 Man, they booing this dude on the night he passes Jordan. I would be, that would give me pause and something to think about. This is embarrassing. And you know what? This is typical MJ though, because he's done very little when it comes to acknowledging LeBron James. Career art, career trajectory, and we're talking face to the league wise. Year six, Yanis is year six LeBron. Chris Broussard here, and welcome to the brand new Hoops on Fox podcast. This podcast will give you your daily dose of all things NBA from Fox Sports. Up first, Marcellus tells Whitlock and the SFY crew why Laker fans booing LeBron on his historic night should only feel the king. And I think at some point he's gonna figure it out. And I think there is a chance. I'm not gonna say a high chance, but let's say 30% chance that he figures it out and says, you know what? I need to get out of here. I need to go to New York with some play sells. This many booing this dude on the night he passes Jordan. I would be, that would give me pause and something to think about. Man, if you the king and they're booing you, it just makes you want to just shine that crown even brighter next year and just stick it to him. One as a LA native, I will say in terms of our fandom, at times we can be fickle. If you're a winner, we love you. If you're not boo, but we'll be right back soon to start winning again. And that could be a two game win streak for the Lakers. It's just all sudden they're back in. Shaq got booed, Kobe got booed. They booed the greats here because there's just so spoiled with success that right now they don't like this. He's not part of the Laker family. I told you he never had LA. And this is now them trying to respond to that and say, we told you this is still Kobe Mamba country, but LeBron will respond to this next year. This team will be better. But on that night, the night you pass MJ, how can you get booed on that night? That night you push it all aside. Just like the night where Kobe had 60 against Utah. Hey, forget that. We know it's your last game. You push it all aside. But on that night, you get booed. I don't understand that one. I think LeBron, when he had the towel over his face, he was crying in regret. Like, what am I doing here? I get it. There's a lot of good things that are happening off the court for him. But he's sticking to himself, like, this is the moment. This is where I'm at right now. I look up. I'm down by 20. I think that was a hard moment for LeBron right there. Well, I mean, fans got to understand. All people got to understand. The Lakers don't celebrate individual awards. They celebrate championships. That's what they're used to. They're not used to it. But at the same time, as a player, coming from where he's come from, that's a big reward for him to pass Michael Jordan. We all grew up idolizing him. So for him, I understand what he's feeling. That's a big feat for anybody coming from where he come from. And that's how I see it. So you got booed on that night. How would you feel? None of that matters. None of that matters to LeBron. While I come from, nobody, I'm here today saying that I'm past my idol in NBA and scoring. What everybody doing in here does not matter to me. All right, let me ask, if it doesn't matter at all? If it doesn't matter, then I did this. The next time, let's just say he's here next year. He's going to pass Kobe next year. He's going to do that at home? He's going to be OK with that? Or he's going to schedule it where he's like, you know what? I better do this on the road. It's going to be the same way because the Lakers fans don't celebrate individual awards. This organization is known for celebrating championship. Sure. They didn't celebrate Kobe that much when he scored 60 points in the last game? Oh, my God. They didn't do it. They didn't do it. Oh, man. That was a good buy, love. It was a great game going out. But after that day, it was over with. Sure, OK. You see what I'm saying? They didn't celebrate it the next year? Yeah. They didn't bring, call me back and bring him on the court. We going to celebrate that game. You know what I'm saying? He's right. It wasn't that big. Dude, he's a god just past Michael Jordan. But both of those, if you look at it, he did that in a Cleveland uniform or Miami uniform. In the video montages, they showed that. And they felt that. And then you talk about MJ. None of that is LA centric. So those people are like, all right, respect for you. But it's time to do for us. LeBron tweeted out two hours before the game or an hour before the game. Oh, wow, it's going to be unreal at this moment. Blah, blah, blah. You can't tell me he crossed his mind. You know how I might get booed tonight. You know what? Translate those booze. Yo, boo. Hold on. Hey, LeBron, why he was really crying is because not only did I pass Michael Jordan, the guy I idolized, but I wanted a positive influence from the hood from where I'm from. And MJ became a billionaire from nothing. And now not only have I surpassed him in terms of points, but I might surpass him in terms of off the court. And me and he might. Look, it's in LeBron's head. Stay in his zone. He has accomplished so much. And the LA fans, when you boo LeBron, think about what he's been through in all the adversity. That boo was not going to penetrate him. Everybody be passing Mike. No, we know it's hard. OK, well, don't make seems like he didn't do something that's great that's never been done. Unbelievable. And so what are you saying? I'm saying, why the Laker fans not accept him for being for the great reason. You know that. Doc Silver's got a standing ovation for Dirk the Vischy at the Clipper game. Because that is not used to winning. They're celebrating Dirk. That's all they have is Dirk. The Lakers celebrate championships. We ain't got them championships. OK, but let's move to LeBron. In terms of how he interpreted and how he feels about being booed on the night. He doesn't care. What do you mean? He doesn't care. I've heard the guy for years say, y'all take me for granted. I've spoiled y'all. Look, we all rather get applauded than booed. But when you boo me, MJ. I ain't tripping. On the night I'm passing, MJ. You're home proud boo you. You've been saying for years, I've spoiled y'all. Y'all take me for granted. You celebrate yourself more than damn the damn that the media celebrate you. He does. Every everything he does, he tweets out to Instagram post, you know, last night I wiped my butt for the 100th time. Jordan only did it 