LeBron James often gets compared to Michael Jordan, but former NBA player John Salley believes Magic Johnson is a more fitting comparison. While comparing James and Johnson, though, Salley hilariously took a shot at them for complaining to the officials all the time.
“We compare him to Michael Jordan, I think we should compare him to Magic Johnson,” Salley said on Undisputed. “He’s the same height, he plays point guard —Michael didn’t play point guard, Michael never came up and played point guard — plus, he looks to the ref to give him a lot of calls, very Magic Johnson, screaming when he goes to the basket.”
(starts at 1:39 mark):
Considering LeBron has not been getting a lot of calls in recent seasons, I can understand why he tends to complain so much nowadays. Earlier this month, a fan showed every call that the NBA referees missed on LeBron this season, and when you see it, you get why he seems to be complaining more than ever before.
As for the comparison with Johnson in general, it is a fair one. LeBron is certainly more Magic than Jordan, as he doesn’t have that score-first mentality that the Chicago Bulls icon had. He wants to get his teammates involved, and Magic himself once said LeBron is closer to him than Jordan.
John Salley Thinks LeBron James Could Play Till He Is 45
Earlier this week, LeBron made history by becoming the all-time leader in minutes played in the NBA. Despite all the wear and tear that comes from having played for that long, Salley believes James could keep playing for many more years.
(starts at 0:21 mark in the above video):
“This kid was designed to play basketball,” Salley said. “… He came out, he got his body strong, he’s smarter than everybody else. I think he can play maybe as long as Tom Brady, maybe till he is 45 years old. Right now it looks like he’s stronger than he’s ever been. Right? He looks better than he did when he was 28.”
I’m not sure if he looks better than when he was 28, but he is probably stronger now than he was back then. As for playing till he is 45 like Tom Brady did, I’d have major doubts about that.
He is 38 years old now and another seven years seems like a long shot. Unlike Brady, James relies on his athleticism as well and he will inevitably start slowing down once he gets to his 40s. LeBron has made the seemingly impossible possible in the past, but this would be a bit much even for him.
Salley Apologized To LeBron For Saying Carmelo Anthony Should Have Been The 1st Pick In 2003
While Salley is a big fan of LeBron now, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, he didn’t believe that James should have been the number one pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. Salley felt Carmelo Anthony should have been the first pick of the draft, and he apologized to James for that.
“I listen to you when you champion LeBron, I take my hat off to you. You know I had to tell him? I have, like, wine for him, a whole bunch of stuff and he looked at me funny. I told him, I said, ‘I thought Carmelo should have been the No. 1 pick and I had to apologize. I was 100% wrong. I had no idea you were gonna be this good.’”
Carmelo was a great player and is one of the greatest scorers the league has ever seen, but he was nowhere near as good as James. Salley realized he got it wrong and was man enough to admit that in front of LeBron.
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