Stephen A. WON’T TAKE THE BLAME 👀 ‘LeBron’s negativity on the GOAT debate is on him!’ | First Take

Stephen A. WON’T TAKE THE BLAME 👀 ‘LeBron’s negativity on the GOAT debate is on him!’ | First Take

Gentlemen, take a look at this quote. So, speaking at Sports Business Journal’s conference earlier this week, Michael Jordan’s longtime agent, David Faulk, said LeBron is quote probably in his top 10 players of all time. And went on to say this quote, “I really like LeBron, but I think if Jordan had cherrypicked what teams he wanted to be on and two other superstars, he would have won 15 championships.” Michael Wilbon. 10. How about 10 to 12? 10. 10 to 12. Michael Wilin, are these comments fair or foul? Of course they’re fair. He’s his longtime agent. David Fox’s not a neutral observer. He’s a provocator. I’ve known him way more than half my life. Neighbor, news source for many years now. Friend, he’s a provocator. He’s there to agitate for Michael Jordan. Has anybody ever had a person do any better than David Faulk on behalf of clients? Uh, I think not. And so he’s not a neutral observer. He’s making this comment about his dear dear close friend advis the he was the adviser minty Michael Jordan. Would he have 15? Not 15. Would he have more? Yeah. The notion about LeBron. The reason I hate the goat conversation. It almost requires you to say something negative about someone. There’s nothing negative to say about LeBron. There isn’t. There just isn’t. The basketball nothing negative. If he’s one of the greatest of all time in any team sport, period. Is he Michael Jordan to people like me? Do you want to be David Faulk? No. Never going to be. I’m not going to say that LeBron has to be seen as better than Magic. I’m not going to say LeBron has to be seen better than Kobe Bryant. Not going to say it. So, if David Faul wants to say that as someone who is tag team with Michael Jordan for decades, he can say it. And the people are upset because it’s not good enough to say LeBron is one of the handful of greatest players ever. If that’s not good enough for you, too bad. Who wants to take it next? Perk. Let me say let me say this. LeBron James is the greatest player of all time in my eyes. And the reason being, and I’ve told you this a few times, Stephen A, Will Molly, is because it’s no other player in the history of sports that was under the amount of pressure like LeBron James since the age of 16. That’s why I put him over MJ. at the age of 16, the magazine being called the chosen one, King James, the pressure that he had coming into the NBA, the guys that were hating on him before he got to the NBA. And I’m talking about his peers, some of the guys on his teammates, guys that were praying on his downfall, and he has exceeded expectations. I have no problem with David Faulk comments though, and he’s absolutely right. Jordan would have had more championships if he could have handpicked some of the guys he wanted to play with. And we right and this is part of LeBron’s story as well. When it comes down to LeBron being able to run the front office and be the GM, he is able to pick the players that he wants to play with. He’s been able to go where he wanted to go. So, I mean, it’s part it’s part of it. But if Jordan had a a choice and if he could have played with or added a Charles Barkley or we played with a Clyde Drexler like yeah absolutely he would have had more championships. I have LeBron as my goat because of the pressure like no other player has ever been under in the history of sports. But I have no problem with his comments at all. I can find plenty of negative things to say about LeBron James. it with with with with without hesitation. I won’t, but I could. Let me stick to basketball and tell you this. He’s on the Mount Rushmore. He’s one of the greatest players to have ever lived. I have him number two all time. But I appreciated and respected your take, Will Bond, on Get Up earlier when you talked about Kobe needing to be in that conversation, Kareem needing to be in that conversation. I got no issues with that. But to me, LeBron James is number two all time. The thing that we have to understand that’s important about this conversation is when we debate the GOAT, the negativity of it comes from LeBron and his camp. Nobody else. When we say he’s number two all time, we’re appreciating the fact that of the thousands upon thousands of players that have played in the NBA since 1950, 1947, 1950 rather. Okay, LeBron James. There’s only one player we look at and we say definitively we think was better and that was that was Michael Jordan. What did I say to Rich Paul one day? You act like that’s an insult. Rich Paul’s response, it is an insult because that is how they have acted when it comes to the GOAT conversation. And that’s why a guy like Mike Wilbond has been on the number one show in sports television for the last 25 years. Congratulations to you and my man Tony Cornheiser. We’re number one in the mornings. They’re number one, period. They’re number one, period. We know our place. Here’s the deal. Mike Wilbond has said this publicly. I we