LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have been mentioned in the same sentence a lot during the past couple of days. Even though many people could think it’s because the King is closer to overtaking Kareem on the all-time scoring list, that’s not the main reason why these two have been pitted against each other.
KAJ has criticized LeBron in recent times, especially his duality when it comes to social justice issues. Abdul-Jabbar has taken some big shots at James, and even though he apologized for that, many people believe there’s some beef between the former center and the Lakers superstar.
“It wasn’t my intention to criticize LeBron in any way. He has done so much for the Black community as well as for the game of basketball,” Jabbar said.
“We may not always agree, but I want to wholeheartedly apologize to LeBron and make it clear to him that I have tremendous respect for him. And if he can accept that, I’ll be very happy.”
Nevertheless, Magic Johnson has denied all those rumors. Johnson, who played for many years with Kareem and was responsible for bringing LeBron to Los Angeles in 2018, talked with TMZ Sports recently, touching on this issue. For the legendary point guard, there’s no beef between the two legends, assuring that they’ll ‘work it out.’
“I think they’ll work out,” Johnson said. “They’ll work out. It’s not that big of a deal. They’ll work it out.”
It’s unclear where Magic got this information from, but he has a great relationship with his former teammate and LeBron. The King isn’t one that will engage in a public back and forth with a legend. Kareem is entitled to his opinion and that’s it. As he said, perhaps KAJ and LeBron don’t agree on everything, but they have the ultimate respect for each other.
