Published 02/22/2022, 7:30 AM KST Arguably, Michael Jordan and LeBron James are two of the biggest stars to ever play in the NBA. Although it might not be possible to see the two play against or with each other, the fans got to witness a special sight during the NBA All-Star Weekend. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad After so many years of being compared, the two superstars finally had a moment together on live television. Just before the NBA All-Star match, Michael Jordan and LeBron James hugged each other. Interestingly enough, MJ had a few words for King James that broke the internet. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad The NBA All-Star event of this year honored the NBA 75 team. The team consists of the top 75 players to ever play in the league. Players like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, and others attended the event. While the officials called out all the stars present in the star-studded ceremony, LeBron James was the last name to be called for forwards and Michael Jordan was the last one to be called in the guards’ category. Feb 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Lebron James and Michael Jordan on court during halftime during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY SportsWhat the fans witnessed was nothing less than historic. The two GOATS hugged each other while the whole world watched on. Interestingly enough, Jordan had a special message for LeBron. Jordan said, “You can do it. You can do it. Good Luck.” Fans have speculated the message to be hinted at the tough season the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James are facing. LeBron speaks about JordanIt is no secret LeBron has been inspired by Michael Jordan. Moreover, the game-winning fadeaway by LeBron belongs to Jordan. Safe to say out of the 18 career All-Star appearances, James is going to relish this the most. He also talked about this moment between him and MJ in the post-match press conference. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad LeBron said, “I did not want to lose the opportunity to shake the man’s hand that inspired me throughout my childhood.” He further added, “I haven’t had much dialogue with him in my 20 years or 19 years in this business, but part of me wouldn’t be here without MJ’s inspiration. I always wanted to be like him growing up.” ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad WATCH THIS STORY: Best of NBA All-Star Weekend Day 2: Dunk Contest, 3 Point Challenge, Shaquille ONeals Priceless Reaction, and More Who is your GOAT? Let us know in the comments below.
In a recent interview with Shannon Sharpe, the 2x NBA Champion finally broke his silence on James and the GOAT debate, bringing a unique perspective to the table. “You can’t really quantify it. What LeBron has done is in its own category, what Kobe did, what Jordan, Kareem, Bill… People get very selective, ‘well he only did…’… these are feats that never will be… nobody will be 6-0 in the finals, it just ain’t gonna happen, that’s crazy. 10 finals and counting, I don’t think nobody’s gonna do that. They both have a bunch of MVP awards. They’ve got all the trophies, those guys, Kobe and… everybody’s talking about the GOAT, I’m just trying to get into the building. It will be scholarly debates over this for decades. I know LeBron wants it that way. Jordan was our hero, we all watched Jordan, we all know that ‘okay this is what I’m up against and it is what it is’, but for him to actually create a lane for his own self and then they say ‘he’s arguably the greatest of all time’, there’s nothing else to talk about.”
Montrezl Harrell: Aye @Mospeights16.
Terrence Ross: Try to convince me.
Meanwhile, Jordan was the best perimeter player of the ’90s. And the second-best was … John Stockton? Clyde Drexler? Grant Hill for that one year? Especially after Magic Johnson retired in 1991, nobody came anywhere close. Instead, Jordan’s era was one where Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and a young Shaquille O’Neal were the dominant forces. Malone and Barkley were the players who beat him out for MVP awards, while Olajuwon pushed Jordan down to third in 1993 and Robinson finished second, third and third at various points. No sane person considered another perimeter player ahead of Jordan on their MVP ballot from 1991 to 1998. In the two years Jordan (mostly) sat out, 193 of the 202 first-place MVP votes went to the bigs I listed above. Just nine went to perimeter players of any stripe. The six bigs I named above were the top six players in the 1995 MVP vote; only then did other perimeter players become a topic.
Meanwhile, the gap between Jordan and every other perimeter player in basketball was simply massive. I’m not going to slow your roll with a giant chart here, but the top 60 seasons in BPM from 1988-89 to 1997-98 include 37 by power forwards and centers. Eight of the others are by Jordan. Just 15 are from other perimeter players. In other words, Jordan was so good that he was the best player even though the league at that time was set up for bigs to be the best players. He was so good that he overcame the gravitational forces yanking on every other perimeter player. By contrast, in the peak 10 seasons of the LeBron Era – from 2008-19 to 2017-18 – every one of the top 19 seasons is by a perimeter player. (In addition to James’s five entries, we have Curry, Durant, Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and Dwyane Wade campaigns.). Only six of the top 60 seasons were by a big … 90% of them came from perimeter players.
