Has LeBron James endured more “slander & abuse” than Michael Jordan? | NBA | UNDISPUTED

shannon i assume you're gonna go with the idea that grant hill's making a good point here i'm glad grant hill said it because when i say things like this everybody says especially in the basketball community he's just a football guy what does he know about basketball they don't say they say that but it's okay okay it's okay and we'll get we'll get a little deeper into that yeah yeah yeah that's what we are very different we'll get a little deeper into that also okay grant hill has a very unique perspective because he played in the era with michael jordan and saw what was said and heard what was said about jordan and he also played in the era in which uh lebron played and now with the social media and he's absolutely right so in order to make sure lebron james isn't michael jordan every flaw everything that he might do that's not good on the basketball court jordan was support was supreme at that every misstep he might say jordan would have never said that jordan would have never done that so he's absolutely right the vitriol that lebron james has endured in his almost 20 now 20-year career no other athlete has had to face that you'd have to go back to get something comparable to when jackie robinson broke the collarbary in 1947. skip i think that's the only let's let's go that's what i'm saying but i got that what lebron james was endured but that was a whole different that was a whole different aeroskip we're talking about jordan coming up in 84 and retired i think he retired in 10304 yeah with a couple of stops in a couple of uh sabbaticals in between i can't even call that last hitchhiker retirement after the last day of that it was 98. okay go ahead but what lebron has had to endure from us from a professional athlete everything being microscoped everything that he does skip no athletes had to live up under the scrutiny not in today's time no athlete and it happened because at the age of 16 all the eyes were on this kid once he did the sports illustrated now he might have chosen one tattooed on his back but he didn't call himself that sports illustrated gave him that just like someone else gave michael jordan air jordan even though jordan never called himself that people referred to him as that your royal airiness air jordan someone gave him that name so in order for us to keep jordan on the pedestal i'm not skipping and some and what grant is saying is look if i say one he says i believe jordan is the goat but when you do that you also have to slight the other guy and people have gone overboard with sliding of lebron james and so they haven't given him the proper respect and i don't think they have the proper appreciation some of the old heads do because you i run into a lot of that skipping the error that i played a lot of guys feel that their errors everybody feels the area is the best hell if you you you grew up in the 50 like oh that was the roaring fifth the roaring fifties and this and that everybody's thinking twenties that you went to roy and twitter everybody that was that was the greatest all right but skip not only have lebron james met expectations he's exceeded them i don't if somebody would say there's a 16 year old kid that was born in 84 that's an accurate ohio and he's going to be a four-time champion he's going to be a four-time league mvp he's going to be four finals mvp and by the time it's all said and done he might be when you talk about all-nba all-star and this and that points scored he might be one of the might be the most accomplished player in all in nba history no one that said i tell you what i give you odds that's not gonna happen not for a high school kid and he's me he's met and exceeded expectations i agree with what grant hill said the vitriol the let's give you on twitter says he's the most talked about ability on twitter and it's not even close and it's not always in a good way you say there's millions of blind witnesses it seems like there are two million other witnesses always trying to dump on it and so i agree with grant hill i'm glad grant hill said what a lot of people outside of the basketball community think but they don't get the kind of respect grant hill is very well respected he's very well liked and i think him saying what he said i think a lot of people will will step back and list like you know what there might be some truth to this let me observe a little more closely over the next several months several years and see if what grant hill is said because i've been saying that since 2016 i'm glad grant hill confirmed what i thought to be true so to your final point about a billion blind witnesses yeah you said you asked a million you use it a billion okay i did say a billion yeah so maybe there are two billion microscopic witnesses out there who put lebron under the microscope yes yes yes all right i'm going to agree with one thing that grant hill said early in his comments on the podcast he said like lebron's incredible i give you incredible because he has been incredible everything's incredible it's all time all time we can debate where he ranks mount rushmore top 10 whatever we're going to do a lot of top 10 here in just a few minutes now for my side of the story everyone who's ever asked me about lebron why do you hate lebron i always say the same thing i don't hate lebron i honor his achievements he he knock on wood if he stays healthy which i assume he's going to stay he's going to be the all-time leading scorer in this league that's that's pretty incredible yeah knock