Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan once slyly took a stab at LeBron James for leaving Cleveland to form a big 3 with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach.
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Almost since the beginning of the NBA, the concept of super teams has existed. Be it the Celtics or Lakers of the old, or even the Bulls in the 90s, there have been teams with multiple Hall-of-Famers on the same roster. Back in the day, the powerhouses were usually built on drafting well and a few occasional trades along the way. The teams had all the power, with players not having that much freedom to pick and choose their next destination.
However, that all changed completely in the summer of 2010, when LeBron James decided to team up with fellow 2003 lottery picks Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach. The King’s infamous move was the beginning of player empowerment in the league. The other stars in the league realized they had the freedom to pick and choose their team. As a result, it gave rise to various superteams over the next decade or so.
11 YEARS AGO TODAY, the HEAT BIG 3 became official after LeBron & Chris Bosh were signed & traded to MIAMI for future picks.
MIA started the season with 8 losses in their first 17 games. They then won 21 of their next 22 games. pic.twitter.com/mMuL2s7erH
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 10, 2021
At the time, many criticized LeBron James’ decision to give up on the sorry Cavs and join the Heat, including the Bulls legend Michael Jordan. So, what did he say? Read on to find out.
Michael Jordan takes a slight dig at LeBron James for forming a super team.
When LeBron James joined the Heat in free agency, he was flamed by the NBA world. Quite literally. Cavs fans were burning his d jersey throughout the streets and calling him out of various social media platforms. The 4x NBA champion was criticized for shifting the balance of power in the league. In fact, among these to criticize included the GOAT, Michael Jordan. The 6x NBA champion goes on to say –
“Free agency is a part of every professional sport. How that’s going to play into this whole scenario, I don’t know, time will tell. There’s no way I would have called up Larry and called up Magic and said ‘Hey, let’s get together and play on one team’. But things are different, I can’t say that’s a bad thing, that’s the opportunity kids have today.”
“In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys, I don’t know if they would have been on my team. If you look at the Dream Team, they were on my team and it wasn’t too much of a competitive thing. I’m a competitive guy and I like to play against competitive players and see what happens from there.”
While MJ doesn’t directly bash the move; he did take slight digs at The King. With that in mind, His Airness also recognizes how basketball has changed with respect to player power, he just implied that he would have done it differently.
Even though MJ didn’t find any team success in the first few years, he stayed loyal to the Bulls and didn’t join hands with his rivals to take over the league. The 14x All-star did eventually succeed, winning six rings in his illustrious career.
It’s almost impossible to find a superstar nowadays that stays at one organization for his whole career. It’s sad that players in today’s NBA switch teams every few seasons, and have little to no loyalty to the teams that draft them.
