During an interview with Sports Business Journal this past May, Michael Jordan's former longtime agent David Falk threw shade at LeBron James ' GOAT status. Falk boldly claimed that Jordan would've won a staggering 15 NBA championships if he had just "cherry-picked" his squads like James allegedly did.
It didn't take long for James' agent and close friend Rich Paul to hit back. In an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," Paul responded to Falk's claim by pointing out why James has already and clearly exceeded Jordan.
Paul argued that Falk's comments were invalid as Jordan never faced tougher rivals in his championship journeys. On the other hand, James was always the underdog in the Finals.
Moreover, Paul also mentioned how difficult it was for a player to focus on winning while constantly being hated. He believed it was something MJ had never experienced in his career.
"When you look at that, right, again the cherry-pick, I've discussed that. The two other superstars - Michael never had to leave. Michael's never been the underdog in any Finals. Not one time," Paul emphasized .
"Michael never had a 24-hour, 365 news cycle," he continued. "He never had shows built strictly to criticize him. People made millions of dollars criticizing LeBron James. That was their entire job. And when you talk about the difficulty of it all, Michael played for Dean Smith, Michael played for Phil Jackson and Michael had Jerry Krause."
"I'm the biggest Michael Jordan fan ever, love Michael Jordan, and I don't think Michael Jordan would've used the term 'cherry-pick,' so I'm not up here to discredit Michael Jordan," he added. "I think Michael Jordan transcended our game to a level that we all benefited from."
Apart from Falk's entire narrative, Paul was specifically insulted by the term "cherry-picking." For Paul, it's understandable that Falk will always side with MJ on the GOAT debate, but it's not necessary for him to use such phrases just to discredit LeBron .
In return, Paul further blasted Falk. He took a swipe at his fellow agent's work, implying that he never really had to work hard as he has always been backed by the big-name figures in the sport.
"The cherry-picking terminology of it all, coming from someone who literally had John Thompson, Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski supporting his business, putting superstar athletes in his lap. I think he was part of the cherry clan," Paul added of Falk. "I just thought it was very unfair and a little beneath David Falk for a number of reasons."
"We can't have revisionist history and we all want to determine who's the GOAT and who's the best and so on and so forth. But I just thought that was a little beneath David to say that."
The Jordan vs. LeBron debate has been going on for years. In fact, even James himself is no stranger to addressing this issue.
On more than one occasion, LBJ has already made it clear that he is not aiming to surpass Jordan or any all-time great.
Instead, he was just laser-focused on building his own legacy and winning as many championships as he could.
However, there was a point in time when LeBron felt like he had already become the rightful GOAT. It was after he lifted the Cleveland Cavaliers to a historic comeback after being down 3-1 in the 2016 NBA Finals.
In the end, there are those who will always pick Jordan over LeBron and Falk is certainly one of them.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