on wood one regular still for 40 years okay but in the end day after day after day i have no choice but to come out here and hear from the other side of the table that he is the goat so now you have forced my hand you have forced lebron james into the conversation up against the greatest player by far in the history of this game michael jeffrey jordan who went 6-0 in the finals with six mvps who when won ten scoring titles to lebron's one who won a defensive player of the year not just first team all defense defensive player of the year something that obviously lebron never won don't get me started on that so i have no choice but to defend my guy michael jordan against your guy lebron james by going to the level of what you might call nitpicking that i call boulder picking and the more you push the more i have to push back it's not fair to lebron because to me he doesn't even belong in the conversation with michael jordan but you thrust him into it day after day after day and by the way not only do i blame you but on on the higher order i blame lebron james because he started all this from the start i give you sports illustrated proclaimed him the chosen one but then he did have it tattooed on his back so he embraced the moniker the title the the birthright of i'm the next chosen one right he opted he chose to wear 23 coming right out of high school and you know and i know why he chose 23 i got next i'm here world embrace me i'm the next michael jordan he went so far as to adopt or should i say steal jordan's powder toss routine that he did before every year well jordan didn't throw it up jordan just put it in his hand and just clap his hands okay but but he took it and tried to take it to another level announcing i am here i got next you better be careful what you wish for because you wished upon your own head that guy in in the end shannon you know and i know that that you are wishing hell fire and damnation to rain down on your head when you dared to put yourself in the same sentence with him and you carried the torch for him onto this show in 2016 when almost six years ago and you have never backed off for one split second on this show oh it's over he's he's been the goat he's been the goat so you have forced my hand again and again to shame lebron in the same context the goat context with michael jordan i mean to this moment when i say it i seriously feel like god's gonna strike us both with lightning because he does not belong it's not fair to him and everything that i bring up that i'm probably about to bring up here in just a moment after you respond to me is all in the context of defending michael jordan where a debate in which lebron never belonged from the start if if you had just simply left it alone let it be let lebron be lebron and jordan's already jordan just let him be let it be we would have no issue here and i don't think grant hill would have any of these issues because all of the slander and the vitriol it all is sparked it all originates from the goat debate to me and there are jordan defenders but i don't think they're old school defenders i just think they're smart basketball people who say what are you talking about and the more you push the more they push back and and the deeper it gets into what grant hill is writing off as slander and vitriol which in the in the end it was it's just the truth but here's the thing skip you said that the reason why you have to do what you have to do is because someone says that someone is better than michael jordan that's something michael jordan never had to face see michael jordan never had a comparable comparison nobody ever tried to say well this guy's the goat and this is what michael jordan is chasing they gave him an opportunity to become michael jordan unfettered but the moment lebron james started being great what do you do what's the no not he ain't jordan he goes 6-0 he ain't average 30. he just get 10 scoring titles that's what you do to knock him something michael jordan never had to endure that's what grant hill that's what i've been saying what he's having to endure michael jordan never had to go through so in other words michael jordan can you imagine with the social media era with michael jordan going to vegas we're going to atlantic city and somebody off the field some of the optical issues can you imagine the spotlight jordan would be up under if he had to go through with goat james come on skip it's a different era see back then guys would keep things hush hush people didn't try to put your business in the street they looked at every turnip they saw something they turned the other way they respected your privacy they respected you as being great and they never now everybody is looking for that i want to be the one to bring the house of cards down i want to be that guy well is it a house of cards no i'm just saying skip everybody wants you to be successful until you become successful everybody was a cheering for the kid he's 16 a single mom had it when she was 15 or 16 years of age everybody was applauding that but the moment he became what they wanted him to become now let me tell you down let me find let me find something wrong with your game let me find something wrong in your life so i can put you in a place because i think you got too high the guy's a billionaire i i didn't even bring that up all the things that the man has done so is jordan but go ahead he didn't do it while he was playing nope he did not this and that's what i'm saying look and that has nothing to do with this i don't think him having a billion dollars being worth a