Rich Paul is LeBron James's agent, and he is also the agent of many NBA stars. Recently, when he was on the Stephen A. Smith Show, he talked about LeBron James's accomplishments in the basketball world. When asked how LeBron James can win more championships and surpass Michael Jordan and Kobe, Rich Paul said LeBron James doesn't need to.
Rich Paul said "No, no, no, somebody's talking, maybe in another show I watched, but it's talking about Apple worth $2.9 trillion and Microsoft worth $3 trillion." If LeBron, Michael, and Kobe Bryant were in a room, they all belonged here. ”
Stephen A. Smith is a well-known LeBron James black fan, and he is known for criticizing LeBron James. However, after listening to Rich Paul's comments, he stated that this was the most accurate thing Rich Paul had ever said, and that it was to the point in many ways.
LeBron James, who has four championships, Michael Jordan, who has six championships, and Kobe, who has five championships, have become figures on the same level. In terms of historical status, doesn't the same grade really seem out of place?
LeBron James has 21 seasons in his career, reached the Finals ten times, won four championships, four Finals MVPs and four regular season MVPs. He has been selected as an All-Star 20 times in his career, and is the NBA's all-time scoring champion. Let LeBron James, who has only four championships, look like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in history.
LeBron James is in his 21st career season and is currently averaging 24.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. It's hard to imagine that this is 39-year-old LeBron James. Many players have retired by the age of 39, and even if they are still playing in the NBA, they are just a water cooler player on the bench. However, LeBron James is a starter.
The championship is basically the basic criterion for measuring the historical status of a star. Many fans and media believe that if LeBron James wants to be the greatest player of all time, then he must surpass or equal Michael Jordan in the number of championships. However, for some Michael Jordan fans, he is an unsurpassable existence, winning the championship six times in the finals, and such a winning rate is enough to kill any superstar in seconds.
Rich Paul explained why LeBron James is more in the spotlight than Michael Jordan, and Rich Paul said he doesn't personally believe that the number of championships is the ultimate goal of these debates. Rich Paul said if it's all about championship rings, then Bill Russell is a goat because he's won 11 championships.
Rich Paul said, "Michael went above and beyond the game, and when Kobe came, Kobe was a silhouette of Michael." That's everything, and that's good. ”
"But LeBron is the first player to have to deal with a 24/7,365 sports news cycle and opinions from people who don't even have the ability or expertise to give effective opinions. ”
"Except that's not really going to do what you want me to do, I'm going to decide what I want to do, and we both know that's not good, right?'"
"Then, you have the environment created by this sports society, so now you have to object. This is something Michael has never dealt with, as his harshest critic is probably Peterwich. ”
"I just think LeBron's antlers are platinum and Michael Jordan's might be gold. Why? Because he has to be on a par with Mike. Who does Michael have to compare to?"
Rich Paul has a bit of a strange point, but there is some truth to what he says. After all, they live in a different era of media, and Michael Jordan will not have many people criticizing him in that era. However, in this day and age, there is a lot of media criticism of LeBron James. Moreover, most of these media critics of LeBron James have never worked in basketball, and they have received an annual salary of more than one million dollars, or even tens of millions of dollars, by criticizing LeBron James. Stephen A. Smith, who once relied on criticizing LeBron James, received a contract with an annual salary of up to $10 million.