The never-ending debate about whether Michael Jordan is a better player than LeBron James is at its peak right now after the two first episodes of ‘The Last Dance’ aired last Sunday, so naturally, everybody’s trying to chime in.
However, Jerry Krause, one of the people closest to Jordan’s prime gave his input three years ago about this matter, throwing a little shade at LeBron James for reportedly forcing the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade some players to try and compete with the Golden State Warriors.
The Bulls’ infamous GM during the dynasty years, revealed Michael Jordan never asked him to trade for any player, as opposed to LeBron who was reportedly constantly asking for help:
“I’ll say this about him, he never came to me and asked for other players. He never came to me and asked me to draft a player. He never came to me to ask me to trade for a player. Never once did that happen. Part of it was he thought he was so darn good he thought he could win without them, I’m sure of that. (…) Michael was smart enough to understand the organization, and he understood what we had to do as an organization. (…) He never complained to me,” Krause claimed back then, as quoted by NBC Sports.
LeBron has often been criticized by the ‘General Manager’ role he embraces everywhere he goes. As a matter of fact, he drew a lot of heat last season for the way the Lakers handled the Anthony Davis trade and how he allegedly tampered to get things done.
Still, the league has changed a lot over the years and now is more common seeing players change sides to try and win an NBA Championship rather than staying faithful to a single franchise throughout their careers. Also, LeBron has earned a reputation of being a great teammate and joining him almost granted you a chance to make the NBA Finals, so it’s hard to judge players for wanting to force their way to the King.