88 times. Celebrate this, y'all. And people go, oh, God, that's great. You wipe better than anybody. You telling me this man isn't bothered that he got booed? He gotta be. Come on, Shaq. He's not. He's not. You don't think so? No, if you put yourself in his position, would you ever let those people, as grandma said, don't let him steal your joy, baby? In that moment, I ain't letting you steal my joy. And I just got here. I hear you. I hear you. I hear you. That's why he put it on his post. He winked his eye to the haters. I wink to the haters. I hear you, but I'm not paying attention. I just passed Mike. Why would I give that energy? You know why your grandmother gives you advice? I don't understand that. Because you need it. Because she knows you're hurting. And she's like, baby, don't let nobody steal your joy. That's why that sane is out there. That's why she said. And so trust me. LeBron James' mama today is sitting up, baby, don't let him steal your joy. He drank so much wine last night, come on, you can't be one joy. You know why? It's depressing, buddy. It's depressing. You think tell me somebody that does all this social media posting, look at me, what's how great I am. When we're in space, Jeff? I hear you. He looks just, he looks just like, I worry about what he's doing. Who you booing? I'm saying it was a boy going to be at the movies in a couple of months. I want to hear that. 300 seconds. I want to hear that. 300 seconds. I'm worried about that. All right, dawg. He's not worried. They won booing Corsair. You know, Arc, they're close to him. Can I get a selfie? You know what Facebook is, your high school. So, you know, just turn 40. And there'll be some 40-year-old that you went to high school that's on Facebook right now, putting out pictures of how great their life is. And you would see it in giggles. I know how terrible things are for you. Your husband just left you, or your wife just left you. You had 30 pounds overweight, but you're trying to put on this big show. When I look at LeBron's social media feed, and all the dancing, and all the love letters to Kyrie, and all the celebration of himself, it ain't no different than that person you went to high school with who's faking the funk on Facebook. You know what's different? He's famous. They ain't. Yeah, he actually doing it. And did they pass you? They actually know what they're faking it. They're faking it, so they're faking it. I'm about to be a billionaire. I ain't faking nothing. He's not faking it. Every billionaire, a millionaire was happy. Y'all would have a point. But we talking about LeBron, though. They can be just as unhappy as the person with no money. You just went lane hopping. You went from objective to subjective. I cannot tell if the dude's happy. He dancing that practice, and they losing. He look happy to me. He's throwing him to the game with some peanuts. Because it's wine, man. It's like a show to me. And y'all are kidding yourself. Any one of us, if we broke any kind of record and got booed on that night, we'd be like, what? All right, to your original point, then. If you can't find happiness on the Lakers in LA, where you going to go and find that happiness? Go with La. Where? I'm finna tell you. Let me tell you what the downside is for LeBron. The risk is coming back next year. Because this season has been a disaster. We all agree it's a disaster. If he comes back next year and they don't get any free agents, the narrative's going to be, don't nobody want to play with LeBron. He's toxic. Rather than face that outcome, go to New York, point your finger at Magic and Polinka, and Jeannie Buss. And they jacked it off. But why? What's the chance of that happening? The Lakers dealt with that before. Kobe, they might not get any big time free agents. Somebody else coming there, what's the chance of that? No, they're going to get people. Come on, man. They're not going to strike down. But what if they don't? No, they're going to get somebody. They're going to get somebody. Kobe didn't get anybody. They're going to be better than they were this year. Just say that. I say that. But if they don't get anybody, the Lakers have dealt with that before, even with their greatest player. Kobe didn't attract free agents. And he rolled with that narrative. But the question, at the end of the day, when they booed him or not, the record still broke. He still passed it today. I'm just saying, it's still regardless. He's trying to distract. No, I'm not distracted. He doesn't care. The record is still broke. OK. No, but it's not what he thought. Like he, if it was in Cleveland or Miami, it'd be a different story. You have to admit that. Yeah, of course. Yeah, just the way he didn't care. He might not care. All this is premeditated with LeBron. He might not care. He might not care. But if it was in Miami, come on. If it was in Cleveland, the way it would have went down, that's, it's a little disrespectful to him, no question. But why are y'all trying to balance the response from people there versus him and his work ethic and his accomplishments? Like think about your own individual. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like if you make the pro bowl and nobody cheers, you're like, oh, I'll start. So I'm supposed to be mad that it happened because the fans booing me? No, that's not what I'm saying. No, no. But the fans should have not booed him. But on that one day, if you don't like what's going on, for one day, don't boo LeBron. The point isn't whether the fans should have booed him. It's about how LeBron is interpreting this disaster. And every day, it just keeps getting worse to me. And it's clear now like, damn, I may never win this fan base. This might be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. This might be worse than the decision, hosting that announcement on TV and how that blew up in his face. This can be 10 times worse than that, coming to LA. And I think he's capable of realizing that. And last night was just another little sign. This was a mistake. And you start looking cool. What's my ex's reaction? You got a key perspective. Success is not linear. It's not a straight line up. You know what happened? The day of his injury, Golden State, when they beat them by 20 up there, where was LA's love for LeBron then? Pre-injury. Now, they've lost 14 of the last 19. Of course, everybody going to be looking at you sideways. But if I'm LeBron, I keep that moment and I capture in the bottle. And then next year, I come out fully