Lakers News: Pundit Finds Interesting Angle To Compare Michael Jordan, LeBron James

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With the NBA offseason now truly in a dead period upon the conclusion of the FIBA World Cup, the conversation about which player, between legendary Chicago Bulls Hall of Fame shooting guard Michael Jordan and current Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA small forward LeBron James, is better has naturally become top-of-mind in hoop head conversations.
To that end, Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bovada Casino asked FIBA/Andscape journalist Greydy Diaz about comparing an interesting element of both players' basketball impact: their footwear.
How do @KingJames and MJ’s shoe brands compare? @GreydyDiaz and @ScoopB break it down! 🗣️🎙️👟 pic.twitter.com/yvTNamVjk7
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"When you look at LeBron James and you look at his sneaker collection, a lot of people often make the Michael and LeBron comparison," Robinson said. "Not my go-to, but I am curious, just from your perspective as an influencer, like when you look at the evolution of LeBron's [sneakers]... are they more of an athletic shoe or can they blend as a chill shoe also?"
"It's an athletic shoe," Diaz opined. "There's no way you're going to catch me rocking a LeBron outside of the court... To me, they're basketball sneakers. Jordan Brand... a lot of them are lifestyle sneakers or have become lifestyle sneakers, but I cannot say the same thing for LeBron James."
"I love them on the court but outside of the court no way. They're too bulky, too big. It just doesn't really fit my aesthetic and what I want to do in terms of how I dress," Diaz said.
"The first shoe to me was a lifestyle shoe, the very first one," Robinson offered. "But the II, to me, was an athletic style one like the Barkleys."
James' sneakers generally have been designed to maximize his efficacy on the hardwood, and contain his listed 250+ pounds of pure muscle from the worst fallout possible during high-impact landings. Jordan's have always been sleeker, in part no doubt because his game was a bit craftier and less purely about muscling through contact than James' was for the first half of his career (James takes far more jumpers than he did in his athletic prime, no doubt in part to preserve his body from so much contact down low).
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Currently also a scribe for Newsweek, Hoops Rumors, The Sporting News and "Gremlins" director Joe Dante's film site Trailers From Hell, Alex is an alum of Men's Journal, Grizzlies fan site Grizzly Bear Blues, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others.