Via Larry Brown Sports:
LeBron James is the reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP and considered by many to be the top player in the league. He has dominated this month and became the first player in league history to score at least 30 points on over 60 percent shooting in six straight games. Though James is playing outstanding ball, Michael Jordan thinks he has found a flaw in the Heat star’s game.
ESPN’s Wright Thompson wrote an excellent piece about Jordan ahead of the Hall of Famer’s 50th birthday on Sunday. The lengthy piece discusses MJ dealing with aging and harnessing his competitive drive. Jordan discusses how some of the current players would have fared when he played, and he said LeBron, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki would have done well. He also analyzed a part of James’ game while watching the Heat play the Jazz in Utah Jan. 14. According to Jordan, LeBron has a tendency to shoot jumpshots when forced left, and he drives to the hoop when he goes right.
“I study him,” he says.
When LeBron goes right, he usually drives; when he goes left, he usually shoots a jumper. It has to do with his mechanics and how he loads the ball for release. “So if I have to guard him,” Jordan says, “I’m gonna push him left so nine times out of 10, he’s gonna shoot a jump shot. If he goes right, he’s going to the hole and I can’t stop him. So I ain’t letting him go right.”
Business Insider shares visual evidence that seems to support MJ’s theory. This shot chart comes via NBA.com:
Based on that chart, James has taken 235 shots from the left side of the court, and 159 from the right side. Anything near the basket or straight ahead was not counted. While this chart doesn’t tell the full story — James could be on the right side of his court, go left, and shoot, and it would count as a jumper for the right side in these stats — but this still gives us a good idea of James’ tendency.
LeBron also shoots 44 percent on shots from the right side compared to 40 percent from the left. If MJ has this data, so should the rest of the league. I think I’ve even heard Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers mention it in the past. But even with this knowledge, James is still the toughest player in the league to defend. Something tells me MJ would have a hard time defending him anyhow. I wonder if this has anything to do with why MJ says he would take Kobe over LeBron.
H/T Business Insider
Original Story:
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February 16, 2013
He has no class on the court .
MJ finds a flaw in LeBron's game YET he says in the same breath that he can't stop him if he goes right and if he goes left, he NEVER SAID that he can stop LeBron going left BUT only hopes more times than not that LeBron when he forces him to his left, doesn't drive to the basket but instead takes a jump shot and miss.
In other words, Michael Jordan, the greatest to ever play the game of professonal basketball and one of the best defenders in his prime playing/guarding against LeBron James currently, can't stop LeBron James.
MJ's playing weight: 6-6, 195.
LeBron's playing weight: 6-8, 270.
A difference of 75 pounds. So exactly who is going to be pushing who to where he wants him to go?
MJ studies no other player.
I smell the fear of footsteps in MJ's words of LeBron James catching up or surpassing him with MVP's and NBA championships that will replace the greatest ever Michael Jordan.
And why does MJ study Lebron James?
Because MJ's eyes can't fool him and he knows in his heart that LeBron James at this stage of his career, is a better all around athlete and better all around player that he was.
No other player ever threatened the accomplishments of MJ and no one has ever challenged his legacy ads the world's best until now and MJ knows it.
As the old saying goes, no matter how good you are or think you may be, there is ALWAYS someone out there better than you......MJ is now with a front row seat watching and witnessing that someone.
Jordan would have spanked Lebron like everyone else. NO DOUBT!!!
betrayed the players during the NBA lockout. Michael Jordan forgot where he came from. We the fans made Michael Jordan what he is today. He betrayed the young players of today who looked at him as someone who would stand by them. Shame on him. I no longer have any respect for Michael Jordan. It's no wonder his team sucks.
Most right handed players do exactly what ordon says Lebron does and most left handers do the exact oposite. What's new .
He is still the best player now.
If any of the players from the past were playing now, everything from their strength and fundamental training, experience, and exposure would be altered and diffferent. These are such great likely variables, no comparison makes any sense beyond a thought of "What if or nothing more than Imagination."
That was Then. This is Now.
What MJ is doing, is what every player & coach(es) should do even w/o being prompted to do so before that's even pointed out for them the same as in a pick-up game, in the areas of noticing things that one can attempt to exploit, force a player to change or get a player off balance, force a player to do something that's uncharacteristic of his or her strength(s) or is his or hers noticeable habit(s, to be better prepared and reactive to another players habits, tendencies,and possible weaknesses worthy of strategic countering defensively or offensively. It's a case of thinking, planning, and countering an opponent.
Observations skills can teach a defensive player how to better play D on a player such as James, the same as lesson tht can be learned on the other end of the floor, and that will vary in some ways when it comes to other players. That just makes sense to do in the game now and always. Retrospective ideas are okay, and are not necessarily an attack or cut on a current player in a Scciety where opinions are always expected.