loaded, maybe another free agent. Well, this squad doesn't matter. We still know that this franchise is going to love me because the day, Christmas day, they were in love with LeBron. Look what they did to Golden State. Have you ever broke a record? Have you ever broke a record? No. Well, when you do, I have. And if you break a record, the last thing you think about is the mistakes you made. The last thing you thinking about. When you getting your brains beat in. You just beat past Michael Jordan, I guarantee you the last thing you think about was the mistake he's made. Your last thing you thinking about is a mistake you made when you passed Michael Jordan. You letting the ball roll out of bounds from full. I'm giving y'all like that. You ever seen that before what happened last night? He let the ball roll out of bounds. And you also seen the times he did that and made the shot? All right. He's made the shot too? I'm not going to win this one. That does it. I've never seen that before, Stat. But he does it a lot. He's made that shot a couple times. All right, Stat, let's give him a little ammo. LeBron didn't miss his first four free throws. His first quarter percentage ever. He's the worst free throw shooting star we've ever seen. Yeah, but he also set records for himself in the negative. He's will change. I've been saying it for years. Next, Chris Broussard explains why LeBron probably won't be a fan of getting extra rest as the season winds down. Are they doing the right thing by scaling back LeBron James' minutes? I think it makes sense. But it's being called, they're advising him. Cause my thing is, I'll believe it when I see it. LeBron wants to play. How many times have we seen, oh, he's going to cut back his minutes? Now he did cut him back this year to about 36, but I wouldn't be surprised if his average the rest of the way is about 34 minutes a night, which is cutting it down a little, but 28 to 32, I don't know if LeBron will go that low. Him not being 100%, maybe that's because of conditioning, because of the injury. He's not fully back from that. But look, I'm assuming the groin is fine because I don't think he'd go out there and play in these meaningless games if the groin was a problem. And look, LeBron obviously wants to be ready over these next three years to get the Lakers a championship. But I do not fault LeBron one bit. If also in his mind, I'm trying to catch Kareem. I, he should want that record. I think that's a great thing to shoot for. And I don't think he wants to give away games. I think he wants to play games. I think he wants to put up numbers. I don't fault him for that at all. All the players want to put up numbers. And so I think he's gonna go out there and play these games, probably 34 minutes a night. I think it's a smart thing. So some of this is about, I'm sorry, some of this is about numbers? I think so. I mean, if I were in his position, I'd be trying to catch Kareem. That's not mutually exclusive to trying to win. I don't think he's gonna do it at the expense of, I gotta get my points, so I'm not gonna pass the ball. I'm gonna make sure I gotta be the lead and score or anything like that. But I think he's got a lot of goals in mind as all, like Michael Jordan said, I wanna win, but I wanna be the reason why. And I think that's how superstars think. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As far as the back-to-backs go, like let's be very specific about this. They only have three back-to-backs left the rest of the year. So it's, so take three games off it, even if he's not gonna play at Detroit, at Utah, and at the Clippers on March 15th, 27th, and April 4th, throw those out. So then we're talking about 14 games, the rest of the way. He was playing 35 minutes per game before he got hurt. Now, when he came back from injury, he was inexplicably playing 39 minutes per game right out the gate. That's what he averaged, had a bunch of 40-minute games. And then in the game where he passed Jordan, he was down to 31 minutes. I would imagine he's going to be, I don't think LeBron's gonna play 20-ish anything. I think it'll be at least 30 minutes. Now, having him do what they did in that game where he passed Jordan, where he doesn't play the whole first quarter, where you take him out midway through the first, where you do more of a Duncan with Popovich style in the regular season when Duncan wasn't on his last legs, to where you target 32 minutes. Like, have that be your target and your goal, that is a reduction in minutes. And not playing him back-to-backs also makes sense. I don't see, this is where I think see and I disagree, I don't see the need to shut him down. And I don't see the need even to say you're gonna play, do the Anthony Davis plan where you're playing 20 minutes per game. I know you disagree, see. But I think this is, he shouldn't be played 40 minutes another game the rest of the year. What do we gain besides adding a point total to him playing? If he's gonna play 39 to 14 games. If the young boys are gonna play, then look, everybody thinks they're gonna have a totally new team. If they don't get Anthony Davis, that's not necessarily true. If they don't get Anthony Davis, Kuzma, Ingram, these guys might be back. So you just get them used to playing more time on the court and he's gonna get a rest. You know, he's gonna get two months more than he's ever had in the last, what, 10 years. Okay, all right. So two months rest is great. So what would three months, four months be? It's fine, but he could rest all summer if he wanted, but he's not, he's gonna get out there and start playing in July, he'll start working. So I think taking these extra two months, I think he'll be fine. Okay, so what's the worst thing to happen? You will want to shut him down. Let's just see, let's just, I'm in the air. We gonna have a conversation about what would be the worst thing could happen for LeBron? Suffer another major injury. Yes. Yeah. Okay, because if he suffered an injury, would that affect free agency? Enormously. I would think so, yes. And I think it would affect everything. A major injury would affect everything. So a major industry, I mean, a major injury- I don't think it would necessarily affect the Anthony Davis trade. I think Anthony Davis would still want to go to the lake. Sure, but major injury would be bad. It's the worst thing that could happen. We all agree. So we don't have to part that part of it. If I could remove that part of the equation, if that's the worst thing could