considered a good game." Last round, LeBron had a game where he scored 39 points on 14 shots. So, if you look at LeBron and Jordan, you know, their counting numbers are relatively close. Their efficiency numbers are another thing. So, Jordan was good statistically, efficiently wise, but also LeBron, maybe when his championships, not always had the better team. And maybe you see what they're trying to do. They're trying to create this pretext where, uh, LeBron didn't have as much talent around him as Jordan. LeBron has always had the most talent around him since he left Cleveland the first time, all right? Every team that LeBron has played on since he left Cleveland the first time has been considered the most talented team in the NBA. Now, the Warriors came out of nowhere in 2014. Prior to the 2014-2015 season, the Cavs were looked at as a super team. Once they made that trade to bring in Kevin Love, and they had Kyrie and LeBron, they were viewed as a super team. They were viewed as the most talented team in the NBA. The Warriors came in and and threw a monkey wrench into their game plan. But the Warriors did not have a super team. They were not considered a super team coming into two years ago. Uh, that season, 20, the 2014 season, three seasons ago, they were not. So, that, a lot of, a lot of the narrative, uh, pushed by the sports media is revisionist. Even though Jordan was 6-0 in the finals, maybe LeBron was the underdog a few more times that he's been able to win as opposed to Jordan, who generally had the better team. No, they didn't have the better team. They had the better players, all right? They had the better play. They had, you know, they had the better player, I should say, pardon me. Jordan was the better player, right? They did not have the better teams most of the time when they played in the finals, right? Seattle, the SuperSonics might have had more talent from top to bottom than the '96 Bulls had, all right? For those of you who remember that series, if you were live to watch it, they had Jordan, they had Rodman. Pippen was, Pippen also was great, but Pippen had a bad back that whole playoffs. He was not the player that he was before, all right? The rest of the team were castoffs. Longley and these guys, they were castoffs. Toni Kukoč was a high-profile foreign player who came into the NBA that he had a, you know, he was a very good passer, a very good clutch shooter, but he was terrible on defense and he was always in Phil Jackson's doghouse. The '92 Bulls, they played against the, uh, the '92 Portland Trail Blazers. The '92 Trail Blazers had more talent top to bottom than the '92 Bulls had, all right? They, they had more talent. They, they were just dumb. They had a low basketball IQ, all right? So, a lot of this stuff, even though the Bulls might have been favored in all of those finals, it was because of Michael Jordan.
You know, it's just hilarious. They always talk about when Jordan beat the Lakers, they were old. When he beat the Pistons, they were old. But when LeBron beat the Celtics with, with Garnett and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, all well over 30, they weren't old, right? When, when, uh, when Ray Allen had to save his ass in 2013 with the three from the corner, and they beat Tim Duncan, who was damn near 40 years old, he wasn't old. Look, I, I, one thing we can't dispute is that LeBron will go down as one of the greatest to ever lay him up. I always call him incredible, hulking tennis shoes playing against them. It was, it was a daunting task. But I'm not ready to go there yet and say that he's right there being the greatest. He moved up a few notches to me. Winning Game 7 on the road against a 73-win team in, in the Warriors last season. I'm still deferring this debate. If he can, by a chance, both of those teams get there this year and he can beat that team again, maybe I'll start talking about it. But I'm not ready. It ain't, it's okay. Don't have to be ready yet. I'm not ready. It's not just about your greatness, it's about who you beat as well and how you did it. Thank you, Jaylen. And the media is trying to create this argument of, "LeBron has beat better teams in the finals than Jordan beat." Come on, man. They beat the Golden State Warriors last year who were running on fumes and, uh, through, through trickery and chicanery, they got dumbass donkey Draymond Green to get himself suspended for a game, and then they lost their, their, uh, rim protector in, in Bogut. And then the first championship that he won, they were fortunate enough to play a Kevin Durant and a Russell Westbrook with a James Harden who, you know, had all the talent in the world, but no basketball IQ at all, all right? Nothing against LeBron. Look, great player, but this nonsense about how he, how he faced better teams, it's just complete idiocy. The one smart team that he played in the finals was the Spurs in 2013, and Popovich blew that game, game six, by having Duncan not even in the game, and they got lucky. They got the ball bounced the right way to Ray Allen, all right? People forget LeBron was having a terrible series. They were single covering him. They had just Kawhi on him, playing him five feet off, daring him to shoot. All right? Dwyane Wade saved his ass in game four when he had that great game, and then LeBron scored a bunch of garbage points to make it look like he played great. And then, you know, game six, I give him credit, he went ham down the stretch, and then game seven, he had a great game seven. But this, this, this foolery about how he's been this great finals performer, he had a great finals against the, uh, the, uh, Warriors back in 2015, and of course, last year down the stretch. But nah, and Michael Jordan is the GOAT and will be the GOAT. Thank you, bro. Tell the truth, man. Let them know. If LeBron James wins a couple more championships, then we can start having this conversation. I