Michael Jordan vs LeBron James is a debate that will go till the end of time, but you might want to know what Doc Rivers had to say about it.
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Doc Rivers is one of the few people who has seen both Michael Jordan and LeBron James up close, having played against the former for 15 years combined in college and the NBA while going against James as a coach throughout his 19-year career.
Although a one-time All-Star, Rivers failed to make it to the NBA Hall of Fame as a player, his 22 years as a coach will surely get him there when it’s all said and done.
The man has over 1000 wins as a coach in the league, which has him in the top-10 of all-time wins by an NBA coach. And so, when he has to say something about somebody who has given him plenty of defeats in his career, he must know better than most of us keyboard warriors.
Doc Rivers believes we didn’t allow LeBron James to grow into greatness unlike Michael Jordan who had lesser expectations
In an old interview, the former Clippers coach talked about Jordan and James, trying to differentiate how the former had no expectations and had an easier path towards greatness. In contrast, the latter had the most challenging course.
“It took him (Jordan) 7 years to win an NBA title. It’s because he didn’t trust the system. He wanted to dominate it himself. He didn’t get the importance of using his teammates and using everyone else, but no one criticized Michael back then.”
Keep in mind that James, always being a pass-first guy, always believed in a team game, and yet it took him nine years to win his first Championship. Rivers himself, with his Celtics team, gave him some tormenting playoff defeats in the Eastern Conference in 2008 and 2010.
But also LeBron was a year younger than Mike to win his first trophy as he came into the league directly from high school. So, there is that.
“The difference between Michael and LeBron – when Michael came in the league, he surprised everybody on how great he was. When LeBron came in the league, they expected him to be great, so it was already on him. Michael, in some ways, we allowed him to grow into greatness.”
He’s spot on with that one. Jordan was the 3rd overall pick in 1984, coming up with a draft class of 3 more future Hall of Famers in Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton, all of whom were some of the greatest players at their positions.
Whereas LeBron, who was also in one of the best drafts classes of all time, was labeled “The Chosen One”.
“We didn’t allow LeBron that, and he still overachieved. LeBron is better than anyone would’ve thought, which is amazing. He rarely gets hurt, he always shows up, he’s had some of the biggest clutch games in NBA history, yet, no one knows it. It’s incredible.”
Maybe he fell short of what Jordan was able to deliver in 15 years of basketball, but what LeBron has given to basketball in 19 years is not inferior to anyone in the game.
