No question the era was different for both the NBA and the media, but Jordan would never have pulled this crap at a similar stage of his career, and as far a retiring and coming back or to baseball, that was after he was the unquestioned best of all time, truly the King. Lebron is no where near that. You know it's not like the Bulls were loaded with huge talent either and Jordan got them the championship, over and over and over...but it took time.
What really annoys me about this whole fiasco is that he could do it simply as a brief news conference...however I will change my tune if he jumps ship and spends most of that hour honoring Cleveland and his teammates, that will make me eat my words.