Not too many people remember the first time LeBron James and Michael Jordan were teammates on the basketball court. While some think it was the time he attended Jordan's summer camp as a rookie at Santa Barbara, their first encounter on the basketball court actually happened two years earlier.

As much as Jordan stans hate to say it, back when his Airness was planning a comeback in 2001, he knew James was going to be the real deal. At 16 years old and a sophomore in high school, James got an invite to attend one of Jordan's pickup games, which included some of the biggest names in the NBA.

LeBron James had to wait his turn

Back in 2021 during an episode of Uninterrupted with good friend Maverick Carter, James recalls the time when he was invited to play with Jordan. James, who was the biggest name in high school, was never used to waiting deep in the bench to get in the game. But on that day, he said he had to wait at least an hour before he could play.

“For me when I got there, they didn't let me play for like the first hour. The only reason I got to play was because the guys who were in the league got tired,” James said.

The “guys in the league” James was referring to were famous in their own right. He said guys like Paul Pierce, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, Jerry Stackhouse, and Ron Artest were in attendance. However, one player he'll never forget was the captain of the team opposite Jordan: Antoine Walker.

In case you didn't know, Walker and Jordan are good friends. In fact, they even gambled for 36 hours straight on the night Jordan was to announce his return to the league. During one of the pickup games, LeBron James said Walker and Jordan just kept taking so much trash at each other.

In typical Jordan fashion, he'd hit the game-winner over Walker and told him: “That's why they pay me $33 million to do this.”

Unfortunately, there were never any videos of any of these games. So for now, we'll just have to take James' word for it.