happen. All right, it was like, okay, I'm getting in a car. I'm getting ready to go somewhere. Worst thing could happen is you get in a car accident. Okay, and it'd be fatal. If I could remove that aspect of it, of traveling either that way or not going, why would I take that chance? If everything is about winning the championship in year two, three and four of this contract, that's why I believe that right now the Lakers, they don't have the right type of management. Because right now it should be about getting these young guys some experience and salvaging the first year of LeBron James. Why put all those extra minutes? Because they do not help you get closer to a parade. Now LeBron can come to me if I'm magic and say, you know something, I want to be out there playing. That's what I do. I can understand that. But I'm running the team. I'm doing what's best for basketball. And what's best for basketball right now is not to put any more minutes on LeBron James. We saw him out there. Yeah, he passed Jordan, but there was nothing else significant about him being on the court. All right, these younger players, it's up to the Lakers organization and for them to develop. Right now we're out of the playoff. There's only eight teams in the NBA. They got a worse record than the Lakers right now. So I'm getting ready to take the face of the NBA and I'm getting ready to put another 14 games on him. He's at a pace that we had never seen before. It just, this is not real complicated. This is just common sense. It makes sense, but he's gonna wanna play. You know that, I mean, it didn't make sense for him to play 82 games last year. You know, in the regular season. LeBron, it hasn't made sense for him to play all these minutes in his career. Every thoroughbred needs a jockey, a bridal and a saddle. And LeBron James is no different. Right now, it's important of how much we gonna let him go getting to the house. Because his skill is going to go down. Regardless of what we think or what we, so for me, it would be about how do I manage that? I didn't plan on being out of the playoffs. Man, Christmas night, I'm sitting in the four spot, but this is my new reality, bro. I'm out of the playoffs. This thing is done. It's time to look at how do I preserve that guy so that I can get to a parade? It's not about anything else but a parade. It's not about, I agree with you that whether he catches cream or not is a secondary storyline to whether or not he wins another championship. We all agree with that. Where you and I are on the other side of this is, see, is I am not certain. You keep saying if two months is good, four months is better, three months is better. I'm not certain that's the case for a guy who has played as consistently. He has had a routine. He has had a routine for the last 16 years. That routine's already gonna be broken to a degree this year by not making the playoffs. And you know the reason why it's broken? Because LeBron didn't have the gas to go to it. Now, Blake Griffin sits down with Christine Leahy to play first and 10 on Fair Game. I'm Christine Leahy here with NBA All-Star and Broad City guest star. Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons. It is time for first and 10. First thing you'd say to a Lob City reunion one day. Let's say you guys gotta be in a room together for an hour with no entertainment. You just have to sit there and talk. Yeah, it'd be fine. You would. I think a lot of people like tried to make that like a, it was like this huge like toxic situation. So you and Chris and DeAndre are all BFFs? I wouldn't say we're BFFs. But we're not like, I don't think we all hate each other. You don't think? No, I mean, we don't. Okay, cool. First SNL cast member, you would call the goat. I really like Will Ferrell, but yeah, I would say Will Ferrell. Okay. First thing I'd find in your Google search history. The truth. The blushing is giving me a lot here. First thing you'd find. I mean, I've gotten very honest answers with this one. You can go ahead. I have like, it's probably just like weird, like random stuff that out of context doesn't really make sense. The last thing I Googled was probably, it was like something like Detroit to Charlotte flight time or something like random like that. Yeah, that's fair. I do that all the time. Like any city I'm going to always want to, there's a website called travel math. That's really good if you're into like flight times and stuff. Okay, why are you so concerned about the flight times? I don't know. I just like transit is a weird thing for me. I always like to know exactly how long it's going to take. It's not like, oh, I'm going to land at this time. So I have like. Yeah, I just always like to know. Okay. It's weird. All right. I feel like there's more to this story. First thing you'd say to Doc Rivers if you walked into this room right now. Hey. And that's it. Yeah, that's it. Okay. First thing you'd say if you were offered a job on inside the NBA when you retire. I'm good. First player you would have picked if you were one of the All-Star captains. Probably Katie. First reaction to a teammate asking if it's cool to date an ex? Yeah, sure. You don't care? I mean, I feel like it probably depends on the ex, but like, yeah, I don't care. Okay. So Derek Fisher is cool. Well, that's kind of a different situation. Like, that was just, that was like... It's an ex. It's a wife. It's a wife, ex-wife. That's an ex. I've never been married. So that's a little different now. I mean, if it's like an ex-wife, yeah, I probably, that's a no-go. Okay. First thing you miss most about Los Angeles besides family, friends, and the weather? Thing I miss most? Besides family, friends, and the weather. Probably like just a, my favorite like restaurants and stuff like that. Craigs. Craigs, yeah. Shout out to Craigs. First comedian you met you were in awe of? Dave Chappelle. First time in the NBA, you really enjoyed dunking on someone, probably more than you should have. I really enjoyed the Kendrick Berkens one just cause he was such a like tough guy, you know what I mean? He was like a great defender and like, always kind of like, was extra physical. So, you know, it's nice to get somebody back. Up next, Colin breaks down the dominance of the top 10 all-time leading scorers in the NBA. This morning, I was just going up and down the all-time scoring list of the 10 greatest scorers in NBA history, and it kind of struck me how each one was the greatest or the most something, that they were