billion has anything to do with the victory on i think it has to do with this no player has ever seen the criticism kobe didn't get the criticism comey did everything like michael he chewed gum he walked like him he put the sleeve on his head he put the wristband up on his sleeve he had the uh uh the thing on his calf he walked like jordan he every you talk about the power toss name of mannerism that michael jordan didn't do that kobe didn't do and kobe never received him he actually tried to be michael he tried to be and colby never got the victory on michael jordan uh lebron did no player skip no professional athlete has has had to endure more in in the scrutiny the scorn than what might than what lebron james had to do you because i get it michael came along michael got to be michael jordan there was no comparison nobody tried to compare him to this where he did this they didn't say well yeah michael jordan did that but he ain't magic well he did it but he ate larry and this notion for you he went 6-0 he dominated his era michael george era did not start in the 90s ladies and gentlemen it started in 1984 and he didn't win jack in the 80s so so we we just make it feel like michael jordan had a 10-year career he went 6-0 he went six finals and he won six titles in eight years so what we gonna do about 84 85 86 87 88 89 90. did he not play in that era how about after game one in boston larry bird that you grew up idolizing yeah favorite player said we just watched god disguised as michael jordan that was his second year in the league yes right that's what the rival that's what the great rival players the established stars thought of him after one year in the league yeah nobody is saying that michael wasn't great i'm saying i'm not saying that i saw the lion's share of his game but what i am saying what i push back on is that michael jordan's career didn't start in the 80s and nobody won titles where michael jordan was played sure they did magic and magic and lag won a bunch of them they won a bunch of titles isaiah won one title when michael jordan was playing as a matter of fact uh uh larry won two and magic won three isaiah won two so teams with some players won titles when he was playing so this notion that he he drowned them out that's not true okay it took him a while but the bad boy pistons were one of the greatest teams in nba history and he did get swept by the boston celtics but that celebrity but those i'm talking about that group they were 10 times better than the ones that we just saw vanquished by steph and company ten times better they were so loaded you could make a case their top three all time you can make a case they are by far the best celtics team ever because they were oh yeah the 86 team is a top three team there's no question about it they got three top 75 players i believe they should have had four with dennis johnson you know what dennis johnson was before he even got to boston and you knew exactly what he was once he got to boston so i'm not skip i'm not arguing that but you see what you're saying you said those teams were historically great but you looked down on lebron for getting swept by the uh spurs was that a shame well that spurs that team you do know they got parker they got ginobili they had uh tim duncan who we're going to talk about as a top 10 player he is on my list so and you look down at lebron he got swept katie top 75 steph curry top 75 uh klay thompson's gonna be a hall of famer draymond's gonna be a hall of famer they got a coach that's a hall of famer see when michael jordan got swept everybody said those teams were so much better than jordan's lebron james get swept michael jordan would have never got swept really never said that but you never heard tim duncan or parker or ginobili say we just played god disguised as lebron james nobody ever said that do you hear what tim duncan said tim duncan said this is about to be your league kid i'm glad you gave us this it wasn't then skip the guy was 22. you remember what happened to jordan when he was 22 he got swept but he got swept in the first round lebron james gets swept in the finals you cast again you you criticized him michael jordan got swept in the first round twice and everybody applaud him because they say he was guarding sneakers i i'm confused since losing in the first round people would rather lose in the first round than losing the final because it's a blemish on your resume let me throw some more vitriol and slander at you and let's let's ask the question is this vitriol slander or just pure fact what happened in 2010 against the boston celtics of paul pierce and ray allen kevin garnett what happened when lebron was up two games to one and in three i'm sorry four five and six it was another meltdown by lebron it was actually the first one to the point that his owner dan gilbert then accused him publicly of quitting and insiders on it from his inner circle said that lebron had to be sedated before those games because of an internal issue on the team and i'm like sedated are you kidding me this never happened to michael that's not true michael jordan in the 1990 eastern conference finals had a two-game lead 2-1 lead on the uh detroit pistons go look it up and they won three straight oh look at his numbers did jerry reinstore accuse michael jordan of quitting in there no no no no no an owner accused lebron james of quitting is that vitriol is that but see what you did that's not what you said you said lebron james had a 2-1 lead against three top 75 players ray allen kevin kevin garnett and paul pierce are all top 