Chris Broussard on LeBron's clutch three, Compares King James to Michael Jordan | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Christmas, I'm not sure if you were in the family of people who thought LeBron just wasn't a key player, but he was everything else, but if you did this, that would calm down a little bit, I wasn't into that. family of people, look, let me tell you okay, there was one reason and one reason only why LeBron James is some people who have considered him non-

clutch

and this is a credit to the influence of this man, he is our friend and colleague Skip Bayless and me. I say this sincerely because every weekday of LeBron James' career he has been beating the drum that he is not in the

clutch

and that is before there was any evidence of it.

I remember being on TV with skip when LeBron made half a Fort the day after LeBron scored 48 against Detroit. 29 of Cleveland's last 30 points and 25 in a row in a win and he was 22 in a playoff game, five right, two in a finally reached the finals and I skipped. I didn't know how excited he was because he thought there was no way. The jumpers will be able to find fault with this performance and he noted that I guess LeBron missed the regulation jumper at the end, you know, to win, yeah, something like that, so look when, so when LeBron against Dallas and who works on the moment of his career. top five against four and then dallas that made skip look like a prophet and a lot of people say skip knew something no one else knew and that's when the narrative really took place but if you look i know you have the staff the problem is The six or seven years since the Dallas series is that the narrative has never abandoned LeBron, this is what I understand.

I understand the point you're ma

king

about the influence of the media in general and one of the most famous and prominent members of the media, but it's also due to LeBron's almost slavish dedication to the right game and how different what we saw is from the player who many people thought would be the next Jordan in Kobe Bryant and the dichotomy between the two that has emerged. made people decide that LeBrons don't hold on it's because LeBron will make the game winning assists it's because in the most important moments LeBron doesn't have to shoot that's the other reason this has followed him, it's always been to keep Jordan John Paxson did the same, who looks at that play where John Paxson scored the winning goal to win the final.

Jordan wasn't even involved in the play he caught the ball in the back six zone to Frank Johnson passing to Scottie Pippin Pippin. I took it to Horace Grant so that John Jordan wasn't even involved and then, of course, Steve Kerr, of course, the double nickel that we need to use to get to know, but, like the media wasn't now, but and, so, I say until we just have these snapshots of Jordan and then we have this instant daily commentary on LeBron, but the most pressure that LeBron has been under in his basketball career in game six in Boston when, if they lose that game , they split the big

three

and it goes 45 15 and five by the way, some thresholds that Russell just reached last night to become just the third player in a playoff game to reach all

three

thresholds.

He wilted at 62 LeBron in the biggest game of his career and then those are the only two people until Russell last night the guy won Game 7 of the final CC with a jump shot essentially against the Spurs, he had a jump shot to set it up with less than 30 seconds left at 37 and 12 and then made two free throws to further ice the game and there were still questions like to me that's always been crazy like the guy who has proven it time and time again last night is just another example of this for Michael Jordan he has set the bar so high that no one can live up to it Kobe Bryant couldn't do that with five championships the people destroyed Kobe's game destroyed Kobe's personality destroyed Kobe is a killer coach teams don't want to play with them oh it's selfish this is what we do and how we do it to the best players LeBron we've been doing this since he supposedly gave himself the nickname

king

so this didn't happen with someone on television, this has happened since we anointed him. him when he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when we started covering him in high school Charles, that was the beginning of eating, let's eat this legacy before it's built, well, he goes to his hometown team, he performs incredibly there, simply Chosen, but when he made the decision, he made a mistake in the way he did it.

People forget about the charity, yes, all the money he was involved with the Boys and Girls Club with the decision, but because he did it, we ate that up. They made this statement that we're going to win one championship, not two, three, four, five, they ate it up and then we have another vision of what we had in game five against Boston. That happens again with Dallas, now for most people that is an offense. which you will never recover from, because we will never let him be as good as Jordan, he will never be perfect in the Finals, so we just devoured LeBron's legacy, so it's not about one person, it's not about the old LeBron because he's the greatest player of all time, this guy, LeBrons, this has been his life, his life has been about criticism and he's been trying to disprove that now, as far as the championships that we've built, they're at the level of Jordan, that is an argument for later, but him. being key I told Nick this morning that you can't have the resume that LeBrons had unless your key is like I don't know what people are seeing during the game when you scored in this series just that it's two on two if LeBron doesn't get them 20 in the

first

half, but who is it that doesn't hold on well, there is no confusing definition of what Clutton is, yes, you know, but even in what they call clutch and I think you read them before in the last five seconds. of a game in the playoffs, these are playoffs in regulation or overtime.

LeBron is sick and he keeps going, he flies to the shots from the edge of the window to beat LeBron, six of thirteen, forty-six percent for those who hit the buzzer, Michael Jordan, 5 of 11, that's 45, three that ring the bell, Kobe. his last shot he made in that situation was in 2006, he missed his last six attempts that way, if you add in potential game tying shots, Kobe missed his last 13 attempts against those types of people, so he took them flat out , so it took here there is nothing wrong with taking it, I agree, but because it takes some common sense to deal with it, it shows you how, then, and like everyone, and that's why I think one of the reasons why Jordan recently I can't point to a time when he actually did it.

He didn't perform incredibly well in the clutch or in a big moment LeBron had the Dallas magic he had a tragic 84 Johnson Larry Bird scored eight points in two games of his

first

Finals appearance Kobe with the aerial balls in Utah or even in Phoenix , you know, design insights It's like a lot of those narratives, if someone is beating that drum every day, they could have followed them like that and failed, and there's one last thing I'll say about this before we continue. This is why last night's game was so perfect, because this year. when people like, is this LeBrons best offensive season in year 15?, people have found new ways to take advantage of it. free throw line block saver game winner jump shot like a check check check on what was your biggest game of the year Chris Broussard, as always, thank you so much for coming thank you for watching subscribe here to get the latest from the show Also be sure to See more of the best clips from First Things First or watch some segments from our other shows on fs1.