Haywood’s take? Two thumbs up.
Haywood, 40, played with Jordan in Washington. The 20th overall pick in 2001, he spent his first two seasons learning from the six-time champion.
Haywood also had the privilege of playing with LeBron James. They were teammates in Cleveland during Haywood’s final season in the NBA (2014-15).
“The experience of playing with LeBron was great because LeBron is really a great guy. He’s a great person,” Haywood said. “People always ask, ‘What’s the difference between playing with Mike and LeBron?’ Their leadership styles are different. Mike is going to be in your face and demonstrative. LeBron is going to be more calm. He’s going to try to let you find your own way. When he tries to tell you something, he’s going to be more passive-aggressive. But then genuinely LeBron wants to bring everybody together. He’s the guy that’s going to have everybody out to dinner on the road. Everybody, let’s go bowling. Everybody, [let’s] go to the movie. That’s the type of stuff that he does because LeBron wants to bring the whole team together. He wants that team dynamic to be strong.”
Haywood, though, took it a step further.
“He’s the most generous superstar I’ve ever played with,” Haywood said. “Listen, when LeBron got stuff, the whole team got it. He was sponsored by Samsung, he was giving us Samsung phones. I was an iPhone guy, and I still had Samsung phones. I was giving them away. Beats by Dre, man, I had every single color. He just made sure that his guys were taking care of. When the new [LeBron shoes] came out, he made sure everybody had multiple pairs [and] sent them to your family if you needed them. LeBron is a great person. That’s the biggest takeaway. LeBron is just really a great person, and he cares about his teammates. He is willing to share everything he has with his teammates. Some stars aren’t like that, but LeBron really is.”