There’s been a lot of debate lately about LeBron James‘ place in history. Is he better than Michael Jordan? Maybe, but for people like Charles Barkley, he is not, because he hasn’t even gotten to Kobe Bryant’s level yet. With LeBron on the verge of potentially winning a fourth title while breaking a record that Jordan holds in the process, the Cavs’ star is getting his career compared to some of the best basketball players to ever live again.
This isn’t unusual—LeBron has been getting compared to guys like Jordan since he came into the league. We got another one of these comparisons on Thursday’s episode of The Jump with Rachel Nichols, which actually led to some debate between former players.
In one corner, we had Paul Pierce and Scottie Pippen, both of whom said they would take Magic Johnson over LeBron if they were given the choice. In the other was Tracy McGrady, who said that he’d go with the Cavs’ star over the Lakers Legend.
The best part of this is easily Pierce’s reaction to McGrady saying he’d take LeBron. Pierce straight up reacted like someone broke his heart, as he just put his hand on his head and said stuff like “wow” and “oh man.” Pierce also seemed genuinely bummed that McGrady would say something so blasphemous, which was fun.
The conversation eventually got to the point where T-Mac asked The Truth to name his all-time starting five. Once they got to Pierce’s power forward the tables turned, and McGrady was the one who got mad because Pierce said he’d start Bill Russell at the four over Tim Duncan.
Really the only flaw this segment had was that it wasn’t way longer, because watching Tracy McGrady and Paul Pierce get mad at each other over all-time starting fives is must-see television.
(Via For The Win)
