Let’s be honest: If you were the greatest of all time you wouldn’t bridle your words either.
Never one to shy away from speaking his mind, Michael Jordan took a moment during his Flight School basketball camp in California this past weekend to field questions from campers. Over the course of nearly seven minutes—as you can see in the video below— His Airness tackled a wide range of Jordan-related topics with his typical (and, by the way, totally justified) smug arrogance, his pathological competitiveness still on full display.
Among the debates Jordan attempted to settle was a question about who, in their respective primes, would win a game of one-on-one- Jordan or LeBron James?
On…Phil Jackson vs. Dean Smith: “If I could play one game, who would would I want to coach it? Dean Smith…Phil was lucky because I was taught the game by Dean Smith.”
On…the Pistons storming off the court after finally losing to the Bulls in ’91: “They felt ashamed about us beating them. I felt that was bad sportsmanship.”
On…the biggest trash talker he’s faced: “Probably Larry Bird. He talks a lot of trash—good trash, not dirty trash.”
On…Shaq stating the all-time Lakers team would beat the all-time Bulls: “I knew that one was coming…It’s a debate and the thing is we’ll never know. [But] I think we would’ve killed them.”
On…the Dream Team practices: “That was the best pickup game I’ve ever played in. My team was myself, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Larry Bird, and Chris Mullin playing against Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, David Robinson—and we killed them.”
On…drafting Kwame Brown #1 overall: “I, along with everybody in that [2001] draft wanted Kwame Brown because of his athleticism, size, and speed.”
On…playing against LeBron James: “Could I beat LeBron James 1 on 1? No question!”
And, just for the record, Jordan is absolutely 1000% right about that. No question. No debate (but feel free to do so anyways in the comments below).
