Lakers News: LeBron James Says Michael Jordan Was His Biggest Inspiration

For many, the debate between the greatest NBA player of all-time comes down to Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and current Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. Both are certainly worthy of the title and LeBron’s continued greatness after 22 seasons in the league is something no one can question.

Of course, Jordan was dominating the NBA well before then, leading the Bulls to six championships as James was growing up and just discovering his love for the game of basketball. He was easily the biggest NBA star during that time so naturally, he inspired many, including LeBron himself.

In a recent live edition of the “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash, James immediately named Jordan as his biggest inspiration while also envisioning how his words might be construed on social media:

“When you talk about inspiration, there was nobody more inspiring to me than Michael Jordan. For me, I think our games would have complimented as well. MJ was a flat out scorer. He was a scorer, scorer, scorer. He had a scorer’s mentality if I had to pick him. But I know I can’t pick him because I know how social media works. You motherf—ers are gonna be like, ‘ohh you want to play with Michael Jordan too. You done played with everybody else goddamnit.’ I didn’t ask the question, I’m only answering it guys, I didn’t ask the question. But MJ was an inspiration. Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway was an inspiration to me. Grant Hill was an inspiration to me growing up. Like that point forward, Scottie Pippen, that point-forward guys like Penny, like Grant Hill, like Scottie, those guys kinda inspired me because I kinda wanted to be that point forward so those are some guys. I can see the headline already, ‘LeBron wants to play with Michael Jordan’ like I see it already. That’s weird.”

Being in the spotlight for as long as he has been, LeBron understands anything he says can be made into a headline and is used to it. But the Lakers’ star being inspired by arguably the greatest ever makes sense, while the other players he named, such as Penny Hardaway and Grant Hill, are ideal comparisons for the style he likes to play.

Debates over who is the greatest ever between Jordan and James will continue to go on for a very long time, but the respect and admiration between the two has never wavered.

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