lebron james

"I watch Jordan more than anybody, for sure," James told ESPN's Chris Broussard for a story in the upcoming issue of ESPN The Magazine. "But I'll watch tapes of AI, too. I don't take anything from AI. Well, I do -- his will. They say he was 6 feet, but AI was like 5-10½. Do we even want to say 160? 170 [pounds]? Do we even want to give him that much weight? And he played like a 6-8 2-guard. He was one of the greatest finishers we've ever seen. You could never question his heart. Ever. He gave it his all. AI was like my second-favorite player growing up, after MJ."

LeBron in ESPN The Mag
Roddick Check out LeBron James' full interview in ESPN The Magazine online now and on newsstands Friday. Story
What James loved about Jordan was the very attribute that he works to establish -- having no fear.

"MJ wasn't perfect. MJ had bad games. He had turnovers. He had games where he felt like he should've been better," James said. "But I think the greatest thing about MJ was that he never was afraid to fail. And I think that's why he succeeded so much -- because he was never afraid of what anybody ever said about him. Never afraid to miss the game-winning shot, never afraid to turn the ball over. Never afraid."

Despite two straight NBA titles and four MVPs, James is still afraid to fail.

"That's one of my biggest obstacles. I'm afraid of failure," James said in the interview. "I want to succeed so bad that I become afraid of failing."

Before winning a title in his seventh season, Jordan had to listen to critics say he was too much of a scorer and couldn't be enough of a team player to capture a championship. Before winning it all in his ninth season, James had to listen to critics who said he was too much of a team player and needed to take over games down the stretch like Jordan did.

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"The so-called gurus of basketball