LeBron James fans were upset over Michael Jordan's former agent's remarks about the Los Angeles Lakers superstar. Jordan and James have been compared and pitted against each other for quite some time now, with fans debating which one is the NBA GOAT.
These discussions are recurrent around the league, especially during the playoffs. Jordan fans often use James' 4-6 record in the NBA Finals, while James' supporters say MJ played against worse competition.
Many former and current players have been asked about this, which often leads to fan criticism on social media.
David Falk, who worked with all-time great NBA players such as Jordan, Allen Iverson and Patrick Ewing, gave his two cents on the seemingly never-ending GOAT debate.
NBA great Michael Jordan.
NBA great Michael Jordan.
Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
During a Q&A session at SBJ’s 4se conference in Manhattan on Tuesday (via Sports Business Journal), Falk talked about this discussion. He picked Jordan as the greatest of all time, going with either Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Kobe Bryant, two Lakers legends, as No. 2.
When asked if James was a top 10 player of all time in his view, he accepted it, but brought up the fact that the four-time NBA champion constantly switched teams to have better chances to win.
“Probably,” Falk said. “I really like LeBron,” he said. “But I think if Jordan had cherry-picked what teams he wanted to be on and two other superstars, he would’ve won 15 championships.”
This statement rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Many fans took to X to reply to Falk after "NBA Central" shared his quotes.
"Sure, in an era where it wasn’t but 2 other superstars left. Also Jordan did cherry pick to go to a different team.. he just ain’t win (expletive)," one fan said.
"Jordan played in the NBA for 15 years, and he wasn't beating the 86 Celtics or the 87 Lakers, so this dude is already wrong," another fan said.
"This is the dumbest most myopic statement I’ve ever heard. And I think MJ is the [GOAT], but this is asinine logic at best!!" a third fan wrote.
"He quite literally did with Rodman and Pippen lmao," a fourth fan added.
"Bron got more money than him so who really won," a fifth fan said.
"So embarrassing to deny that Bron isn’t top 2," a sixth fan wrote.
This debate doesn't seem to have a clear end, as the more years James keeps playing, the more narratives about him and Jordan are created. Comparing eras has never helped people decide the first thing about this debate.
Greatness should be celebrated instead of scrutinized, but some people still insist on pushing these meaningless discussions.