Phoenix Suns wing, Mikal Bridges, found himself in the middle of a Tweet-storm after sending out a seemingly innocuous opinion about LeBron James during The Last Dance.
The Last Dance, the docu-series on Michael Jordan and his unbelievable run with the Chicago Bulls, has every kid who grew up on the NBA in the 90s on an intense sports and nostalgia high. It is almost as intense as the traveling circus alluded to in Episode 1. That’s where Phoenix Suns forward, Mikal Bridges, who wasn’t yet two years old when Jordan on his sixth NBA Championship in 1998, comes into play.
During the showing, Bridges tweeted out the following: “Nahhhh bron having 90 every game that series no cap thats on everything im sorry.”
This was in reference to how many points LeBron James would have scored if he played against the1986 Boston Celtics, essentially saying LeBron would have scored way more than Jordan.
If you extrapolate, you an say he claimed LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan and the “JORDAN IS THE GOAT” die-hards came to defend their one true deity.
At the time of this writing, the tweet has over 30,000 likes and 5,400 retweets. Compare that to the 51 likes and zero retweets we got on a tweet about Drake’s best album less than 24 hours later, and it is safe to say his opinion went viral, a saying that may completely change after this pandemic.
How much would Bron put up on the '86 Celtics? pic.twitter.com/zHJJgALUfG
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 21, 2020
Bleacher Report picked it up and turned it into a ridiculous-looking graphic and from there, the intensity of the internet took over.
Somehow, a relatively innocent opinion from a middle-of-the-road NBA player became ground zero for the LeBron vs. Jordan GOAT debate.
The pro-Jordan crowd claimed the 80s era of physical basketball made it much more difficult to score compared to today’s freedom-of-movement focused officiating.
LeBron backers pushed back, essentially saying the caliber of athletes back then was far inferior compared to today’s, and insinuated that James’ physical presence would have dominated back then.
Others just trashed Mikal for having the gall to express an opinion on the matter since he himself only averages eight points per game.
Unlike an NBA redraft, we can’t use hindsight to solve this one, and yet, much like today’s political landscape where hatred for the other side fuels the base, the Jordan camp hates LeBron and vice versa.
Somehow, I find myself in this weird position of thinking both players are incredible and each excels in different areas more than the other. However, I also fully understand nuance has no place in 2020, so I will crawl back into my cave and wait for everyone to maim one another before re-emerging.
As for Mikal Bridges, he seems to be taking his Internet fame in stride, tweeting, “Hows everyone doing this lovely day?? Lol”
Cheers to you, Mikal. Keep it up. And congrats in your 24 hours of Twitter infamy.