The Chicago Bulls Hall-of-Fame guard Michael Jordan was front and center in the basketball landscape this year, as is the reigning NBA Champ LeBron James.
The recent premier of the 10-part hit ABC/ESPN/Netflix documentary series “The Last Dance”, which spotlighted the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls title-winning team and Hall-of-Fame shooting guard Michael Jordan made waves across the basketball landscape this year. The Last Dance especially provided an outlet of basketball entertainment for fans around the country and the globe in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the pause to the 2019-20 NBA season.
And the sports world as a whole was effectively on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic back in spring, when The Last Dance was premiering in April and May.
The Last Dance even made waves with current NBA stars like the Los Angeles Lakers four-time champ LeBron James. In a recent discussion with LeBron teammate and Lakers role player Jared Dudley (per Fadeaway World), the topic of Jordan and the Bulls and The Last Dance was brought to center stage.
The podcast that Dudley originally discussed this matter on was “The Bill Simmons Podcast“. And this episode in particular had Dudley talking with Simmons himself and Ryen Rusillo.
Dudley talked about how, when he was watching The Last Dance with LeBron, the Lakers superstar never mentioned how Jordan was better than him. LeBron apparently gave props to Jordan, but never mentioned anything in particular about how the Bulls all-time great was in fact the GOAT.
This short quote from the interview with Dudley on Simmons’ podcast sums out how LeBron feels being compared alongside Jordan in the GOAT debate.
"“He just wants to be seen eye-to-eye”."
There’s a lot to be said about the GOAT debate, but the actual relevance to the conversation likely has to wait until LeBron’s career is officially over in the NBA. It’s just too difficult to compared LeBron and MJ side-by-side in the GOAT debate until both have their playing days in the NBA behind them.
LeBron did just get his fourth title of his lengthy and accomplished NBA career. He also received his fourth career Finals MVP award. LeBron is now within two titles of matching the total number that Jordan got in his career, and also within two Finals MVP’s.
The GOAT debate is sure to rage on all offseason long after LeBron and the Lakers downed former Bulls star Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in a fun six-game series in the NBA Finals. LeBron and his superstar teammate Anthony Davis will be hoping to build another roster capable of repeating to win the NBA Championship next season, with free agency arriving on Oct. 18.