Ever since he was in high school, people have tried to compare LeBron James to Michael Jordan. It’s not a perfect comparison, but it’s the common way people have differentiated the best player of one generation from the best player of another generation.
Jordan’s former teammate, Scottie Pippen, thinks there’s a much better player to compare King James to… himself. Chicago’s former do-it-all forward told Cleveland.com that he was LeBron before the four-time MVP was.
“I was LeBron James before LeBron James,” Bulls great Scottie Pippen told Northeast Ohio Media Group. “It’s not even close.”
Pippen will turn 50 in September, but he could easily pass for 35. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when he was a dominating force on both ends of the floor. At 6’7, he played some point-forward and would take the opposing team’s best perimeter player out of the game.
Playing alongside Jordan, arguably the greatest player to ever play the game, in many ways took away from Pippen’s greatness and often excludes him from the James discussion – even though Pippen and Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA titles.
“I’m no slouch, but when comparing LeBron’s game, I’m usually left out,” he said.
Usually when people liken James to Pippen, it’s meant as a slight against James, because Pippen was the No. 2 option to Jordan. This comparison was especially common when James first lined up next to Dwyane Wade in Miami.
However, James and Pippen were spectacular two-way players who could play point guard just as easily as they could line up at power forward. Statistically, Pippen is not the offensive player James is, but considering he spent most of his career lined up next to the greatest basketball player of all-time, it’s not too surprising. Defensively, you’d be hard-pressed to find any perimeter player the equal of Pippen.
Pippen admits people naturally want to compare James to the greatest players of all-time, but in regards to style of play, “if you look at how he plays the game and how I played the game, you’ll see more similarities with us.”
(via Cleveland.com)
