Quiet as kept, LeBron James has always chased Michael Jordan, even while losing an NBA Finals here or another there.
James has hid his pursuit of Jordan in the background — until now, finally embracing the chase for legacy and six rings.
During an interview with the Associated Press’s Tom Withers after practice on Tuesday — James made it clear that surpassing Jordan is the ultimate goal.
“It’s a personal goal,” James told The Associated Press on Monday. “I just never brought it up. It’s my own personal goal to be able to be greater than great. I think that should be everybody’s personal goal.”
“If you work for any company or you work for any designer or anywhere, you’re like, ‘Oh, I aspire to be that guy because he’s done it right.’ He’s the greatest and that’s who you look at,” he said. “So that’s always been my personal goal, to use the motivation he gave me as a kid and I’ll use it as motivation now as well that I want to get to where he is. That’s never changed. People kind of wanted to turn it into a conversation, but that’s my personal goal and that’s where I land at.”
The legacy is cemented, now it’s just about figuring where James will land on the list of all-time greats when it’s all said and done.