Rony Seikaly: The GOAT debate is something that people have fun with, but when you’re comparing two great players of two different eras, it’s very difficult to make a call. We’re talking about two immensely talented players and we can go back and forth on who’s better, depending on whether you’re a fan of the 90s or of today. If you’re the latter, you probably don’t know what Michael Jordan did in the 90s and you would automatically think that LeBron James is the best player. If you grew up watching Kobe Bryant, you’d think that he’s the GOAT. The debate is endless, but the only reason I’d give the nod to Michael Jordan is because he had more of an assassin mentality. If he smelled a little bit of blood, he would come after you and you were finished. It’s always the same with Mike Tyson. He was like a shark. LeBron is an extremely talented player, just as talented as Michael, but sometimes he’s more of a Magic Johnson when he has the ball; more of a facilitator and less of a finisher, like Michael Jordan was.
Allen Iverson: I’m not going to bullsh*t you. M.J. is always Number 1. I know you’d say the same. Black Jesus, that’s the G.O.A.T. But Number 2? Number 2, I’m always going to say it’s Kobe Bryant. Nobody was tougher than you. Nobody got more out of me. We’re linked forever in this game — in this life. I just wish we’d had more time.
NBA Central: Pat Bev says Kobe belongs in the GOAT convo: "No one likes to say it for some reason. Kobe taught people how to work hard. He gave you the blueprint of what you should do to be a successful basketball player. People tend to forget about it." (h/t @LakersDailyCom ) pic.twitter.com/oIErAuh2I0
“Jordan and Kobe, they did play defense but they’re scorers. They put up 50, 60, 70 points a night. When you get somebody so well-rounded, rebounding, scoring, passing, dribbling, a good teammate. It’s a totally different atmosphere. He’s a totally different person than those guys. There’s no comparison. Because you can’t compare a lion and a tiger. They’re both cats but they are not the same.” In true fashion, JR Smith finished his analogy with this hilarious quote. “The lion is the king of the jungle. Everybody bows down to the lion. But that don’t stop the tiger from saying ‘I’m a bad m----------- too’”.
In your opinion, who’s the GOAT? Larry Hughes: MJ is the GOAT, in my opinion. That’s really a no-brainer for me. Really, the inspiration behind wanting to push forward came from me watching MJ and how he worked and all of his videos and really instilling his work ethic in myself and trying to do the Breakfast Club. He paved the way so, for me, it’s an easy answer. LeBron, he’s not far behind. But, for me, it’s always been MJ.
Not many people can say they played with Michael Jordan and LeBron James. What were the biggest similarities between the two? Larry Hughes: I think the natural ability, the attention to detail, the respect that they ; they were not going to waste their God-given talent. That stands out to me the most… They had a deeper understanding that they weren’t going to let their talent be wasted. And they were going to inspire other people. I mean, even though I played with Bron when he was younger, we still had young guys who were coming to the team that looked up to Bron. It was a situation where he took advantage of that, and I think MJ took advantage of that as well, knowing that he would impact and inspire a lot of kids through a lot of different generations.
Despite his unwillingness to engage in the debate, Anthony did concede that he agrees with the consensus that Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time but also said that shouldn't take anything away from what LeBron has accomplished. "You know, M.J. is the GOAT. He's the greatest ever. We all know that and we all agree to that. Why can't we say that, but also give LeBron his flowers while he's here too?" Anthony said. "Why can't we say, 'M.J. was very great, LeBron is very great, Kobe is very great.' We're not allowed to say those things today, because it's always this or that, and that's just our society -- you have to choose one."
“When I was talking the GOAT for me means highschool, college, pro dominance, longevity, all of that. Kareem I don’t think lost in highschool. I think he was 85 and 2 in college, won a championship every year, was the best player every single year. They changed the rules for him. That’s why he got the sky hook. He comes to the league, obviously dominates, has the most points of all time, and things like top 5 or top 10 rebounding. He has 5 rings. His career speaks for itself. Played 20 years. “But it’s that 30-year span of just complete and utter basketball dominance in how define it is taking the big picture view. I don’t argue MJ’s pinnacle of dominance. I definitely don’t argue that. I want no smoke MJ fans. Everybody got mad, I was like ‘let me just explain myself’.”
