I spent a lot of time around the man. I knew what made him tick. Michael could shoot 6 for 24 from the field, commit 5 turnovers, and he was still, in the minds of the adoring press and public, the Errorless Jordan.
The producers had granted him editorial control of the final product. He was the leading man and the director. The documentary was always going to be compromised once Jordan got creative control. With that said, the doc was still a sensation for good reason. Even if Pippen raises some good points, he still comes off looking bad in his media tour to air out his grievances. He refuses to let go of his grudges and seems hellbent on letting the world know that Jordan is a jerk.
The night before this ESPN poll dropped, in fact, LeBron was the host of Graduate Together , one of those every-channel goodwill specials that only comes along during times of crisis. In aggregate, these responses serve as a reminder of a larger, longer-held bias against LeBron, both on — and more importantly, off — the basketball court.
There are zealots on both sides of the debate: those for whom his losing record in Finals record will forever be a scarlet letter, and those for whom his comeback against a historically good team represents one of the greatest achievements in modern sports. People make their points, these points, over and over. Older players and fans will always bring up the difficulty of arguing eras, or reminisce over a bygone, more violent style of play.
And while LeBron James is a lot of things — champion, father, benefactor, diplomat, activist, entrepreneur — an asshole he is not. Consider Gus Lett, the security guard who became a surrogate father to Jordan during his playing career; when Lett battled cancer, Jordan quietly paid all of his medical bills. Notably, this mentality does not conjure images of LeBron. He likes to post videos of TacoTuesday from his kitchen, flanked by his high-school sweetheart and three children.
He sings in the car , terribly. He hosts an HBO talk show called The Shop where musicians, actors and fellow players talk about politics and mental-health awareness. He believes NCAA athletes should be allowed to pursue compensation. In fact, LeBron is so active on social media that when he turns it off for playoff runs, his months-long absence is reported on by the media. Of course, social media alone is not the differentiator here. Tiger has an Instagram and Kobe was all over social media before he passed away earlier in the year; in neither case did that accessibility prevent fans from regarding them as obsessive, unassailable assassins.
How can he expect to be taken seriously when he maintains close friendships with so many of his rivals Carmelo, Chris Paul, D-Wade? Observers have done their best to make sense of success that does arrive with compromise, that hints at a life beyond the hardwood, but they tend to dwell on shortcomings whenever they arrive: the fourth-quarter breakdowns, the passive final possessions, the press-conference malaise, The Decision.
What is a ring worth, then? Is it worth more than a foundation, a school, a point of view? America seems to think so. In some ways, the Jordan-LeBron debate is broken at its foundation. Really, they should be comparing The King to a different 20th-century sportsman: Muhammad Ali. To me, there's evidence to the contrary, in that there'd be a phone call. This kid is great. There's no need to take a shot at him. Wilbon said that Jordan would also come to the defense of other players of the current generation when he believed they were being overly criticized.
Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry. There were certain players that Michael would call and say, 'Hey, stop, this is nonsense.
Wilbon argued that Jordan's competitiveness was reserved for taking opponents down on the court, rather than in the public eye. The Bad Boy Pistons. It's on the court. Wilbon concluded that he didn't believe "The Last Dance" was made in part to protect Jordan's legacy, as he already believed LeBron to be a great player.
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