Fan 9
Appearances
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I need to go back to the LeBron as the GOAT.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Okay, for sure. So I wanted to say that the only thing that Michael Jordan has better than LeBron James is better shoes and a better Space Jam movie.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I want to go back to the beginning of the career, right? LeBron was known as the chosen one. He was drafted at 18, fresh out of prom, expected to save a franchise. What did he walk into? That team was 17-65, worst record in the NBA. They missed the playoffs for five straight years.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
The best players on that team were Ricky Davis and Big Z. I like to call them the LA Fitness Five because you could take me and one of my friends to LA Fitness, and we could still be the worst team in the league. You know what I mean? And then that team was ranked 29th out of 29th for NBA attendance, which means that neither the fans or the players were showing up. Okay.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
If there was a fish fry going on across the street, Skip, people would go to that fish fry. That's how bad it was. Mind you, only by adding LeBron James, they increased their wins by 18 games that season just by adding one man. He's a great player.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Exactly. But what was Jordan doing at 18 and 19 years old?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Yeah, but I heard you say the chosen one goes to the frozen one, but Michael Jordan didn't even have the opportunity to be the chosen one because he wasn't even chosen first in his draft. He was chosen third.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I'll give you Hakeem, but I'm taking Jordan over Hakeem. Exactly, and many people would have in high insight, but I'm just saying that this is how people viewed him. He wasn't even the first option on his team. That was James Worthy. So the way how I look at it is like- You mean when he was a freshman?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
And he nails it. But I'm making a comparison skip at that. At that same age, LeBron is expected to take a team out of the poverty franchise and make them into a contender. they were saying it was Hall of Fame or bust. Not I hope he's good, not I hope he's great, but Hall of Fame or bust only option. Michael Jordan, on the other hand, it was, we were grasping at straws.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
They were just like, well, I hope he's good. I mean, there's two people who we think is better than him.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
But there are things that Jordan could do better as well. Obviously, LeBron is an anomaly, right? He's playing 20 plus years. He's doing things like that. But let's look at the impact.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Exactly, right? But I always say you never know what you have until it's gone, right? In 2010, the Cleveland Cavaliers were the best team in the NBA. They were 61 and 21. They were phenomenal, right? When LeBron ended up leaving that team, what happened to them? They became the worst record in the NBA.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Now, in 1992, right, Jordan, for example, he was playing. He retired after winning that championship and went off. And did the Bulls struggle? Absolutely not. When he went to play baseball.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
They only lost two more games, which means that they could have done that with or without him.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
They didn't win the championship, but I'm just saying that if you lose the GOAT, it should reflect losing the GOAT.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I understand. That's internal issues. There was a lot going on, but that does not change the fact that when you lose the best player, it should feel like you lose the best player.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
So let me go into this. LeBron James has a lot of failures because he took more risk. At the end of the day, he won championships on three different teams. He won championships on the Cleveland Cavaliers, he won a championship on the Miami Heat, and he won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, right?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
On the other end, Michael Jordan won all of those championships in the same city, with the same coach in Phil Jackson, under the same triangle offense. You know what I mean? Everything was the same, with the same running mate in Scottie Pippen.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Exactly, right? And then you can't even say what Jordan did was sensational. When I think about the greatest, it's something that has never been done before, right? At the end of the day, Phil Jackson takes that same triangle offense and almost does the same exact thing with Kobe Bryant.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Ray Allen's my favorite player. I was like, I can argue with that. There you go. Okay. Yeah, one of them.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Well, let me ask you this question. If you replaced LeBron James on that 3-1 comeback win with the Warriors, would Michael Jordan get the same result?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I'm saying, exactly. I'm saying that we can't skip over the details in this regard, because at the end of the day, LeBron's biggest problem is he just ran into Steph Curry. That was it. Like if Steph Curry played in the 80s or 90s, they would have accused him of witchcraft. That's how he was shooting back then.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I mean, he called the Avengers to stop one man. You got to think about that. All right.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Yeah. That phone was ringing, everybody.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
But Steph is admitting to you, I can't do it by myself against that guy, right? But what I'm trying to, the thing that I'm trying to make is there were systems built around Michael Jordan to make him who he is. They have the triangle office, they had Phil Jackson. And Phil Jackson almost duplicated the same thing with Kobe. But LeBron James is the system.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
It doesn't matter what team you put him on. He's going to the finals within two to three years. And that is statistically proven. It doesn't matter what team he goes to.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
New Hobby Hotel Lobby Margot Robbie, like it's a five. All right. You already know it.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Now you know Jordan's teammates were not always happy with the way how he acted.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
But that's why I would argue that LeBron.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
They made me think. I watched Skip on everything, on ESPN growing up my entire life. The fact that I could sit here and actually go head to head with Skip and people from back home can watch me do that, the feeling is unreal.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I will. How you doing? Nice to see you. Yep. So how is Magic the greatest Laker of all time? And he wasn't even the greatest Laker on this team. That's Kareem.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Kareem was first all time in Lakers points, first in rebounds, first in blocks, first in field goals made, you know, and he had an unstoppable move in the sky hook, has one more championship because he has six, Magic has five, and he has three more MVPs. Okay. We haven't even got to Kobe yet.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I give you that for sure. But the thing about it is you were talking about in 1980, right, when Magic won Rookie of the Year. Would he have won Rookie of the Year if he would have – Yeah, would he have won rookie of the year?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Kareem was averaging 33 points that series. Boy, I would like to think he would have.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
And that's the point that I was making is that at the end of the day, unless Kareem just got unlucky because the best player of all time, LeBron James, took that scoring title from him, but he would have been able to keep that for his whole life. And then if we go to Kobe, right?
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
For example, if I was to take your papers right there, ball them up in a trash can and shoot it, whose name would we say? We wouldn't say Magic. No. Who we saying? We saying Kobe, you know what I mean? And then, and that's what it's about.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
And when we talk about like keeping that mentality, how you go through life, how you focus on what you need to do in life, nobody says, you know, keep that magic. they say keep that Mamba mentality. That's what it's all about.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Exactly, exactly. That's why I started off with Kareem first.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
Kobe had the same type of leadership style as far as like, Kobe had aura. Like, you know, jobs not finished, like all of those things. But also he showed it in the actions first. You know what I mean? He wasn't really about the party and they're going out. He was so dedicated to the crowd.
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1 Sports Analyst vs 25 NBA/NFL Fans (ft. Skip Bayless)
I agree with you. I mean, leadership comes in all different forms, right? You never know how somebody is going to choose to lead. But, you know, Kobe led in plenty of ways. And also all the players that picked up a basketball because of his presence. We wouldn't have Devin Booker without Kobe. Jason Tatum is doing what he does.