However, one former player who had his fair share of success during his career, believes that the conversation being limited to only LeBron and Jordan is a mistake. Clyde “The Glide” Drexler was a household name during his storied career with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, and he thinks other players deserve to be in the “GOAT” conversation. “I really have a problem with that. Because out of all the guys that played the game, you’re only having a conversation with these two guys as the GOAT,” Drexler said in an interview on The A-Team, a Houston-area sports podcast. “When you got Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the greatest players who ever lived, I think you should start with those two. You got guys like Larry Bird, Dr. J, George Gervin, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West all of those guys are in the conversation. I love both Michael and LeBron but let’s not take something away from the other guys who played.”
However, one former player who had his fair share of success during his career, believes that the conversation being limited to only LeBron and Jordan is a mistake. Clyde “The Glide” Drexler was a household name during his storied career with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, and he thinks other players deserve to be in the “GOAT” conversation. “I really have a problem with that. Because out of all the guys that played the game, you’re only having a conversation with these two guys as the GOAT,” Drexler said in an interview on The A-Team, a Houston-area sports podcast. “When you got Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the greatest players who ever lived, I think you should start with those two. You got guys like Larry Bird, Dr. J, George Gervin, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West all of those guys are in the conversation. I love both Michael and LeBron but let’s not take something away from the other guys who played.”
Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem joins Now or Never to discuss the possibility of the NBA returning in July and shares his thoughts on The Last Dance, declaring "MJ is the greatest."
How do you rank Jordan, Kobe and LeBron in terms of greatness? Matt Barnes: Those are the top three players in the history of the game. It bothers when I see the disrespect. ESPN just came out with a list, and they had Kobe at nine. When you ask players, they’ll tell you, but it’s always the ‘experts’ that make these lists. My list would be Jordan at number one, Kobe number two and LeBron number three. LeBron can pass Kobe if he can capture another title. That would be a title with three different teams. He’s moving up the scoring list, he’s on the assist list and as far as all-around, he’s one of the greatest we’ve ever seen. Right now, it’s Mike number one, Kobe number two and LeBron three, but depending on how long he sticks around, LeBron can pass Kobe and he’ll definitely be in the discussion with Jordan.
Golden State’s Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall, Marquese Chriss and others grew up debating who was the best player of all time — Jordan or James? — in their school cafeterias during lunch. Poole always sided with Jordan. His father, a Chicago native, had told him stories about Jordan’s greatness. But for Paschall and Chriss, James deserved the nod. They didn’t feel comfortable arguing in favor of someone they hadn’t witnessed in person. “I mean, I didn’t get to experience what other guys got to experience as far as seeing MJ or the early Kobe years,” said Paschall, who, at 23, is older than five of his teammates. “However, I legit saw every aspect of LeBron’s legacy. That goes a long way.”
Golden State’s Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall, Marquese Chriss and others grew up debating who was the best player of all time — Jordan or James? — in their school cafeterias during lunch. Poole always sided with Jordan. His father, a Chicago native, had long told him stories about Jordan’s greatness. But for Paschall and Chriss, James deserved the nod. They didn’t feel comfortable arguing in favor of someone they hadn’t witnessed in person. “I mean, I didn’t get to experience what other guys got to experience as far as seeing MJ or the early Kobe years,” said Paschall, who, at 23, is older than five of his teammates. “However, I legit saw every aspect of LeBron’s legacy. That goes a long way.”
September 24, 2022 | 6:35 am EDT Update
Knicks President Leon Rose was asked about the trade during a recent interview. While not opening about the details of the trade talks, he claimed that his team made a decision to go forward with the players that they have and was happy with the draft picks at their disposal that could be used in future trades. “Well, I’m not allowed to speak with regard to players that are under contract with other teams,” Rose said on MSG Networks. “However, as you know, it is my job to evaluate and look at trades and things of that nature in order to improve the team. Like I said when I came in, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be opportunistic.
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