all specialists, or at least if they weren't a specialist like LeBron, they were the greatest at being very good at everything. Let's go back and look at the top 10 scoring list as it stands now. The number one all-time leading scorer is Karim Abdul-Jabbar, formerly Luel Cinder with a box. He created the most unstoppable shot ever, the Skyhook. In the history of the NBA, the unblockable, unstoppable, put his shoulder in, even as you look at images of it, the idea of blocking that, there is 19-time all-star, most in NBA history, six-time MVP, most in NBA history, but it was the shot where he scored roughly 90% of his points. The all-time leading scorer had the most unstoppable shot ever. Karl Malone is number two. He was part of the most unstoppable play ever, the pick and roll, where he scored 75 to 80% of his points off one play with John Stockton, one of the all-time assist leaders. He was a 14-time all-star, and for the record, played great defense for most of his career, but they scored on a pick and roll, and it's the greatest pick and roll. Jerry Sloan coaching it, John Stockton leading it, and Karl Malone finishing it. It was that play that has him number two all-time. Number three is Kobe Bryant. I've said he has the most moves ever. Jordan had some stock four or five moves that he went to in the mid-range. Kobe's the greatest artist that's ever played it. He never really had a stock move. He had the widest range of shots. He had much greater range than Michael Jordan. He would work on the baseline. He would work on angles. He would get you low. The 18-time all-star, five-time NBA champ, only one-time MVP, but I believe he's the most creative scorer with fewer stock moves. Kind of the opposite of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He had more variety of scoring moves than any player and he's third. Number four, LeBron James. I think he's the most positionless player that does the most things well. I've called him the Swiss Army Knife. He's an above-average passer, ball handler, way above average size. He is now a more efficient player than most. He can score low. He had now developed a nice three-point shot. There are a lot of players who do a couple of things well. Steph Curry's a great shooter and ball handler. LeBron, to me, is the best all-around basketball player ever. So in his own form, sort of a specialist, he'd be number four. Number five on the scoring list is Michael Jordan. I believe he's the most relentless player ever. I don't think anybody played harder on both ends was more competitive, was more physical for his size, was a greater trash talker. I don't think there's ever been a player that played as relentless as Michael Jordan and many of you think he's the goat. He's the greatest player of all time. Number six would be Wilt Chamberlain. I think he's the most physically unstoppable player certainly of his era and probably ever. He was going against six, eight and a half centers. Yeah, the Boston Celtics were a rival. Dave Cowins was six, eight. There's never been a player that physically didn't look like the rest of the league. Now we know he scored 100 points, but he also averaged over 50 in 1962. Number seven, Dirk Nowitzki. Specialty, best European player ever, best Euro ever. And also he was the first great shooter over seven feet. Listen, I grew up, where the guys that shot the basketball at the NBA were two guards and small forwards. Point guards weren't big shooters, centers weren't and power forwards just rebounded. He was the first great seven foot shooter and the best Euro ever, a 14 time all star. Number eight, Shaq. I think he's the most dominant physical specimen in the last 30 years. He is Wilt modern day. Now, the matchups with Shaq don't look like the matchups with Wilt because there's a lot of seven footers and he faced big guys like Arvitas Sabonis. Four time NBA champ, 15 time all star, led the NBA in scoring twice, but his specialty was for his era, the most unstoppable physical specimen. Number nine, Moses Malone. He's the best rebounder I've ever seen. Simply put, Dennis Rodman was a rebounder, but not a score. Nobody turned rebounds into points in NBA history more than Moses Malone, who played for a variety of teams. He led the NBA in rebounding six times, was in the top three multiple other times, a 13 time all star, finals MVP, greatest rebounder ever who turned it into points. And number 10, Elvin Hayes. Most underrated player in NBA history and the master more than any player in league history of the bank shot. The great Elvin Hayes, who was a 12 time all star and a scoring champ, by the way, one of those years. Top 10 scorers, all in their own right, sort of specialist. Following that, Shannon tells Skip why Michael Jordan's message of congratulations to LeBron is an embarrassment. We're joined by Rob Parker, but for Shannon, I will start with you because you're fake. Shannon, was there more to that or did that get cut off? Really? Do you want me to read it again? What happened? Read it again. I like it. I want to congratulate LeBron on achieving another great milestone during his amazing career. Was that David Stern, the former commissioner? Who was that? That was M.J. That was the tone that was written with. That was the tone, he's got it right. You ought to be ashamed of your guy. You should be ashamed that he put this out. This is embarrassing. And you know what? This is typical M.J., though, because he's done very little when it comes to acknowledging LeBron James. You know why? Because since he retired, this was the only guy that's been viewed as a serious threat to him. Kobe made it abundantly clear. He tried to emulate everything Michael Jordan did. And in emulation, a copy can never be better than the original. So he never viewed Kobe as a serious threat because you tried to be like me. And Shannon, if you ever close your eyes and listen to Kobe talk sometime, you would swear it was Michael Jordan. Same inflection. Am I right? He did, he copied. Not only did he copy. He copied the way he walked. He copied the way he hung his tongue out of his mouth. Everything. The sleeve on his calf rolled down there. Everything. But he got a lot closer to Jordan than LeBron. No, no, no, no, no, he didn't. No, he didn't. You can't be close with only one regular season MVP. You can't be close with only two finals MVP. How about five championships? So is that one so, no, we're basically on R. You see? You see? Did you see what you did? No, I didn't do anything. I