Michael Jordan and LeBron James never played a single NBA game at the same time, but there are many stories about the time they shared the court and lighted it up with their incredible talents. Back in the early 2000s, when LeBron was in his teens and Jordan was getting out of the league, they met on the court and did special things.
Unfortunately, there are no videos of those showdowns, but those who were there saved a lot of great memories. Two years ago, LeBron recalled these runs, remembering how happy he was to play with Jordan, even when he didn’t think he would be able to play due to his age.
Talking with Maverick Carter on Uninterrupted, the King touched on this, recalling how he felt during that time and what happened during those runs.
Bron says he got to play pickup against MJ when he was 16 years old.
MJ hit the game-winner and reportedly said "That's why they pay me $33M to do this." 😤
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“Antoine Walker was talking so much s**t back and forth. They didn’t let me play for the first hour. I am sitting there and waiting my turn. I didn’t even think I’d get the opportunity to play. The only reason I got to play is because the guys in the league, after a few hours, some of them get tired.”
“They’re like ‘yeah I am done with this sh*t. Young fella, we need a fifth, you wanna play? For me to be 16 years old and a sophomore in high school, playing with my favorite player of all time. It was like, this can’t be real. If you pinched me, I would be like I hope I don’t wake up.”
Maverick Carter would tell a story of what happened with Jordan after he hit a game-winner and let people know that’s what he’s paid for.
“Mike and Antoine, they were kind of the captain of each team and they were [trash talking], and Mike hit a game-winner just like on Russell, same as Utah, and he was like, ‘that’s why they pay me $33M to do this.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Bron then talked about his time at the Santa Barbara Camp hosted by MJ, where he teamed up with His Airness and never lost a game.
“That’s Michael Jordan’s camp in Santa Barbara. We were definitely on the same team then. I was a rookie in the league and I went to Santa Barbara to MJ’s camp. We used to play around 9. The camp would end, he would let the kids watch the first game around 8:30 and then he’d ask the kids to leave.”
“We would stay along with the college kids that he’d invite to the camp and we would get a good ass run in for about an hour, hour 15. I was on a team with MJ and we didn’t lose a game.”
Having Michael Jordan or LeBron James on your side is an automatic win. Imagine having them both on the same team… That was madness knowing everything we know now. Even though they never got the chance to face off in the league, at least we know that they went at it in pickup games and even played together for a while. If only we had the chance to see that.
