One of the worst parts of the basketball discourse is the insistence in breaking star players into one of two categories: Jordans and Pippens. The first category is meant for players who can be a lead star and the second is for players who need to be the secondary star on a championship team.
It’s reductive and fails to account for an awful lot of nuance in that, often, it’s best to pair two stars who can each take the lead at times and handle various responsibility, but has become a favorite discussion point not just among fans, but talking heads and former players turned analysts. This discussion ramped up again on Wednesday night after the Bucks lost to the Heat to fall behind 0-2 in there series, as Richard Jefferson professed his belief that Giannis Antetokounmpo was a Pippen, not a Jordan.
Pippen himself scoffed at that notion — and dunked on Jefferson in the process by asking what player that would have made him — but things got even messier when ESPN’s Jay Williams chimed in. Williams asserted that LeBron James was once a Pippen to Dwyane Wade’s Jordan, but eventually learned to become a Jordan.
So LeBron was a Pippen with D Wade once. Nothing wrong with that until you get over the hump. https://t.co/exAjQ3uOW4
— Jay Williams (@RealJayWilliams) September 3, 2020
That, uh, didn’t sit well with LeBron, who decided to respond with frustration and confusion as to why he was being dragged into this, noting he’s never been anything but himself on the floor, not a Pippen or a Jordan.
Explain to me what the fux I gotta do with this subject matter! I’m over here minding my damn business preparing for Houston. And by the way I ain’t never been nobody but my damn self!
Shit!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 3, 2020
LeBron and Wade were, maybe more than any star duo in league history, incredible at sharing the lead role. Their first season they had nearly identical scoring output, efficiency, and volume, so while Wade was certainly more established at winning titles having already gotten one, it’s off-base to call LeBron a Pippen while in Miami. The insistence with comparing things to a specific situation like Pippen and Jordan is always going to be messy and, rarely, will fit totally.
There’s certainly something to be said about what Giannis needs to do — or who he needs around him — to be at his most successful come playoff time, but trying to wedge that into the Jordan-Pippen dichotomy is just tired. One day, maybe we’ll move past this, but until then, it’s if nothing else guaranteed to make some people very mad.