When LeBron James first laid eyes on NBA icon Michael Jordan, he couldn’t believe it.
In a new episode of UNINTERRUPTED’s After Party podcast, the 39-year-old basketball star described how he “literally couldn’t believe it” when the 60-year-old Chicago Bulls veteran was standing right in front of him. He first met the Bulls legend when he was a sophomore in high school.
I still can’t believe it was Michael Jordan when we first met. To me, the man resembled Jesus Christ. James explained on the television that he saw Jesus as Black.
The Lakers player went on to sаy that he had been in Chicago with James’s longtime buddy and manager, Maverick Carter, since they first met in 2006.
“Nobody told me that Mike lifted before he played,” James recounted, who, as a high school sophomore, didn’t know “anything about lifting” before the game. “We walk up there, and the first person I see is Charles Oakley.”
James claimed he initially “dapped up” on Oakley, a fellow Clevelander and legendary NBA player who spent 19 seasons with the Knicks. “Then Oak moved, and when he moves, Mike is sitting on the bench press,” said he.
“I was speechless,” James remarked. “Dude, I didn’t believe that was genuine. My dear, you have no idea. At first, I refused to believe Michael Jordan existed. So far, all I could see was that he was a TV character. It was then that I thought, “My God, I would have lived the life of my dreams if that man up there had taken me that day.”
After meeting the Bulls icon, James clearly went on to become a superstar like Jordan—he became the NBA’s all-time top scorer last February—just like Jordan.
James wept when his subject from “The Last Dance” announced his retirement from basketball in 1993 since he was such a huge fan of Jordan’s career. The idea of Jordan leaving still made a young James distraught, even though Jordan would return to the league in 1995.
One of the most pivotal moments in Jordan’s life was the announcement of his unexpecteԀ retirement from the NBA that followed the 1993 of his father, James Jordan. This was explored in depth in the HBO documentary. The star’s third consecutive NBA title with the Bulls was shortly followed by the announcement.
While watching the show, James posted on X (previously Twitter) on how moving the scene was for him.
I shed a few tears today. James, 35, tweeted during Sunday night’s broadcast that he was nine years old. “Just Couldn’t believe it.”
