Rumors

James has discussed his pursuit of the hallowed milestone umpteen times by now. On Thursday, though, he waxed poetic on the record more extensively than ever before. LeBron called Abdul-Jabbar’s long-standing record one of the “greatest” in sports and likened it to the historic 1998 MLB home run chase and the slugging boom of that era. “I think it’s one of the greatest records in sports in general,” said LeBron. “I think it’s up there with the home run record in baseball. Just one of those records that you just don’t ever see, or think, will ever be broken. And then you end up seeing guys — Hank Aaron had had it for so long, and then you see the likes of (Sammy Sosa) and Mark McGwire and those guys start climbing that. It was like ‘Oh, man, this thing could really happen.’ And you start really watching it and paying attention to it, and you’re seeing Sammy or Mark McGwire go up to bat and you’re like, ‘They got a chance to knock it out every single time.'”

Clutch Points

Sam: Those who read me here and elsewhere know I’ve had a great fondness for Rose the player and person. What I appreciated most—even though I cannot ever say we were close as he didn’t have many friends outside the game—was the way not only he handled the brutal series of injuries, but on top of that the doubts about himself and his character, the condemnation of him personally about things he said more than he did. I never once--as I’ve seen many players strike back angrily at anyone in the media or public--despite what at times seemed like obvious attempts to bait him or embarrass and humiliate him for sport seen him respond in kind. I saw this with Sammy Sosa and he retreated completely. Rose never did. He would answer his meanest inquisitors in the media and community with the same respect he showed his most fawning admirers. It’s an admirable trait and showed the true nature of his character advanced from his critics. He was often naïve with the media and an innocent in many ways, really only dedicated to playing basketball.

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