LeBron James: Ring Doesn't Give Heat Star Right to Call out Dream Team

When LeBron James is done with basketball, he will go down as one of the greatest players to ever play the game.

But, the fact of the matter is, when you call out the 1992 Dream Team, you call out numerous Hall of Famers, including the greatest of them all, Michael Jordan.

James made sure to pay his respects to the Dream Team on Friday, but he also told ABC News Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden, per ESPN:

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The '92 Dream Team paved the way for all of us...We understand what they did for our game, but we also are big-time competitors as well, so if we got the opportunity to play them in a game we feel like we would win, too.

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In efforts to not single out one of the most controversial athletes on the planet, I'll also add that Kobe Bryant said things in a similar vein recently, causing Jordan himself to counter, "For him to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done."

Whether James or Bryant believe the 2012 U.S. basketball team could beat out the Dream Team is not the issue. The issue is that they shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

James even said the Dream Team "paved the way" for U.S. basketball, yet, in the same breath, he frankly disrespected it. After the words of James and Bryant, MJ must be banging his head against a wall right about now.

James' confidence has made him a champion and the best player in the world right now. But his ignorance and sense of entitlement continually gets him into hot water.

"The Chosen One" needs to understand that he doesn't just have "haters" for no reason. He left a city that worships him in Cleveland - doing so in a disrespectful manner - and he continues to show little humility.

James knows the game of basketball too well to be throwing around such words about the Dream Team. He needs to understand that Jordan - and many of Jordan's generation - are not only legends because of what they did for U.S. basketball.

They are legends because of how they represented U.S. basketball: with great honor.