It can get pretty exhausting when NBA fans constantly look to compare LeBron James and Michael Jordan. It doesn’t need an annual debate, but we’re not going to get into that right now.
That being said, LeBron did appear to provide Michael Jordan fans with some extra material on Sunday night.
After their first meeting nearly ended in a brawl, the Lakers and Pistons were in Los Angeles and hoping to avoid lingering drama from the LeBron-Isaiah Stewart altercation. And aside from the Lakers crowd booing Stewart at the line, it would have been easy to forget that near-fight even happened.
But with the Lakers up by five and 7.9 seconds remaining in the game, LeBron seemingly tried to troll the Pistons and put the game away with an eyes-closed free throw. Uh, about that …
Did Bron say he'd shoot with his eyes closed? 👀 pic.twitter.com/uUdOTofzvK
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 30, 2021
LeBron appeared to look over to Cade Cunningham and say he was going to shoot the free throw with his eyes closed. The shot that followed narrowly avoided being an airball, grazing the rim as the Pistons all shouted, “SHORT!”
Again, not to bring up the tired MJ-LeBron comparisons, but Jordan’s eyes-closed free throw went viral on Twitter last week. Jordan made his no-look attempt in 1991. So, it was pretty fresh on the collective conscious of NBA Twitter.
"This one's for you, baby!"
OTD (1991) Michael Jordan trolled a rookie Mutombo by shooting a free throw with his eyes closed.MJ finished with 37 PTS (7-7 FT) pic.twitter.com/fsuuYTJ0hU
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) November 23, 2021
I could only imagine the reaction had LeBron air-balled his attempt — something he’s done with his eyes open!
LeBron with his eyes open https://t.co/2Hkoa7BUoZ pic.twitter.com/zgN0hRyeZF
— Miguel Jordán (@PettyAirJordan) November 23, 2021
Still, the game was essentially out of hand there (though Detroit did have a timeout left), so why not? The Lakers won, 110-106. LeBron finished with 33 points.
