LeBron James Closer to Being the Next Scottie Pippen than the Next Michael Jordan

As the Miami Heat blew their 15-point fourth-quarter lead against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2, I'm sure Scottie Pippen might have been reconsidering his stance on who is the greatest basketball player of all time.

Have you ever seen MJ's Chicago Bulls do this in an NBA Finals game? No.

Prior to this historic collapse, Pippen said LeBron James may be the greatest player of all time. He said Jordan may have been a better scorer, but "King" James keeps his teammates more involved and is a better defender.

The way Pippen was comparing LeBron to his former teammate, you had the feeling that the concept of greatness (at least in Scottie's mind) was based on talent alone.

But as Thursday's NBA Finals game proved, greatness is not based on talent alone. It's a lesson that Pippen should have already learned from Air Jordan.

It also involves a certain mojo that propels a team through tough times and refuses to let it lose.

I don't know what exactly that mojo is. If I did, I would be Pulitzer Prize winner right now.

All I know is Jordan had it when he was winning championships for the Bulls. If LeBron had it in Game 2, the Heat would be leading 2-0 in the series right now.

He will need the mojo to lift Miami through this hangover effect and to the promised land. But until then, he will be nothing more than an extremely-talented athlete who never led his team to a championship.

Not unlike Pippen.

The fact that Pippen would call LeBron the greatest basketball player of all time spells out the reason he couldn't win an NBA championship without MJ: He didn't have the mojo.

He never learned from Jordan's example that it takes more than just pure talent to obtain the Larry O'Brien trophy. And Pippen was talented.

But the MJ-less Bulls (not to mention the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers) needed more than Pippen's talent to become champions. And in terms of having that mojo, Pippen couldn't win without Jordan.

In terms of talent alone, LeBron may be the greatest player of all time. But without the mojo, LeBron is doomed to be the next Scottie Pippen rather than the next Michael Jordan.

And unfortunately for LBJ, Dwyane Wade is no MJ, either.