think this conversation is still premature. Now, he's moving in a conversation of top five. But he was fortunate enough to either dismantle or disable all of his potential rivals. Thank you, sir. In other words, due to the fact that he moved to different teams when the going got tough, which I don't begrudge him as a free agent, that's his right. That's his right to go where he wants to go. But when you start making these type of conversations about him against Jordan, now we have to start evaluating those decisions, all right? People say, "Well, Jordan had Pippen." "Jordan made Pippen." All right? Pippen had no choice but to become a great player because of the pressure that Jordan was putting on him in practice, all right? He had no choice. Scottie Pippen is a guy, if he was drafted by Milwaukee, you, you might not have ever heard of him, all right? He might have been in and out the league in two years, right? With the Bulls, Jordan made him who he was. He just did. You got these idiots, "Oh, well, uh-uh, MJ didn't win in the playoffs or Pippen got there." Do me a favor, go on, uh, the NBA reference website and look up Michael Jordan's statistics in the 1988 playoffs in the first round against Cleveland, and then look up Scottie Pippen's, and then you tell me that Scottie Pippen was, was the reason why they won that series, all right? Just as a line. That's like me sitting here saying, "You know what? LeBron never did in the playoffs until they got Larry Hughes." All right? Because even though nobody brings it up, LeBron never even made the playoffs until Larry Hughes got there. But am I going to be dumb enough to say that the reason why they made the playoffs was because he got Larry Hughes? No, all right? Now, we know in hindsight, Pippen went on to become a, a, a Hall of Fame player. But if you look at what he did that first year with Jordan, he was nothing. Larry Hughes was far more impactful his first year with LeBron than Pippen was his first year with Michael Jordan. Other Hall of Famers in the East, Carmelo Anthony, only played against him one time in the playoffs. Would join, Dwyane Wade, and so you can't take away from anything that LeBron has accomplished, but I'm just not ready to start having that. He does have K, Tim Duncan up there on the wall. He does have Kevin Durant up there on the wall. He does have Steph Curry up there on the wall. Tim Duncan, old. Kevin Durant, young, immature, and kind of soft-minded. And, uh, Steph Curry, not only was he injured, but you know, he was too, he was too cool for school. And by the time he turned around and realized he was in a, he was in a make-or-break situation, it was too late, all right? Steph Curry lost a lot of points last year. He had the chance. If he had a great performance in the playoffs last year, people would be calling Steph Curry a top 10 player all-time based off of the regular season that he had last year. If he would have matched that with a great playoffs, people would have been calling him a top 10 player of all time. As much as the media loved him last year, he blew all that. It's not even yet, but LeBron's making progress in that direction, which I think right now, LeBron is, is, uh, in the top 10. He's moving up to top 10. That's what he's doing. Got DK up on the wall. He got Kawhi on the wall. Thank you, Jaylen. Thank you, Jaylen. He got Dirk on the wall, and we know what Dirk did to him, all right? Dirk embarrassed them, embarrassed their whole team, right? Just that Maverick series right there is why LeBron will never be Michael Jordan. Sorry, Pa. That's true. But question, why, why don't, why don't we ever compare him to Kobe? Why, why do they skip over Kobe? Because Michael Jordan is the, the best. No, they skip over Kobe because, look, and I know certain people are going to get upset about this because Kobe has a very rabid fan base, and I get it. But Kobe Bryant is not LeBron James. He's not the guy who's going to come to your team and make you an instant 50, 55-win team, all right? He's just not that guy. Kobe has to have the right ingredients, the right mix, right? If he has the Phil Jackson as coach, if he has a great low post center, right? Those are the type of things he needs, like his career has shown that when he doesn't have those, those things, he doesn't even make the playoffs, all right? He doesn't even make the playoffs without those things, much less win championships. But, you know, he's still an all-time great for what he does because, like, why is it always just? I think Michael Jordan is how a lot of people stumbled upon basketball. They're like, "This is amazing. I love it." And then all of a sudden, you find yourself, "I'm a huge NBA fan," and it's because of that guy. I think it's actually because when Kobe, unlike MJ or LeBron, he initially wasn't their best player. That was Shaq. Thank you. That's something that a lot of people don't want to acknowledge. People want to forget about Shaq, you know? When you start making lists of the top 10 greatest or most impactful players ever, Shaq is up there, all right? If he's not top 10, he's right outside the top 10. There's a guy in Shaquille O'Neal who, who went to the finals with three different teams, all right? I believe he made the Conference Finals with every team that he was on, 'cause I believe he made it with Phoenix and Boston as well, you know what I mean? That guy's impact was incredible. He's probably the most underachieving all-time great player in NBA history. That guy should have won six, seven championships. So, when they won their first three championships and Shaq was the Finals MVP, that's how that started to happen. Wait, if I change the question to comparing him to Kobe, would you be fine with that? It'll be closer for me. Interesting. It'll be closer for me. Chuck's got Kobe on his wall. Kobe's got me on his wall. Any one there? I, I did it for you again, Twitter.
