Lakers’ LeBron James Was Better Than Michael Jordan in Pregame Handshakes

Getty The Lakers will pair LeBron James with Lonzo Ball.

LeBron James passed Michael Jordan for fourth place on NBA’s all-time scoring list.

Heading into last night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, James was 12 points behind Jordan and scored his 13th point on a driving bucket just past the midway point of the second quarter to pass MJ.

For those keeping score at home, James finished the game with 31 points. As of today, his career James was 12 points behind Jordan headed into Wednesday’s game against the Denver Nuggets. He scored his 13th point on a driving bucket just past the midway point of the second quarter to pass Jordan. James drew the foul and hit the free throw for the three-point play.

James finished the game with 31 points for a career points total is 32,311 points in 1,190 games and 45,970 minutes. Jordan scored 32,292 career points in 1,072 games and 41,011 minutes.

While many are debating who is the greatest of all time between MJ and LeBron, here’s a question: Who had the better pre-game handshakes? MJ or LeBron

To be objective, the Chicago Bulls’ pregame introductions were the show. 

“I don’t know how they remember all this stuff,” retired NBA player, Devin Brown told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“And especially, you know, especially, LeBron because there were times with former teammates of ours that he would just go right through the handshake with everybody and everybody on our team and coaches and staff members, and i’m like, “I don’t, I have no idea how they all remember that stuff.”

Check out our Q&A via Scoop B Radio on LeBron James below:

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You signed a one-year deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2007. You played 70 of the regular-season games with The Land, you started in 20 of them and you averaged 7.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists, and you did score a season-high 20 points against the Sacramento Kings, and you almost messed around and got a triple double, you were three assists away from getting a triple-double against the Washington Wizards back in February of 2008. What are your recollections of playing in Cleveland, especially with LeBron James?

Devin Brown: Well, it was very cold, i’ll tell you right off the bat, it was very cold, but that another great time. Obviously when you’re playing with a guy like LeBron and we both wore headbands, this stuff is just funny, but you know, you’re sitting in the locker room, you’re watching stuff and you see someone with a headband driving up the lane, and there were times i’m like, “oh man, that’s me,” and then he’d take off from the free throw line and i’m like, “no, that wasn’t me, wrong guy with the headband”, and that was just a joke for the show.”

“But anyway, no LeBron, you know, the way he carries himself, the daily work that he puts in, you can see why he’s, I don’t even know how many years he’s been in the league, 15, 14, I don’t know, whatever. But you can see how he’s able to play at this level because he started that way back, you know, in his younger days. It’s not something where he played 10 years now and now he decides that he wants to take care of his body. He was doing that long before. There’s times when, you know, you’d show up to a practice an hour and a half before, and he’d already be in a full sweat, going through his workouts and things like that. That definitely sets the tone for your basketball program and those are things that he took serious, and those are things that really gave us an opportunity to do our best.” Brown continued.

“Now you can’t always have other players make shots or you can’t always get on LeBron about some of the plays that he would make down the stretch, as far as the correct basketball play, because I remember they used to hammer him pretty good about the end-of-game situations, “oh, you should take the shot. Oh, you should take the shot.” Well that’s not what we’re saying in the locker room. What we’re saying in the locker room and LeBron has the ball is “everybody be ready because LeBron is going to make the correct basketball play.” All right? So you know, playing and looking back at it and seeing, you know, just everything that he had to go through on a daily basis because, you know, a lot of guys in that locker room with Cleveland, you can go out there and stink the gym up. Guess what? After the game you’re able to walk out of there and you get your shower, you walk out and you’re getting on the bus and saying, “you know what? I got to get better next game.”

“Well that’s not what LeBron could do. LeBron would be in there doing interviews for about an hour afterwards, trying to explain to everybody, hearing all the questions. So he has a lot to deal with and for him to be able to do this after 15, 16 years, you gotta give the guy a lot of credit.” he concluded.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I want to ask, LeBron is methodical, I want to ask you, those handshakes, back in the day, how do you guys go through that process to plan the handshake. Walk me through that.

Devin Brown: Okay, so I wasn’t the hippest on our team, I’m more, you know “hey, it’s time to go in the game, let’s enjoy the game, let’s crack some heads, get a W.” I had one handshake, very basic, with LeBron, okay? But the rest of the guys, I’m going to give you a firm handshake and they knew that, so they caught on to that. So i’m just giving firm handshakes and they’re going through their spiel and everybody’s got all these different things and I’m sitting here going, “I don’t know how they remember all this stuff and especially, you know, especially, LeBron because there were times with former teammates of ours that he would just go right through the handshake with everybody and everybody on our team and coaches and staff members, and i’m like, “I don’t, I have no idea how they all remember that stuff.” And I’m being completely honest with you, I’ll give you a firm handshake and a nod and that means ‘let’s go out there and get a win’. But yeah, I give those guys credit because they had fun with that, and it was a big deal because we got a lot of press about that, so yeah, they had a great time with that, but yeah, I still, to this day, do not know how those guys remembered all that stuff.

GettyMichael Jordan holds the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy and former Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson holds the NBA champions Larry O’Brian trophy after winning game six of the NBA Finals with the Utah Jazz.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: But like, when do you rehearse it? Is it on a team plan? Is it after practice?

Devin Brown: Well that’s what I’m saying, every now and again in practice you would see a couple of guys saying, “okay, this is what we’re going to do,” or “hey, let’s mix it up,” or whatever, but it wasn’t all the time. I mean, I have no idea when they were going over that.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I always thought that was cool. Again, I was in college at the time and I’m looking, I mean obviously you know, I feel like that’s AAU culture infiltrating into the NBA, which is good, you know, as far as your homeboys, you guys got different handshakes, you give dap, you keep it moving. I mean, I remember when, it might have been him and Damon Jones in Cleveland, or it was LeBron and Wade in Miami when they had the mirror, the pretend mirror, right before the game, and he would look at his mirror and making sure they were straight.

Devin Brown: No, that was in Cleveland, that was him and Damon. That was definitely him and Damon. I remember them doing that when we were playing the Wizards on the road, obviously they did that a couple of times, but one of the ones that stands out in my mind is when we were getting ready to play the Wizards in Game 3, and they were doing that. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: To me, that’s awesome memory.

Devin Brown: Yeah, it is.