Michael Jordan and the Bulls won six NBA champions in a span of eight years—MJ earned Finals MVP honors each time—but according to LeBron James, Jordan may have gotten a bit too much credit for Chicago’s success:
“I don’t think MJ ever had a Game 7 in the Finals,” James said. “And people say ‘Oh, well he was able to close it out early’ and they act like he just did it all on his own. They forget about the shot by (John) Paxson on the left wing.”
“You want to know the crazy thing? In that particular game in Phoenix, MJ didn’t even have the ball in his hands. (Scottie) Pippen brought the ball up, (Charles) Barkley went for the steal, Pippen threw it down to Horace Grant and that got the defense (out of place) because Barkley went for the gamble. They rotated to Horace Grant, and Horace Grant threw it to Paxson. MJ didn’t have nothing to do with that play.”
James says Jordan was one of his childhood sports heroes.
LBJ made headlines in his podcast debut Wednesday, revealing that he wants to own an NBA squad once his playing days come to an end, and comparing J.R. Smith to a dolphin.
LeBron James, unfiltered. @KingJames makes podcast debut on @openrun, launching the UNINTERRUPTED Podcast Network: https://t.co/Z6BV6GIJ5G
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) August 17, 2016
Per the NEOMG:
James, 31, is entering his 14th pro season. He just signed a three-year, $100 million deal with the Cavs. Oh, and he’s coming off a Finals MVP from June, when he led Cleveland back from the largest deficit in NBA championship history to beat the Warriors in seven games. […] James has, actually, played in the last six Finals – something no one has done since the 1960s. In other words, as James said on the podcast, he’s still in his prime. So he’s not riding off into the sunset (and toward ownership of an NBA team) any time soon.
“You definitely listen to the statistics and they talk about the prime is 26 to 31, or whatever the case may be. I don’t quite know it anymore because I kind of just threw it out of my mind,” James said. “I’m giving my body and giving my mind the best opportunity to just keep going while I can. If I can make a statement and make an impact while I can, I mean, why not?” […] James does think about his “legacy” because “I want to be greatest of all time, so it does creep into my mind, but not where it oversteps what the main thing is, and that’s the right now.” He also said “this whole legacy thing is much bigger than me jumping up and making a shot, or getting a defensive stop or things of that nature” in reference to his work with the LeBron James Family Foundation. Through his foundation, he’s trying to help at-risk, inn-ercity children in Akron learn to read and get to college.
Speaking of Jordan, James said he along with Ken Griffey Jr. and Deion Sanders were the players he looked up to most as a child. However, James also suggested Jordan gets too much credit sometimes for the six championships the Bulls won with him, or at least Scottie Pippen and other role players do not get enough credit.
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