Although LeBron James never faced Michael Jordan on the court in the NBA, James was once teammates with Jordan when he was coming into the league.
James recalled a story on UNINTERRUPTED’s “WRTS: After Party” with Maverick Carter and Paul Rivera on the time he was photographed alongside Jordan on the court. The photo went viral and created rampant speculation on why the two were on the same court.
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According to James, the photo was taken when he was first entering the NBA as a rookie at one of Jordan’s camps in California. James and Jordan were teammates during a pickup game and, unsurprisingly, dominated the competition.
Someone find the footage of this scrimmage with LeBron and MJ. pic.twitter.com/oapWDVWw0q
— ThrowbackHoops (@ThrowbackHoops) March 17, 2020
“That is Michael Jordan’s camp in Santa Barbara,” James said. “We were on the same team then. I was a rookie in the league and I went to Santa Barbara to MJ’s camp and we used to play around 9 p.m. The camp would end, he would let the kids watch the first game around 8:30, and then he’d have all of the kids leave and then we would stay along with the college kids that he would invite to the camp. We would get a good ass run in for about an hour, hour-15. I was on the team with M.J. and we didn’t lose a game.”
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. » 😤
(via @uninterrupted) pic.twitter.com/U6Kpn2qElS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 19, 2020
James also discussed the time he played against Jordan when he was 16 years old. During that game, Jordan eventually hit the game-winner and even had the same follow through on his shot as those famous game-winners in the NBA Finals.
With “The Last Dance” documentary now concluded, players and fans alike saw firsthand how competitive Jordan was given the interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. For a player like James, he witnessed that firsthand at a younger age.