we we’re not some PR machine for you. Didn’t you say that about LeBron and his kid? He said, “We ain’t some PR. You know, we going we going to watch what we watch and we come to Even in Even in saying that he’s the greatest you’ve ever seen.” Kendrick Perkins, you have said ain’t no damn PR machine. I’ll say what I mean and mean what I say. So, you just happen to feel that he’s the greatest. But you were recognizing the fact that they were trying to compel people to say he was the greatest. Michael Jordan didn’t say that about himself. Kobe Bryant didn’t say that about himself. Kareem Abdul Jabbar didn’t say that about himself. Bill Russell didn’t say that about himself. Tim Duncan didn’t say that about himself. Nobody said that. Nobody but him in his camp. Steph Curry hasn’t said that about himself. Steph Curry has never called himself the greatest shooter of all time. Ray Allen never called himself the greatest shooter of all time. Reggie Miller never called himself the greatest shooter of all time. Alen Houston never called himself the greatest shooter of all time. Nobody called himself the greatest in anything but that man and his camp. And then when we refuted in any way people like myself and Mike Wilbond and others when we walk the streets were haters. So the the debate and the vitriol and all of that stuff comes it comes directly from them. And as it pertains to David Faulk, let me say this one last thing. Who is David Faulk? Let’s remind the world of who he is. When we have a goat conversation, America, do you realize that David Faulk is in the conversation as the goat of agents? Yeah. In history. Yeah. David Faulk, who by the way was somebody that I buted heads with in the past, Mike, before we got to know each other better, before I learned the error of my ways because of his brilliance and and and then in the aftermath of all of that, we cultivated a very strong friendship. I got a lot of love and respect for this man. David Faulk is unquestionably one of, if not the greatest agent in the history of sports. And I know of no one. I’ve encountered no one in the sports agency industry who would refute that kind of assertion about him. They all black, white, and everything in between. They all say he he might be the greatest ever. Yeah, that is who said Jordan instead of LeBron. And yes, he did business with Jordan along with various other players. And he’s the kind of dude that’s going to always go with his guys cuz that’s how he roll. But it doesn’t make him a liar. Well, I said he’s not he’s not supposed to be objective. He’s not. He has never been. He He’s not. And so we have to consider the source used to be a phrase in the culture that people understood and respected. I’m not sure it is anymore. But Perk, I love the point you make. While we disagree fundamentally, I love the point you make about expectations. There’s no doubt you’re right about that about the expectations he had to meet. I mean, Michael Jordan was selected third in the draft. He he didn’t have the same set of expectations coming in to the NBA of of of LeBron. No, no one has. But there’s so many other factors for me that put Michael Jordan way over the top. I’ll tell you what’s interesting. Just I’m not a big social media guy. And this bothers me that there’s so many sites and so many things that are harshly critical of LeBron in a I’m talking about just basketball now. You don’t ever see that with Michael. the fear and I do mean fear from his own peers when you hear the testimonials are sort of amazing but I I I didn’t really I don’t want to get too far back into that Stephen they to me you made the important point the men you’ve mentioned none of them say I was the greatest I was the greatest I had these conversations with Kobe Bryant and Michael and Magic and they always will say wait a minute so did I they point to other guys as you know and say wait wait wait Kobe and Michael would say, “Wait a minute. He didn’t win as many championships with Jerry West. Hold on. You better mention Kareem.” They would all mention Bill Russell. So, the notion that anyone is saying, “I’m the greatest.” There’s one guy in the history of sports I give total pass to saying I’m the greatest. And that’s where GO goat comes from. Muhammad Ali. He’s the only one who gets to say I’m the greatest. Ali invented the conversation. He was and to me still is the greatest because he didn’t just change his sport. He didn’t just change sports. He changed the world. Changed society. He changed the nation’s position on war. So Muhammad Ali is the goat and he can say I’m the greatest. Everybody else needs to defer. Let’s leave it on that note. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon and Kendrick Perkins join Molly Qerim on First Take to react to Michael Jordan’s former agent’s comments on the GOAT debate between Jordan and LeBron James.

0:00 Wilbon’s context
2:08 Perk’s thoughts
3:48 Stephen A. has things to say
5:00 Who makes this a negative thing?
7:20 Stephen A. on David Falk
9:09 Would a GOAT call themselves a GOAT?

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