When you look at this victory here, that Kyrie Irving hit on the Raptors last series, it might look familiar. He hit. Now, they're going to go through a sequence with Kyrie Irving and his proficiency on the right side in clutch moments, and Jaylen is going to make a great point about LeBron James and why you can't compare him to Michael Jordan. Watch what happens. Hit a lot of big shots from that spot. Brian, I understand you've done some digging for us here. What do you have? ESPN Stats and Info did this digging. This is incredible. In the last minute of one-possession games over the last, last three years, Kyrie Irving from the right wing, five of five, five of five. Nailed it on the Raptors last round. This was against the Trail Blazers two years ago. Uh, if he gets to the right wing, you're done. I'd hate to bring this up to you, Beetle. This was in San Antonio, 57-point game, right wing again, done. Uh, you know, obviously, uh, you know, here's another one in, uh, in Detroit, right wing, good luck. He gets to that spot, you're not going to stop him, obviously. This is arguably one of the biggest shots in NBA history, isolation on Curry, escape dribble, right wing. All of those shots from the same spot. He can't miss. And that was just terrible defense by Curry, first off. He had the wrong hand challenge, and it should have been the left hand, and his feet were just all unsteady and balance was off. Oh boy, oh, that just, that just brings back just bad memories. Golden State should have won that series, man. Curry was terrible the last, the last three games. He was just horrific, you know? This is not where you want to let him get. Kyrie Irving might be the most devastating player in the NBA right now from the right wing. You get him on that spot, it's very hard to double team with, with their three-point shooters. Toronto couldn't stop it last week. If we get another close game, whether it's in this series or the next, watch for Kyrie Irving. That's the spot. Look at Michelle Beadle's face as he's saying all that. Michelle Beadle, it looks like she's probably thinking about the same thing that Jaylen Rose is about to say. Don't let him get to the spot. Yeah, and it's tough, right? I mean, you can't press him there. No real good way to, to guard Kyrie. But every player has a sweet spot. I know me myself, that was my spot, the right wing, you know, left-hand pull-up, that was kind of my, my sweet spot. I can understand why it would be Kyrie's. Everybody has their area on the floor. The problem is, there's no way to stop Kyrie. You just got to hope he misses that shot. And also, who had the ball late in the game? Michael Jordan. Oh, Kyrie Irving, not Scottie Pippen, right? Yeah. And in the huddle, LeBron wanted Kyrie to get that shot. They wanted to isolate. And what does that say about LeBron that he wanted Kyrie to get the clutch shot in a clutch moment in Game 7? What's that say about him? But, you know, in, in Phil Jackson's huddle, he wanted Michael Jordan to get that shot. Hey, look at Jaylen's face. Jaylen's face is like, "Checkmate." Hey, that's a whole another discussion. No, we're talking, we just compared Michael Jordan and LeBron James, right? But isn't discretion the greater part of valor? Isn't now when we're talking about who's the best all-time player? No, sir. All right, now people will come back and say, "Well, what about when Jordan passed the ball to Steve Kerr?" That was a, that was a play that was designed between Jordan and Steve Kerr if they came to double-team him, right? It wasn't a designed play for for Steve Kerr to take that shot, right? And in regards to the John Paxson play, the John Paxson play was set up for the huddle to move the ball around to the open man, whoever that may be. Isn't that, "Hey, I know this guy is not can't miss. Why would I take the shot when I know I got a teammate that we were just comparing Michael Jordan?" And I know that his coach is going to draw him up to shoot the ball. Last, man, I'm not mad at unselfish LeBron. Say, "Yes, indeed. He got the hot hand. Let's go with him." I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at him either because that means he knows his limitations. That means that you cannot compare him to Michael Jordan, though. That's what that means. Yeah, there's no need to gang up on him. It's just the truth. Like, LeBron is an all-time great. He's a great player. He's just not Michael Jordan. He never been Michael Jordan. He's never going to be Michael Jordan, all right? He's just not. LeBron is more like a mix between, to me, everybody talks about how he's a mix between Magic and Michael. When I see LeBron, I, I see a mix of Scottie Pippen and Karl Malone. That's what I see, you know? So, I mean, it just is what it is. And that's not even bringing in the performance-enhancing drugs issue like I always bring up. When you start comparing him to the all-time great, well, we have to factor in the performance-enhancing drug issue, allegedly, that he's on because those things add longevity and they add, they add proficiency to your career. So, when your name comes up on the Biogenesis ledger as being someone who's taken performance-enhancing drugs from that facility, when, uh, when it's shown that you had a, a growth removed from your jawline at the end of the 2009 season, that's the issue, all right? But kudos to Jaylen Rose, man. Peace.