LeBron James once touched on his on-court battles with Michael Jordan as a teenager. James first hit the court with MJ in 2001, when Jordan was preparing to make his final comeback and LBJ was just 16 years old.

“The dude looked like Jesus Christ to me,” James said in a video released by Uninterrupted. “He was Black Jesus to me.”

LeBron didn’t play on the same team as Jordan that day, but he did get the chance to team up with his hero two years later. Not long after he was drafted in June 2003, James was invited to Jordan’s annual summer camp at UC-Santa Barbara.

“We used to play around 9 p.m. The camp would end..and we would stay along with the college kids that he would invite,” James said. “We would get a good-ass run in for about an hour, an hour-15. I was on the same team with MJ and we didn’t lose a game.”

Now that is the secret MJ footage the world needs next. Here’s hoping someone was filming that day, and that we don’t have to wait 22 years to see it.

James was a Bulls fan growing up and believes he would’ve been a perfect fit alongside Jordan. Sadly, they only just missed each other in the league, with Jordan retiring just a few months before James was drafted.

Danny Ainge Believes Jazz Players Lacked Faith

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2022 BY BONNY JOHNSON

Danny Ainge wasn’t at a loss for words when describing his first impression of the Utah Jazz when he first joined the team last December.

“What I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn’t believe in each other. Like the whole group, I think they liked each other even more than what was reported, but I’m not sure there was a belief,” said Ainge during a news conference on Monday. “When we got to the playoffs, I thought, well, this is a team that has had some disappointing playoffs, so I thought maybe they’re just waiting for the playoffs. I gave them that benefit of the doubt, but it was clear the team didn’t perform well in the playoffs again.”

The Jazz lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 2022 Playoffs.

“I think individually they have resolve, but I just don’t believe collectively they did. So you see a lot of players trying to do it on their own as the belief in one another wasn’t as great as teams I’ve been on and around that I’ve seen.”

As a result, Utah traded All-Star player Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a bunch of players and picks during the offseason.

“Previous results kind of told us who we were,” Zanik said. “It wasn’t just a one-year thing. This was a good three-year period where we won a lot of games and had a lot of success, but we were tapped out from a potential standpoint, and we needed to reset that.”

Gobert and Mitchell had mended their relationship after Gobert’s faux pas during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Jazz never made it further than the Conference Semifinals.

The Jazz held on to veteran players Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, and Bojan Bogdanovic

Utah Jazz Deny Report Saying They Traded Donovan Mitchell Out Of Spite To Cavaliers

The Utah Jazz trading Donovan Mitchell to the Cavaliers caught the NBA off guard this offseason.

Rumors of the Cavaliers’ interest had circulated, but sources had told various outlets that the Knicks remained the clear frontrunners.

In the wake of the surprise trade, a lot of speculation, and finger-pointing, took place, dissecting what led to Mitchell ending up in wine and gold.

One theory is that the Jazz front office, frustrated with the Knicks executives over things such as showing up to their playoff game, took a lesser offer from the Cavaliers out of spite.

Utah executives are shooting that one down, ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on the Lowe Post Podcast with Ian Begley (hat tip Real GM).

“I’ve seen some reports, forgive me I can’t remember who said ‘Well, the Jazz were upset Donovan Mitchell maybe wasn’t all-in forever with Utah and as punishment we’ll send him to a place he doesn’t want to go do,’” said Zach Lowe on his podcast.

“Emotions can play into this. I’ve been assured by the Utah side that ‘No, look, we’re mature people. Yes, we were upset with particularly the Mavs’ game incident, but we’re not going to make decisions based on those kind of things that now happened four months ago or whatever. We’ve made the best deal possible.’”

Never say never, but smart and veteran executives work to keep emotions out of most decisions.

The NBA is a cold, hard business at times, and a lead executive will have moments where logic and what is best for the team will overrule that emotion.

It’s debatable if Ainge and the Jazz made the right call, would you rather have two unprotected picks from a Knicks franchise that has been turbulent in recent decades, or three from a Cavaliers team now set up with a strong young core that could be a force for five years or longer?

The same applies to the pick swaps, between the Knicks and Cavaliers, which team is likely to finish with a worse record than the Jazz in four or six years?

The Utah Jazz made their call and went for the volume of picks farther out.

It will be years before we know if that was the right call.

But it was not one made out of spite.

Warriors Floated Idea of Trading for Kevin Durant to Steph Curry

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 BY CHRIS HECKMANN

The Golden State Warriors floated the idea of trading for disgruntled superstar Kevin Durant to franchise cornerstone Steph Curry.

“There was a conversation internally about ‘If he was available, would you?’ I was never hesitant,” Curry said in a profile with Rolling Stone.

“Every team has those conversations, and obviously, they’re gonna call me and ask, ‘How do you feel about it?”

The Warriors were rumored to have interest in a reunion with Durant after the Brooklyn Nets’ star requested a trade out of the Big Apple.

However, no trade materialized, and Durant eventually rescinded his request.

The Warriors won two NBA championships with Durant and Curry.

However, Curry and the Warriors also won two additional championships without Durant.

The cost of trading for Durant, who turns 34 in just a couple weeks, was reported to be exorbitantly high.

Curry and the Warriors will look to repeat their 2021-22 season with another championship run in 2022-23.

The Best NBA Player Reactions to 2K23

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 BY NICK JUNGFER

NBA 2K23 has dropped and players around the league have some thoughts.

Here are the best reactions:

Seeing myself in 2k really crazy I ain’t going to lie🤣🤣🤣🤣…like wow