The comparisons between LeBron James and Michael Jordan aren’t likely to go away soon, especially after the Miami Heat’s second championship in the Big Three era. Beyond the media’s obsession with debate on the subject, other basketball players current and former have weighed in on the topic.
James himself hasn’t really said much on the subject, which is probably smart. The furthest he’s gone is to admit that he watched a lot of M.J. tape during his latest playoff run. However, after making a key jump shot late in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to essentially secure Miami the Larry O’Brien Trophy, James wasn’t necessarily downplaying the historic significance of the shot.
In fact, he thinks it was rather like Mike.
“I know it wasn’t the magnitude of M.J. hitting that shot in ’98, but I definitely thought about him,” James told Sports Illustrated. “It was an M.J. moment. It was an L.J. moment.”
Of course, the shot James is referring to is Jordan’s famous shot with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. The difference, of course, is that Jordan’s shot put a trailing Chicago team in the lead, whereas James merely strengthened an existing advantage.
