All the hype surrounding The Last Dance has inevitably brought forth the perpetual debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. The ESPN docu-series detailed the type of mental fortitude Jordan possessed — something that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar lacks, according to his critics.
Kendrick Perkins, a former teammate of LeBron with the Cleveland Cavaliers, has chimed in on the debate. The 6-foot-10 big man brought up the rather hateful letter Cavs owner Dan Gilbert penned for James when the latter parted ways with Cleveland for the first time in 2010.
According to Perkins, the fact that LeBron was able to put this episode behind and eventually make his triumphant return to the Cavs speaks volumes of his character. Gilbert had some unsavory things to say about James in that letter, but years later, the now Lakers star buried the hatchet and made his comeback.
More importantly, the King brought the title to his home city in 2016 for the first time in franchise history.
For his part, Perkins was teammates with James for merely a few months. The former Boston Celtics big man joined the Cavs in the middle of the 2014-15 campaign to play 17 games with the team. Perkins then returned to Cleveland in the 2017-18 season for an extremely brief stint, suiting up for a grand total of just one game for the Wine and Gold.
Despite their limited run together, it is clear that LeBron James left quite an impression on Kendrick Perkins, so much so that Perk has gone out of his way to publicly defend the Lakers forward.
