LeBron James summed up the difference between him and Michael Jordan in addressing the Northern Iowa basketball team's NCAA Tournament exit.
The Cleveland Cavaliers star was asked how he would respond if he was on a team that blew a 12-point lead in the final 44 seconds, presumably in a single-elimination contest such as the Big Dance, USA Today Sports' For the Win reported.
His answer is telling.
For the Win reported the response as typical LeBron.
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"This isn't the most inspiring pep talk from James -- is everyone on Northern Iowa just supposed to quit now? -- but then again, he isn't really known for his inspiring leadership."
James has been under the social media microscope recently for his social media activity that hints he may be thinking about leaving Cleveland for a second time, even causing an uproar when he unbranded the official Cavaliers twitter account and refused to comment on it the day it happened.
James has a reputation of being a pouter and shifting blame when his teams have failed to win championships, even though he does have two, another For the Win article reported.
Jordan, meanwhile, built his reputation on a high school folktale, even if the folktale's facts are a bit askew.
The story goes that Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team as a sophomore, and he used that as motivation to become Michael Jordan.
He wasn't cut; he simply was placed on the JV team. His anger manifested itself in the fact that another sophomore, a 6-foot-7 player named Leroy Smith did make the varsity, according to Yahoo Sports.
Still, that was enough to drive Jordan to work obsessively on his skills that took him to North Carolina and eventually the Chicago Bulls, where Michael finally won his first of six NBA titles during his seventh year in the league.
James became a villain of sorts when he left Cleveland the first time in the summer of 2010 to join a super team also consisting of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami.
Ironically, had Bosh and Wade joined James in Cleveland, the Chosen One may have come to rival Jordan as the greatest of all time in the eyes of many. After all, free agents, such as Toni Kukoc and Dennis Rodman came to Chicago to join Jordan.
But because James left Cleveland, he had to seek help elsewhere to win a title instead of bringing that help to the Cavaliers.
It's surprising but not unfathomable that James says he'd quit in the face of such adversity. It would be unfathomable if Jordan were to say the same thing.
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