didn't. You know, let's go. Go ahead. I'll let you go. Now this is what Michael Jordan did for Kobe in his final season when he came to Charlotte. A one minute and 42nd video trip, you. None of this, oh, congratulations LeBron on your another milestone. LeBron, you, it couldn't be me. It couldn't be me. Cause see now, now I'm skill-baters. I got to go on Instagram and I got to attack. You know. Attack? Yes. There was a response. You can't attack Michael Jordan. Yeah, the bull job, and that's. And? Skip, this is a ridiculous skill. That's all you got. That generic bull job of a message of a man that's done that. Come on, Mike. You still, you always gonna be Michael Jordan because you did it first. Your shoes gonna keep you on Mount Olympus for perpetuity. Yep. But you got to do a better combo that Rob Parker. No, I hear you, but Shannon, the only thing more embarrassing than that was the whole reception and ovation that Kobe got here in LA. I mean, LeBron. LeBron got here in LA. And just think about how that went down. And I think that says a lot. It was totally, and I want to say this first, totally disrespectful by the LA fans. I get it. The season went awry. You could say LeBron is unfocused, wasn't a good leader this year. You could say all of that. But in a magical moment like that, when the guy's wearing your uniform and he's one of the greatest players, period, whether or not he's played here long enough, what they did that night was terrible. And the same thing with his teammates. I mean, LeBron had to go find Caruso to hug him and then say, hey, what's your name again? Caruso's walking over to him. LeBron went right up to him. But you know what I mean. But it wasn't like, where was the players to come surround him? Like everybody? No, and the goal. No other nugget. I'm not saying you got to go crazy, but out of respect. Rob, he tried to trade half the team at the deadline. No, but it only reminded you of when Barry Barnes hit the home run and they didn't pour out the dugout and everybody hugged him at home plate. He had to come in, he had to come in the dugout to get the praise and the adulation. And then the last. I covered that team. I know that team. And the last part is, I blame the Lakers as well from this standpoint. They claim the NBA told him, we don't want you to stop the game. What nonsense. LeBron, James gonna pass Michael Jordan. What fine could they have given him if they stopped the game and did something? So for them to just say, oh, the league said, don't do it and buy into that. That's a disrespect to LeBron as well. But when it comes to Michael Jordan, it's obvious they don't have a close relationship. But I think it's because LeBron really is more like magic than LeBron. Michael. Michael. And I think that's what it really stems from. That's why a lot of other players when they talk about the goal, they include Kobe even though most of the conversation is about Michael and LeBron. But you know this because Kobe had more that killer instinct that you talk about skip. That's what players see. And that was more like Michael. And I think that's part of why maybe Michael hasn't had the same connection with LeBron. And you're right. Probably the closest guy to really challenge Michael. But I also believe that it's more about he's just not like what Michael was. Michael was a killer. And LeBron's a friendly guy who wants to get to know everybody. Hey, the game's on the line. I'll give you a chance to, here you go, you shoot the ball. That's something that you didn't see. And I'm not saying that Michael never did that. But LeBron has done that way more. All I know is every time Magic stepped on the floor, he had a million dollar smile. It was taking people out. So just this notion that you got a scow and you got to wear a frown in your face to be a stone cold killer. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird was mean. And I'll say this to you to just shut that down. The game is on the line and you give the ball to Michael Jordan or to LeBron James and win the game. Who would you give it to? I'm giving the ball to LeBron. No, you're not. Yes, I am. No, you're not. Because he's going to pass it to George Hill so he can miss free throws. You know it, Shannon. Stop it. You would not give the ball to LeBron James. No, you would not. You want the best play. I want to talk about Michael Jordan. Tell us. I'm going to read this comment that came down from Mount Olympus in a different way. Mount Olympus. Yes, it is. He lives on the top. I'm going to give you, this is the way it was intended. Oh, here's the real story. I want to congratulate LeBron James on achieving another great milestone during his amazing career. Period. Send it out. He said to the PR person who typed this, right? Yes. Get him. That might be more accurate. This is what you say when you feel compelled to say something because you're an NBA owner, right? And you are that guy. And so you have to say something but you don't want to say anything. So that's what you say. He is fortunate that yet Michael Jordan has not yet gone full on Hall of Fame acceptance speech on LeBron James. And remember, that speech is classic. You know, that was a doo-doo. Hard to forget. Oh, my God. There's a big part of Michael because I think I know him well enough to know this, who would love to just unleash and unload on LeBron James right now, all in the mode of how dare you. How dare you write on your shoes on that night. Thank you, MJ23. And then put a crown on it. Thank you for inspiring me to be greater than you because I am the king, not you. I am the king. How dare you do that? But you remember he said he was the goal. He knew when he was the goal. Yeah, right. The crown bothered you that much, just that little crown. And yesterday I was looking at LeBron's Instagram. I don't even follow him, but I looked it up just to see what he's doing. And they're just crown emojis all over it. This is just crown, crown, crown. And then he dares, how dare him to post a Photoshop picture of, can we see that? Oh, MJ, look at it. Like they're equals. They're sitting on the same pedestal looking sideways. But look who in the front. Who in the front? Who in the front? He's got a little edge on him. Who don't think that was intentional? Jordan a little bit? It's artistic. Yeah, you think? But who on the left and who on the right? The headline. Yeah. What's the message? Left to right. He's saying, I'm like Mike, except I'm better than Mike. That's what he's saying. Yes, he