The NBA All-Star game last night provided a lot of legendary moments. Along with an incredible All-Star game, the NBA honored the 75 best players of all time, a list they had announced at the start of the season. And before the ceremony, two of the best players on the list linked up, creating one of the most iconic moments in NBA history.
Before the ceremony, Michael Jordan and LeBron James met up and shared a hug together. The two had a conversation and seemed to be enjoying their conversation with each other. It was a truly special moment, one that fans had rarely seen from the two legends, and fans reacted quite positively to their brief-yet-incredible encounter.
Jordan interacted with several other people there, including challenging Magic Johnson to a 1-on-1 game. He also greeted young superstars Luka Doncic and Karl-Anthony Towns before the game, showing that Jordan respects the current generation of basketball.
LeBron James went on to have an incredible All-Star game, as he made the game-winning shot to make sure his team came out on top. LeBron reached into Jordan’s bag of tricks, hitting a Jordan-esque fadeaway to win the game and continue Team LeBron’s All-Star game-winning streak to 5-0.
After the game, LeBron James spoke about his interaction with Michael Jordan and what that meant to him. LeBron noted that he grew up idolizing MJ, but he hasn’t had too many opportunities to meet Jordan, so he knew he had to make the most of his time with his childhood idol.
LeBron James said his game-winning fadeaway was inspired by Michael Jordan and he talked about what he’s meant to his career. pic.twitter.com/89Vn5XTrGh
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) February 21, 2022
“To shake the man’s hand who inspired me throughout my childhood. Haven’t had much dialogue with him in my 19 years in this business. But part of me wouldn’t be here without MJ’s inspiration… I didn’t want to waste that opportunity because we’re just not in the same building a lot, and haven’t been in the same building a lot throughout my career. It meant something to me.”
Clearly, LeBron was quite moved by the opportunity to meet his childhood hero. And the two interacting the way they did was a big moment for the basketball world. The two have been at the epicenter of a very heated debate over who is the greatest of all time, so to see them interact so amicably was a refreshing change of pace.
We hope that going forward, we can see LeBron James and Michael Jordan interact more regularly going forward. Both players are icons of the sport and have done a lot to further the game, and their interaction will send a great message to future generations of sports.
