NBA (DR) / Kens 5 (DR) / ESPN (DR)
The GOAT debate regularly pits LeBron James and Michael Jordan face-to-face, but some league players stand out by doing the exact opposite. Gregg Popovich, for example, explained what brought the two men together… and he knows what he is talking about, given his experience!
Now in its 19th season, LeBron James is getting ever closer to retirement. If he continues to dominate on the courts, the quadruple champion does not have much longer on the courts and should hang up in the next two or three years. We can therefore finally make a complete assessment of his immense career, and the debate between him and Michael Jordan can be conducted in a concrete way, with all the cards in hand.
Among the few personalities to have observed the respective careers of the two legends very closely, there is notably Gregg Popovich. Great opponent of the King with the Spurs, he however also attended the first years of His Airness. He is therefore well placed to talk about them, and following the last San Antonio game, he came back to a certain point in common between the two men: the fact of pushing anyone to stop everything, in order to watch them shine. .
Popovich: ‘Watching Jordan and LeBron play is mesmerizing’
It’s a bit like when I came to the league in the 80s as an assistant coach. I was mesmerized watching Michael Jordan on the court, and you know, I wasn’t much help for Larry Brown. I was just watching Michael play and I do the same with LeBron. He does amazing things. And then he’ll look at you once in a while and just smile.
Thanks to their experience accumulated over the years on the courts, the two men have each been able to acquire supreme knowledge of the game, allowing them to perform the right action at the right time. The expression “the game slows down for them” then takes on its full meaning, and this was seen again recently with the dantesque exit of the Chosen One against the Warriors. His 56 points were notably marked by an outrageous domination, the winger systematically showing himself in control:
Far from wanting decide between Michael Jordan and LeBron James, Gregg Popovich preferred to emphasize what they shared as qualities. The proof that it is not always necessary to oppose these sacred monsters of the orange ball.