is. We equal. We equal. No, he's not. He is lucky that Michael Jordan didn't call a press conference yesterday and just unload all over him for the audacity to try to put himself above Michael Jordan. Really, Jenny? The audacity. OK, well, that's what I'm saying. But he went the nice way out because he felt like he had to. Say nothing. I'd rather him say nothing. And you know what? This was a nothing. This was a big old fat nothing burger. It was less than nothing. And Shannon, you should go YouTube when Kobe passed Michael Jordan and go see what they did in Minnesota for him. Go watch that video. They stopped the game. And the fans went crazy. They didn't owe Kobe anything. But they understood the moment. Thank you. Thank you. You do not yet understand Los Angeles fans. It is what have you done for us? They don't care about anything that's happened outside of Hollywood. What have you done for Hollywood? I get it. But my only thing is in that moment, you have to, if you are a basketball fan and recognize what's going on, you've got to give them more than that. I don't care about the fans. If you know what, when he broke the record, if they wanted to turn it here for the exits, so be it. I'm talking about an all-time great NBA player giving that little acknowledgment. That's less than nothing. This is embarrassing. Michael Jordan should be embarrassed. You know what? It was a pretty good diss, right? Like a subtle diss. I got one question. Will they, when he passes Kobe LeBron, and it happens in LA, will they boo? Would they embrace that? Do you think? If I'm LeBron, I'm going to flip the head on it. I'm flipping everybody off. Hey, hey, I'm going to go one higher. Wait until he makes his run at Kareem. If, in fact, he can last long enough to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in staple. I don't know, man. That would even work. I'm saying, look, but here's the thing. Boo and not boo, cheer and not cheer. Progress must progress. We rolling, skip. Now you can jump on the training ride with us, or you'll get rolled over. OK. The train just left the track. The train is four and 10 since LeBron came back from injury. We had the wrong conductor. Oh, we got to find the coaxer. That's what it was. Rob, thank you so much for joining us. Finally, Nick Wright draws a striking comparison between year six Yanis and year six LeBron. I'm totally by it. I think it's right on the money. I mean, obviously their games are completely different, but the personality, you know, the lack of ego, but yet, you know, competitive driving. I mean, you see Yanis in the all-star game, competing for four quarters, you know what I mean? That, I mean, Tim Duncan was such a mellow personality. Everybody always used to think he doesn't have that killer instinct. No, he had the killer instinct. He was just a laid-back type of guy, and that's what I see with Yanis. There's no drama. Most of our teams, Golden State, you got Draymond, obviously LeBron, Kyrie. Most of our teams have a lot of drama of the top teams. Not so with Yanis. I think he's gonna, that tone's gonna be set throughout that organization. Similar to how I said, Steph has done it in Golden State. He wants to stay in the small town. He's talked about, I'm not going to LA. I'm not leaving Milwaukee. Obviously Duncan did the same thing as San Antonio. So yeah, I think it's right on the money. Personality-wise, I get all of it, but career art, career trajectory, and we're talking face to the league-wise. Year six, Yanis is year six LeBron. Year six LeBron, the team won 45 games the previous season. That year they won 66. He won his first league MVP. Last year Milwaukee Bucks won 44 games. They're on pace to win 62. And Yanis might very well win his first league MVP. Year six LeBron. I remember LeBron had gotten to the finals in the first four. Two years prior. Right, right. So he was, LeBron came. LeBron, absolutely. And LeBron by year two was worlds better than Yanis by eight. I get that part of it. Year six LeBron, 28, eight and seven. Year six Yanis, 27, 13 and six. And LeBron from, I would argue a few seasons prior to his sixth year, but certainly by his sixth year, the best, the universally accepted best player alive. And Yanis is working towards that. Maybe not universally accepted, but certainly some people arguing the best player alive. I know you have an MVP vote. I said earlier, I think this is going to be the closest MVP race since Nash's second. Like him versus Harden is going to come down to the wire. And I think Yanis getting his team to 60 wins. Either winning or coming in second in the MVP, that's how you become the face of the league. It is that level of high level production and team success. And the other thing to see about face of the league, who else is eligible? So like Harden's too polarizing almost. Like too many people dislike the way Harden plays. Kevin Durant right now seems to me to be, he wouldn't even image makeover almost. I think it's Yanis or the guy that you think it probably could be in Steph. Like one of those two guys is going to be the next most forward facing player in the league in my eyes. I think Steph, because he has their credentials, I believe he's also going to have the additional ring this year. Also him and Clay, I expect them over the next several years to put up ungodly type numbers. I mean, dude's got 10 years in a row shooting over 40% from three point range. Like he is the perfect, especially FKD. It's set up for him. If KD leaves. If KD leaves and then he stays there, he's the face of that franchise because I like the comparison because that's what we have to do in sports. We have to try to take someone out of our past, give him someone with someone who is currently so that the fans can be like, yes, I identify. But we can't take for granted what Tim Duncan had when he got to San Antonio. He had an injured David Robinson coming back. He had great Popovich potentially one of the greatest coaches in the NBA. Stabilize as far as a franchise that, you know what we're getting ready to do? We're getting ready to start looking at international basketball players like no one's ever thought of and start developing them. We're going to put the perfect roster as far as defense, shooting, spacing. Also, you know what I'm going to do for you, Tim? Before people do that, I'm going to arrest you. Right. So he had so many things in Tim Duncan and Tim Duncan, we know, was a better player when he came. He came out of college, man, as the big