Michael Jordan’s longtime agent recently took a swipe at LeBron James, and Rich Paul has now issued a response on behalf of his client and close friend.
David Falk, who represented Jordan throughout the Chicago Bulls legend’s entire NBA career, discussed a wide range of topics in an interview with Rob Schaefer of Sports Business Journal that was published on Tuesday. When about the long-running greatest of all time debate, Falk obviously said he ranks Jordan No. 1.
But it got interesting after that. For Falk, it seems there is no Jordan vs. LeBron debate. Falk said he views either Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Kobe Bryant as the second-best player of all time. He did concede that James is in his top 10, but Falk mentioned how LeBron has jumped from team to team.
“I really like LeBron. 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,” Falk said.
Falk was referring to the fact that LeBron teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to win two championships with the Miami Heat. James then returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers when Kyrie Irving was already an established star. The Cavs also acquired Kevin Love before James helped his hometown team win a title.
LeBron won his fourth championship with the Los Angeles Lakers while playing alongside Anthony Davis.
Paul was bothered by what Falk said about James. During an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” Thursday, Paul brought up Falk’s comments unprompted and said he took exception to the “cherry-pick” remark.
“When you look at that, right, again the cherry-pick, I’ve discussed that. The two other superstars — Michael never had to leave,” Paul said, as transcribed by Bryan Fonseca of the New York Post. “Michael’s never been the underdog in any Finals. Not one time. Michael never had a 24-hour-365 news cycle. He never had shows built strictly to criticize him. People made millions of dollars criticizing LeBron James. That was their entire job.
“And when you talk about the difficulty of it all, Michael played for Dean Smith, Michael played for Phil Jackson, and Michael had Jerry Krause. I’m the biggest Michael Jordan fan ever, love Michael Jordan, and I don’t think Michael Jordan would’ve used the term ‘cherry-pick,’ so I’m not up here to discredit Michael Jordan. I think Michael Jordan transcended our game to a level that we all benefited from.”
Paul felt the argument was “beneath” Falk and noted how the agent benefitted from having relationships with legendary former coaches Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski and John Thompson. Paul said those coaches funneled star players to Falk and helped Falk’s career, so Paul felt the “cherry-picking” comment was hypocritical.
It is almost impossible to compare players across different eras, which is why most prominent members of the NBA community take the high road when the LeBron vs. Michael debate comes up. We could have told which side of the argument Falk and Paul would be on.