Before texting Stephen A. Smith to defend Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan once employed the same tactic to push down LeBron James hype in 2005

Michael Jordan and Stephen A. Smith are connected once again in media nowadays since the six-time NBA champion texted the veteran sports journalist defending why Magic Johnson is the best point guard in the history of basketball over Steph Curry

But this wasn't the first time that Michael Jordan tried to meddle with the narratives. Back when LeBron James was in just his second year in the league, experts like Stephen A. Smith were already forecasting his remarkable trajectory, cementing him as one of the league's best even at that early stage.

"I'm at the NBA All-Star Weekend in Denver a few years ago and I had-- to say that LeBron James may have been the greatest 20-year-old that I had seen cause his body, mass, etc, etc," narrates Smith.

In 2005, the host of ESPN's First Take was surprised when a long black car stopped in front of him, thinking something awful would happen to him, only to discover that two NBA superstars were inside the vehicle.

"I was driving down the street, I thought it was type of drive-by that was about go on. Some big black sedan, stretched sedan, came rolling up, slowed down when it saw me," said Smith. "The window opened up and Charles Oakley was sitting there smiling at me and I saw a little finger looking at me and say-- and all of a sudden a head peeked out and it was Michael Jordan."

A puzzled Stephen A. Smith got intrigued about what the 10-time scoring champion would do to him. Jordan just wanted to speak with Smith on his recent comments about LeBron James.

"Michael Jordan said, 'Don't you ever say something like that again. Dont you ever do that Stephen A. Six rings, Stephen A. Can he get one please?"

Michael Jordan is dubbed as the most insecure superstar because of his actions

Dubbed as the best player in the history of the NBA, Michael Jordan truly knows how to market himself and put an excellent narrative to basketball stories around the league.

With what he did with Stephen A. Smith downplaying LeBron James and defending Jordan, the author of the throwback post has something interesting to say about the former Chicago Bulls guard.

"MJ is the most INSECURE superstar EVER," said Uncoverting The Truth in the social media platform X. So jealous in fact that he had to bring up the fact he had 6 rings and LeBron had 0. LeBron was in the middle of his 3rd year in the league. Imagine a 42-year-old MJ being this jealous of LeBron. No wonder the media had been against him for so long. MJ probably put in a call."

As of today, LeBron James is two championships behind Michael Jordan but recently broke the NBA All-Time Scoring Record surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.