Rich Paul Says LeBron James Lacks "Selfish Gene" Unlike Kobe Bryant & Michael Jordan
There's an argument to be made that LeBron James' best basketball relationship over the course of his 23-year NBA career has been with his longtime agent, Rich Paul. The two have had a very successful agent/player relationship, negotiating major deals that have greatly impacted the league. That being said, Paul is coming to the defense of his client and friend, and his wording has some raising an eyebrow. In particular, it's Paul's comments about James in comparison to legends Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan that have people deep in thought.
Paul Says There's Never Been a Player Better than LeBron
Hosts of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, Gillie Da King and Wallo, hopped on the phone with Paul in a recent episode, and they wasted no time drumming up this age-old GOAT conversation. They asked Paul directly, "Who's the greatest player to ever play basketball?" Paul quickly answered "LeBron James," but when pressed to answer why James is better than Jordan, things took an intriguing turn.
Paul asked, "What does Michael Jordan do better than LeBron outside of scoring basketball, period? If the game was on the line with the last seconds to go, I actually want Michael to take the shot. Everything else, give me LeBron." Although Paul clarified he'd want James to have the ball to make the right decision in crunch time.
As the conversation went on, someone brought up the notion that James doesn't have a "killer instinct" like Jordan, insinuating that's why he's not the greatest. Paul defended James, stating:
"When you say he [James] didn't have it right, when you look at Michael, Michael grew up with a mom and dad in his household. When you look at Kobe, Kobe grew up with a mom and dad in his household. When you look at LeBron, LeBron's mom was 16 when she had him as a child. Now, he spent a lot of time by himself, right? Taking the last shot over three people is a selfish gene. That don't make you have a killer instinct. That's a selfish behavior. That's a gene.
"What I'm trying to explain to you, is that psychology, when you spend the time that you spent by yourself, quite naturally, you want to do what? You want to befriend people, and you've built a game off of making other guys look good. LeBron sees the past, and you scoring, just as much as he sees himself scoring. Which is why he's the only athlete to have other self-made millionaires in his circle, and not look down upon it, because he don't have that selfish gene."
"Michael Jordan is my man, through and through. So I'm not knocking Michael Jordan. But what I'm saying is, LeBron grew up making guys better. So quite naturally, he's going to always make the proper basketball play.
"Michael grew up playing against his brother every day. ‘I couldn't beat my older Larry, so when I finally beat him, that created no matter what, I'm taking this shot.' So it's not a knock to none of them, but when you talk about a basketball player, there's never been a basketball player born on anywhere on this God green Earth that's better than LeBron James at playing basketball. Now, if you want to talk about taking the 36 elements of basketball and stripping it down to one, which is scoring, give me Michael Jordan."
You can check out the full exchange below. But what do you think? Does Paul have a valid point about James being the best ever?
Related: Michael Jackson & Prince Beef May Stem from the Time They Shared a James Brown Stage
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
2026 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 8:55 AM.