2011 NBA FInals: The Starkest of Contrasts in Their Words: MJ V LeBron James

Scottie Pippen opened Pandora's Box with his statement that LeBron James might one day be the greatest basketball player of all time.

This obviously meaning that Michael is currently still the greatest but that LeBron might one day be considered the best.

Say what you want about the two for their on-the-court play. It's difficult to make comparisons of players from different eras especially when they have different playing styles.

Unfortunately, the comparison will always be made. LeBron is the player of this generation and Jordan is the player of the last.

However, there are two particular quotes that bring on the starkest of contrasts and show how different these two players really are.

In case you needed a reminder of LeBron's Game 6 debacle of a statement which has now infamously been reposted in the Twiiterverse, blogs and Facebook for the umpteenth time:

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"At the end of the day, all of the people that were rooting for me to fail, tomorrow they'll have to wake up and have the same life that [they had] before they woke up today. They got the same personal problems they had today and I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do." 

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Basically meaning that LeBron's life is great and amazing. He's rich. Fans are poor, small, puny losers.

This is something of an elitist statement. Yeah, we know it by heart by now.

But in case you needed to be reminded of what type of person Michael is and what type of player he was, he said this little gem during his second retirement speech in 1999.

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"My responsibilities have been to play the game of basketball and relieve some of the pressures of everyday life for people who work from nine to five."

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If that isn't the perfect contrast between the two, I don't know what is.