fundamental. He had seven or eight post moves then that we knew he was going to be a great player. So yeah, I like the fact there are some similarities, small market and all that. But I think the fact that Tim Duncan, he did have the fire. But Tim Duncan never once in his career had the desire to be the best player, recognizes the best player in the NBA. And I believe that Giannis, he wants to be a great player. And Giannis has bought into, he should be one of the best players if not the face of the NBA. And I believe that that might be a pressure that might be too big for a young person because he doesn't even know what he's asking for. We know what LeBron went through. If we say Kobe and Shaq were part of it, we know what they went through. So these days have been easy for Giannis. The most difficult thing Giannis had, he couldn't get in the Mexican restaurant last year. But what happens when he faces some real difficulty, some real challenges, and real expectation? Because all he's done is exceed the given expectations any given year. And you're talking about a guy who wants to stay in Milwaukee, a guy who enjoys the small town aspect of what his career could be. Could you be the face of the league from a small town in this day and age? Yeah, LeBron was in Cleveland. You could easily. OKC, if Russ was a little different, he could be it or KD. I like your point about Popovich. Remember, Budenhozer came out of that system was there for 19 years. So I'm sure he's going to take a ton of that stuff and apply to Giannis. Here's my only problem. I don't know that Giannis could be the face of the league. He could be the best player. Tim Duncan was arguably the best player, but never was the face of the league. Number one, we've never had an international player be the face of the league. Number two, I don't like all the guys that have been the face from Dr. J to Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan to Kobe and Shaq to LeBron. They've all had that swag about him, that cool factor that that was beyond playing, even if it was their game, the flash in their game, you know, with magic with the passes and all that stuff. Giannis, if Giannis, I've said it before, if he grew up in America and had that American swag, maybe he would be the guy that's going to be the face of the league, but he's more of a laid back guy like a Tim Duncan. I don't know if he's colorful enough to be the face of the NBA. And I agree with you, you stole my thunder. If it's not going to be LeBron and KD Lee's Golden State, I would nominate Steph, because I think he'll go off and they're still going to be a contender. So two things, one of the other reasons Duncan was never the face of the league wasn't just his personality, it was his style. Duncan was shooting, you know, backboard jump shots in the All-Star game. You know, Duncan was the big fundamental to a fault when it came to branding, right? He didn't care about any endorsements. He didn't care about any of that. Giannis' style is exhilarating. Giannis' style of play is one of the most attractive in the entire league. I don't think it's as attractive as the guys we've seen, because it's very, very unique. We've never seen anyone play like him. So for me, it's not always exhilarating just like, wow, I never seen that. Man, that dude took one dribble from 30 feet. So there's a lot of figuring out, I think they're aesthetically, and more kids are drunk. You have to grow the game of basketball. I don't believe Giannis is going to grow the game of basketball by the way he plays. Steph grew the game of basketball. LeBron grew the game of basketball. Iverson grew the game. Jordan grew the game. Kobe grew the game. Shaq, man, when Shaq slid on the floor and was looking side to side, they changed how kids, the perception of the NBA, and I don't think that Giannis has a style, the style that I see, I don't think that that's a style like those other guys. But the other point you made, and you made it in the morning meeting, see was the international aspect. Like we've never had a non-American born player be the face of the league. Yeah, we want the NBA to be an international game, but I don't believe we want an international face to represent the NBA. Well, so here's the aspect of that though. We've only once ever or twice ever had an international player be good enough to be in the conversation. Akim and Dirk, right? And Dirk did it in an odd time where even when Dirk won his MVP, I don't think many people thought he was the best player in the league. Like he would have the best season. And Akim, I don't even know, was Barkley the face of the league when Jordan was retired? Was Jordan still the face of the league? There really wasn't one. No, there wasn't. There was a law. Right, Shaq was trying to become the face of the league and probably would have, but then Jordan came back. So right now we're in a league where Giannis, Embiid, Luca's coming. Embiid could. Because he got the personality. Yeah, he got the personality. And so my point is, I played at Kansas. I mean, if that helps to some degree. I think the international thing is going to fall by the wayside at some point because we just have so many more. Drozan Petrovic was never gonna be the face of the league, right? You never, you had guys that were excellent international players, but that was always the qualifier. They're excellent foreign international player. We have now had Giannis, Embiid. We've got multiple international guys. We're going to have an international work of the year. Might have an international MVP. You've got Joel Embiid who had MVP buzz throughout the year probably until this injury really was going to be in the top five. I think it's coming. It's possible that a few years from now the three best players in the league could be all international. Embiid, Giannis and Luca. Right, and if I had to nominate two that might become the face just because of their personalities and I would say probably Luca and Embiid. Luca's because he's white. I think that will work in his favor too. Like he did for Bird. And like he did for Steve Nash. And by the way Denver fans will be mad as back to back segments. We leave them out of Western Conference contenders that are like, what about Yolkich? What about Yolkich? He's like, he's like Giannis. Just the laid back, you know what I mean? Thank you for listening to the Hoops on Fox podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a five star review letting us know what you think of the show.