LeBron needs to listen to Jordan about shortening the season

LeBron needs to listen to Michael Jordan about possibly shortening the season if he wants to continue silencing his critics.

Jordan said he disagrees with LeBron (and Dirk Nowitzki and Eric Spoelstra) about shortening the 82-game season to protect the health of the players.

The news comes on the heels of a 44-minute game the NBA recently announced between the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets that will be held this Sunday. LeBron, Dirk and Eric said it’s not the minutes — LeBron said players could play 50 minutes if needed — but the number of games that needs to be reduced.

King James has not been shy about his feelings. In recent years, he said he wants to lengthen the All-Star break to give players more rest in an effort to prevent injuries, and it was reported that he planned to discuss the topic with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

Jordan, of course, called LeBron out this week and said he never had a problem playing 82 games and, if the season was shortened back when he was dominating the league much like LeBron is now, he would find somewhere to play to make up for that lost time. He said he would “never” shorten the game by four minutes either.

"your text"

“I love both of those guys but as an owner who played the game, I loved playing,” Jordan told ESPN.com during a telephone interview. “If I wasn’t playing 82 games, I still would’ve been playing somewhere else because that’s the love for the game I had. As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue.

"your text"

“But if that’s what they want to do, we as owners and players can evaluate it and talk about it. But we’d make less money as partners. Are they ready to give up money to play fewer games? That’s the question because you can’t make the same amount of money playing fewer games.”

Now, in his post-playing career as the owner of the Charlotte Hornets, Jordan said he’d be willing to discuss the idea of shortening the season if that’s what players want. He also cautioned whether it would actually happen, though, pointing to team owners who may not be willing to forfeit the revenue that would be lost by shortening the season by, say, two weeks.

In my opinion, LeBron & Co. need to stop with the complaining. If they want to earn the respect of their elders — and if LeBron wants to be among the greatest — he needs to play in an 82-game season. I’m not saying LeBron isn’t already right there in the conversation for the Mt. Rushmore of NBA players, but there’s enough arguments against him for why he shouldn’t be mentioned in the same conversation as MJ, namely that he left a team to seek out — er, take his “talents” — for help elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s a good argument, but LeBron should know better than to give more of his haters and doubters another reason to remove him from that conversation. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem…they all played in 82-game seasons. They also had a lot of help on their respective teams — more than LeBron had the first time around in Cleveland — but I guess that’s besides the point right now.

I’m honestly surprised LeBron would go public with this request. He’s still in his prime at 29 years old and even though he’s logged a lot of minutes for his age, he clearly has conditioning issues if he’s cramping up in big games on several occasions and is now calling for a drastic change like a shorter season.

LeBron, shut your mouth and play. You’ve got enough haters. It’s not wise to give them more fuel for the fire.