Everyone has a take on the GOAT debate, and David Falk is no exception. Unsurprisingly, Michael Jordan’s longtime agent backs his former client, but he doesn’t stop there. Even though he considers LeBron James a top 10 player all-time, Falk adds a pointed remark that many see as a subtle jab at the Los Angeles Lakers superstar.
“I really like LeBron, but I think if Jordan had cherry-picked what teams he wanted to be on and two other superstars, he would’ve won 15 championships,” said Falk, per David Schaefer of Sports Business Journal.
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Fifteen championships is obviously an exaggeration. MJ played only 13 years before the two-year stint with the Washington Wizards. However, the 75-year-old former sports agent’s point is crystal clear: Jordan won organically, leading a core that was primarily built, not bought. LeBron’s route, built through free agency and alliances, remains a lightning rod in the GOAT debate.
Is LeGM actually real?
LBJ’s “LeGM” moniker began to make the rounds in 2014 when he returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to reports, James lobbied for the Cavs to trade No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins for Minnesota’s Kevin Love to assemble a win-now core with Kyrie Irving. After all, no matter how good Wiggins was coming in, he still needed to get his feet wet while K-Love was already a double-double machine who could space the floor.
Although James and others familiar with the situation didn’t explicitly acknowledge LeBron’s role in roster construction, they referenced it indirectly on several occasions. For instance, Stefan of the YouTube basketball channel Heat Check showed clips of the four-time champion taking credit for the Russell Westbrook trade in 2021.
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Moreover, Irving said this on the I Am Athlete podcast (H/T: Outkick): “Bron was like, behind the scenes… what’s his nickname that people call him? LeGM? He put the squad together. I wasn’t mad at him. I was like, ‘Alright, this is how it goes.'”
“There is no secret that James and (his agent Rich) Paul help build rosters,” OutKick’s Sam Amico said back in 2022. “They did it with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014-18, and they’ve been doing it with the Lakers since. Usually, it works out OK.”
Nonetheless, an athlete of James’ stature should have that type of pull anyway. After all, the Akron native cannot afford to waste his final years playing for a rebuilding team with no real shot at a title. The four-time MVP’s supposed efforts to acquire his preferred players do not always go as planned, but they reflect a calculated urgency to stay in contention while time runs short.
Did MJ stay in his lane?
As Falk alleged, “His Airness” chose not to meddle with front office affairs and let Jerry Krause do his job. Krause himself admitted that MJ “never once” pressured him to draft or trade a particular player.
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However, that’s not entirely true. Jordan Rules author Sam Smith wrote about Jordan’s repeated explicit requests to acquire players of his choosing directly to Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. For instance, the six-time champion publicly wanted Walter Davis, a fellow UNC alum. Jordan lobbied for a Horace Grant-Buck Williams trade because he never believed Grant would develop to become a trusted force at power forward.
Whether they admit it or not, superstars almost always leave their fingerprints on roster construction. Some, like Jordan, benefited from stability and a front office that ultimately delivered a co-star in Scottie Pippen, one he grew with over time. Others, like LeBron, have had to be more assertive, adapting on the fly and building competitive rosters across different franchises, often with less patience and more pressure.
In the end, comparing eras means comparing different systems, expectations, and paths to winning. The GOAT debate will always reflect those differences more than it resolves them.
