Charlie Kirk’s sudden shooting at a Utah university has shoved a lot of his old takes back into the spotlight. And one of the oldest debates he loved to stoke has popped up again. Media coverage of the attack showed the event unfolded while Kirk was taking questions from a crowd, and subsequent reporting framed the incident as an assassination that sparked a massive manhunt. In the days after that shock, clips of Kirk debating basketball culture and the Michael Jordan versus LeBron James conversation began circulating again. And people noticed how those clips land differently now that his voice is gone.

Kirk’s GOAT rhetoric is the sort that gets clipped and replayed because it mixes history with provocation and leaves room for argument. In one viral reel Kirk went back and forth with a fan about eras, scoring, and finals records. He ended a point bluntly with “The NBA’s gone down. It’s a joke”. That line and the parts of the clip where he argues Jordan’s six championships against LeBron’s Finals losses have long been fodder for sports talk and memes. But now, a certain reaction from James’ close friend is what makes this story stand out.

The fresh twist is that Dwyane Wade has quietly added his own reaction to one of those Kirk clips. Social activity shows Wade liked a reel uploaded by @charliekirk1776 that includes Kirk’s back-and-forth about Jordan and LeBron. The reel itself records Kirk prodding the fan with questions like “Do you think it’s easier to score points in 2025 or in 1995 in the NBA?” and makes the Finals point with lines like “Six and 0. How many has LeBron lost?”. Wade’s thumbprint on the clip reignited conversation because he remains one of the most respected voices who has intimate ties to LeBron yet has repeatedly named Michael Jordan as his personal GOAT.

That reaction from Wade cuts two ways because his public comments on the GOAT debate are actually well known and consistent. Wade has said more than once that Jordan is his GOAT and that his upbringing in Chicago shaped that view. Moreover, in a 2022 interview he made clear, “Michael Jordan is my GOAT… He will be my GOAT until the day I pass away”. At the same time Wade’s long friendship and four seasons of shared championships with LeBron show he is not hostile toward James. His social gesture here looks more like a nod to the conversation Kirk started than a personal knock on LeBron. And that nuance is what many fans are debating about right now.

However, while he obviously is close friends with LeBron and his family and has seen the Lakers phenomenon in his prime firsthand, Wade’s conclusion on the GOAT debate seems clear. The like also lit up old threads about context in the GOAT fight. Kirk’s reel leans hard on era comparisons and Finals records, lines that can be replayed as tidy sound bites or picked apart for accuracy. In the clip Kirk asks, “Where was defense more emphasized, in the early 90s NBA or today?” and argues that differences in era matter when comparing raw totals.

Fans and analysts point to other measures too, from playoff moments to longevity, and remind viewers that simple tallies do not settle the argument. Wade’s small public reaction reminded people how personal this debate is for many players who grew up idolizing Jordan. Further, does a mere like confirm that Wade is actually supporting Kirk’s take, or can it mean something similar?

Kirk’s death and the way his old comments are circulating again are reshaping how fans read a like from a former teammate of LeBron. The like is not a full endorsement so much as a signal that the debate is still alive and that even close friends can have different answers. Which brings us to the bigger reasons Kirk has repeatedly aimed at LeBron and the NBA and why those criticisms keep finding an audience.

Why did Charlie Kirk go after LeBron James and the NBA?

Kirk built a pattern of targeting the NBA when it intersected with politics and culture. He often used the Jordan versus LeBron frame to make broader points about the league. He argued that Jordan’s era brought the NBA to global prominence and contrasted that with what he sees as today’s decline. A view he summed up bluntly when he wrote that “In one hypocritical fell swoop, the ‘woke’ NBA became a ‘joke’”. That line captures Kirk’s core complaint that the league’s embrace of social causes changed its identity for the worse.

He zeroed in on LeBron partly because LeBron is the league’s most visible activist. Plus LeBron’s comments around events like the Hong Kong controversy and anthem protests collided with Kirk’s worldview. When players knelt in Orlando and LeBron said, “I hope we made Kaep proud. I hope we continue to make Kaep proud every single day”, Kirk and others framed those actions as performative politics. Which, in their view, alienated fans and muddied sports coverage. For Kirk the symbol mattered more than the nuance.

Kirk also threaded money and geopolitics into his critique. Arguing the league compromised with China after the Daryl Morey tweet controversy and that this showed institutional weakness. He pointed to apologies and conciliatory language as proof that the NBA prioritized markets over principles. Using celebrity apologies as evidence that the league had backed down. Combined with his complaints about changes to how the game is played and marketed, these themes made LeBron an easy focal point for Kirk’s broader narrative that sports should stay out of politics.