On Friday, Michael Jordan addressed the constant and often incessant comparisons between himself and LeBron James. And unlike his playing days, he eschewed trash talk to go the more diplomatic "different eras" route. Call it mellowing with age.
"We play in different eras," Jordan said at a press conference in Paris. "He's an unbelievable player. He's one of the best players in the world. If not the best player in the world. I know it's a natural tendency to compare eras to eras and it's going to continue to happen. I'm a fan of his. I love watching him play. But as you can see, our league is starting to expand on very talented players. I think he's made his mark. He will continue to do so over a period of time. But when you start the comparisons, I think it is what it is. It's just a stand-up measurement. I take it with a grain of salt. He is a heck of a basketball player, without a doubt."
Since MJ's saying nice things about LeBron, let's go back to what LeBron said about MJ in March 2019, after he passed him on the all-time scoring list.
"You guys have no idea what M.J. did for me and my friends growing up," James said. "Just in a sense of, some days where you just don't feel like you're going to make it to the next day where I grew up, because of everything that's going on. Like I wrote on my shoes today, I thank M.J. more than he would ever know. I've got to carry it on to the next kid. Hopefully I can inspire the next kid."
Oh, and in addition to LeBron, Jordan also had really nice things to say about Zion Williamson's debut, and also his happiness that Williamson is a Jordan Brand athlete.
So, yeah. Debate on.
