Interview with ESPN radio on Friday morning, NBA Hall-of-Famer Scottie Pippen said Michael Jordan "is probably the greatest scorer to play the game" but LeBron James "may be the greatest player to ever play the game."

That set off an explosion on Twitter.

Pippen softened his stance later, writing: "Don't get me wrong, MJ was and is the greatest. But LeBron could by all means get to his level someday."

Jordan Spieth is going to be late for his high school graduation ceremony today, if he makes it at all. The teenager has another round of golf with PGA Tour players at the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas.

The ceremony for Dallas' Jesuit Prep's graduating class of 246 seniors starts at 4 p.m., at an auditorium on the SMU campus, about 20 miles from TPC Four Seasons.

As I have pointed out numerous times on UFR, in my opinion, Michael Jordan is the best and greatest basketball player who ever laced up a pair of sneakers. It’s hard to believe anyone would dispute that, although I could imagine a Kareem or Wilt or Oscar or Russell fan out there somewhere that might argue. Maybe even a Bird or Magic fan. But, I would think at least 90% of knowledgeable NBA experts would agree with me.

Nobody that I know, or have ever heard, would even consider putting LeBron in MJ’s category. And, the reason is two-fold. 1) Jordan won six championships, James zero and 2) James hasn’t done what he’s done nearly as long as Jordan did it.

The point I’m sure Pippen was making was that physically LJ might have an edge on MJ – and maybe he does. But, there have been a lot of incredibly gifted physical specimens in the NBA. Jordan isn’t the only player who could jump as high as he did or shoot as well as he did or defend as well as he did.

What ultimately made him uniquely special is that along with all those great talents, he eventually figured out how to make his teammates better too. And, when he finally got good teammates and he matured into playing with them, he became the best and so did his teams.

Grant, who won three titles with the Bulls before leaving for Orlando, didn't always see eye-to-eye with Jordan personally. But he still recognizes Jordan's greatness, and he questions what Pippen was thinking when he said "LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game."

"Wow," Grant said in a radio interview. "Pippen's my man, and we'll always be close, but I totally disagree. LeBron is going to be one of the top players to ever play the game, but Michael Jeffrey Jordan -- who we bumped heads at times -- is I think, the best basketball player I've ever seen."

Pippen faced a backlash from Bulls fans after his comments, and at first he went on Twitter to defend himself, telling fans that he knows more about basketball than they do.

"For all of you that don't know , I played the game you keep watching and cheering," Pippen wrote.

But when the criticism didn't relent, Pippen softened his tone.

"Don't get me wrong, MJ was and is the greatest. But LeBron could by all means get to his level someday," Pippen wrote. "Every NBA generation has a new set of stars and LeBron is there as the best all around player in the game."

Yes, LeBron is the best player of his generation. But that's a long way from being better than Jordan.