75 players am i correct okay lebron james he lost to them 4-2 you criticize him michael jordan had a 2-1 lead on bad boy pistons they won street three straight beat him 4-2 you praised michael jordan inside say jordan had to be sedated that's that's to defend his numbers in those three games no at the end of the day it's all about winning and losing okay now you can dress it up however you want to let's try i'm going to ask you to dress up 2011 for me because they're up two games to one at dallas and help me out four five and six lebron suffered the all-time superstar meltdown i have ever witnessed jordan never had anything like this against the dallas team that had one top 75 but only one right unless it was jason kidd yes he was at the end yeah his run correct but i'll give you that but in those last three games lebron james averaged 15 points eight and eight he shot two for 12 from three he shot four of ten from the free-throw line he averaged five turnovers a game for three straight games which is beyond jason turnover of the current boston celtics and lebron wind up a minus 41 in those three games minus 41 is that slander and vitriol or is that just a fact yeah it happens so so i just want to make sure i'm hearing you correctly lebron james the nine year 19-year career had a bad playoff series that's what he was he his finals that's all time i've never tried to excuse that he played bad he had a bad series he picked he picked the worst time to have his worst get his worst playoff series and it happened to be in the nba finals there's no excusing that there's no way around that but you're telling me after a man's failure he can never rise so once you have a a bad series you can never be anything you always because you always take it back to that you don't look at the fourth chapter i take it back to the celtics series in 2010 the last the first go-round with cleveland look at his number what he averaged okay but look you go look at his numbers in the last three games and why did his owner accuse him of quitting the owner accused him of quitting because he knew he was leaving of course that same owner that accused him of acquitting got on his airplane private jet like a thief in the night and went down and fort lauderdale to meet with him that same owner now why would you why would you want to meet with a quitter why would you ever want to bring a quitter back to your team if you actually believe that to be true then 2014 lebron's team and he was the man in 2014 he got blown off the floor in the finals by a record finals margin five games go look at games three and four in his house and tell me what lebron didn't do because he didn't do anything it was shocking he shrank and disappeared that is not vitriol or slander it's the truth but are we going to talk about the spurs had a historic shooting the ball from the three-point line okay lebron was lebron just averaged 28-7 and six i mean 28-76 i mean today that those are not have i seen him average more in the playoff series absolutely but d-wade wasn't the same guy you know that i know that chris bosh didn't have a great series that series lebron play could did lebron would have needed to average 35 in order to overcome the way the spurs were playing hey they didn't win but skip you already know you know it you started this it's all your fault you started this you started this harsh critique of criticism of lebron james and people have jumped on no you started it no you need to just go back to the old place you started this at the old restaurant you got a new restaurant over here but you brought the same recipes you just cook them up in a different in a different battle and you know what he always lived down to what i was saying again and again and again he lived down and my bottom line is we're talking about michael jordan the mentally toughest superstar i've ever been around got to know him in chicago closely observed him against lebron who's had moments of being the mentally weakest superstar i have ever how mentally tough are you if you step away from the games twice um well the first one was four i don't know about the force all i'm gonna say that he stepped away twice so i'm mentally tough and my guy went to a bubble went to survivor island for a hundred days yeah and came out he got he was his was the only team left standing and mentally tough everybody else fell apart it's okay if you say mentally talking about on the basketball court not in the bubble on the court under it was the classic game two against denver in which the play is called for lebron and rondo said after the game i showed you the quote from rondo saying i locked eyes he did not move i was forced to throw it to the wing to a.d who rose and shone and made the shot that saved the series and the champions oh save the series so the gate so one one one to one exactly so that saved it yeah okay okay thank you for watching you can subscribe here to get the latest from the show and be sure to check out more of the best clips from undisputed or go watch a few other segments from our other shows on fs1

Channel: UNDISPUTED

Views: 1,226,136

Keywords: UNDISPUTED, Shannon Sharpe, Skip Bayless, NBA, BAsketball, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, LeBron, Jordan, Grant Hill, Los Angeles Lakers, Lakers, Debate, Skip and Shannon, GOAT, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, Air Jordan, James, MJ, LeBron vs Michael, Goat Debate, NBA on FOX, NBA offseason on FOX, Legacy

Id: xWTSyaoyNAg

Length: 23min 20sec (1400 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 20 2022