NBA / Elite Sport TV (DR)
LeBron James’ detractors are often big fans of Michael Jordan and don’t hesitate to put him down against their favorite players. One of the most famous of them went loudly recently, claiming that the King’s 2021-22 season insulted His Airness. It stings !
It’s a very strange season that lives LeBron James to the Lakers. On an individual level, the four-time champion is averaging more than 30 points (career high) despite being 37 years old and troubled by injuries. Collectively, however, it is much more complicated since the Purples and Golds have a catastrophic record (31-44, 10th in the West) and still have to fight to secure access to the Play-In.
This paradox is quite crazy, and it is not unlike the case of another legend of the orange ball. Thus, Michael Jordan had experienced a fairly similar situation when he came out of his second retirement, in 2001. He then donned the Washington outfit for two seasons, he who was the GM beforehand. Close to forty, he was still shooting more than 20 points per game but without much success, since his franchise chained bad results (74-90, no participation in the playoffs).
Skip Bayless refuses to compare 2021-22 Lakers to Jordan’s Wizards
Unsurprisingly, others have also drawn this parallel between the two rivals in the GOAT debate, but don’t count on His Airness fans to accept that. Worshiper of No. 23 and notorious hater of LBJ, Skip Bayless, for example, did everything to defend the case of his favorite player on Undisputed. Objectivity was not the order of the day, but he brought up an interesting point: the expectations of DC back then weren’t at all the same as those of the Crimson and Gold this year.
MJ’s return was ceremonial. Nobody expected those Jordan teams to compete for a championship. This Laker team was picked to win it ALL and is now 13 games under .500. More @Undisputednow on FS1 https://t.co/tDQmPNXzlc
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) March 30, 2022
Comparing this season of LeBron and the Lakers to that of the Wizards is an insult to Michael Jordan. His Wizards team was better than LeBron’s Lakers. Nobody expected anything from the Wizards back then, when he was around 39-40 years old. It was purely ceremonial. He had taken three years off before that. Jordan said, “I’m going to do something new. I’m going to be a player/coach/GM for this team.
The Lakers were however considered capable of winning everything. Their record is now worse than Jordan’s at the Wizards, and they’re on course to finish 8-10 games under the 50% win mark. Jordan was playing for fun, but it was clear his teams weren’t going to be very good. That’s not what most thought of the Lakers before this season.
Skip Bayless is doing everything he can to put Jordan above LeBron, but he’s got one thing right: much more was expected of the Lakers in 2021-22. Jordan’s Wizards only served as a farewell tour to the orange ball legend.
