Generational debates are always fun fodder. Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson? Messi or Pele? Madonna or Beyonce? Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock?
With Lebron James once again saving his best for the postseason, the vocal minority that questioned whether James – and not Michael Jordan – is the best basketball player ever is starting to gain traction. Again.
It’s like asking if the iPhone is a better invention than the rotary phone. The iPhone impacts our lives more now but it also wouldn’t exist if not for the rotary phone. You can’t divorce one from the other, and that’s how I feel about comparing James and Jordan.
Both camps are arguing different things.
And, in a way, they’re both right.
To say that Lebron could pass MJ on the all-time list holds merit. The problem is that those making the argument commonly bring up points to debunk myths that the Jordan backers aren’t spreading.
Scroll through a twitter search during the Finals with Michael Jordan and Lebron James in the search bar and you’ll see distinct sides with distinct arguments: Jordan is greater than James because he is a greater winner. Lebron is greater than Michael because he is a superior athlete, thus a greater basketball player.
Even Jordan’s former adversary Bill Laimbeer has weighed in, “There’s no question I would take LeBron James,” Laimbeer said. “He can do more.” He isn’t wrong.
Lebron can guard every position and spot up offensively in all areas of the floor. He’s the swiss army knife of the NBA and comparatively a bigger, faster version of not Jordan but Magic Johnson. (ed. Note: LeBron admitted Wednesday that growing up he didn’t want to be like either. His idol was Allen Iverson).
In 1984 when Bobby Knight was advising who the Portland Trail Blazers should draft at #2 he chose Jordan. Legend has it that when he was told that Portland needed a center his response was “Well, play Jordan at center”. Knight was being somewhat facetious; With Lebron that answer is at least somewhat plausible.
James is a testament to not just how far the training of the modern athlete has come, but how the game has changed. He is the same size as one of the great power forwards of all-time, Karl Malone, but plays the game with the ball in his hand like Magic.
The trend in the NBA is now on interchangeable athletes with a high size to skill ratio. And no player makes for a better modern-day Frankenstein than James.
But just because he is bigger, faster and jumps higher than Jordan hardly makes him the greatest of all time.
Yet it’s James’s ability to impact his teammates that has made this comparison a conversation you can’t laugh off. This postseason he’s scored 30 or more points in 7 of 14 postseason games. In doing so, he now becomes the first player since 1966 to make it to 5 straight finals (along with his teammate and personal caddy James Jones, whom “the King” has now dragged to the finals in two different area codes).
LeBron five straight Finals. Jordan never did that. Magic never did that. Bird never did that. But James Jones has. — Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) May 27, 2015
James’s current teammate Kendrick Perkins weighed in, “The only thing that he’s missing is a couple more championships and then it’s a wrap. Right now we have arguably the best player to ever play the game,” the big man proclaimed.
The fact Lebron doesn’t yet have those titles is the argument against him, says Team Jordan.
Jordan’s greatness is his supreme and unwavering dominance. For all the claims of how efficient James is in all aspects of the game, his career PER is lower than Jordan’s- and that includes Jordan’s twilight Washington Wizard years when he was a shell of his former self.
Of those with the most games with 30 points, 10 Rebounds, and 10 assists the “big O” – Oscar Robinson has eight, Lebron has six, and Charles Barkley has two. Jordan doesn’t have any. Point for the Lebron supporters and Jordan deniers.
Except, Michael Jordan has more rings than all of those men combined.
MJ won the Finals MVP awards all six years he won a title.
And then there’s the reality that Jordan played in a far more competitive era.
James has a playoff record of 11-16 vs the tough Western Conference while Michael Jordan was 24-11.
Look at the list of hall-of-fame players Jordan beat in the Finals: Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Gary Payton all had title hopes dashed by Jordan.
And did I mention Jordan beat them all in six games or less? Checkmate.
Jordan had a strangle hold on the titles in his prime, only relenting to allow the Houston Rockets to win two while he was on a hiatus playing baseball.
It’s nearly impossible to convince those who grew up collecting Jordan’s sneakers and have the “like Mike” jingle memorized that Jordan isn’t the best ever. If you wear Jumpman underwear and have a Jordan wings poster over your bed, nothing I or anyone else says is changing your mind.
That’s because Jordan has been marketed so well and revered for so long that he has become an adjective. People are referred to as the “The Jordan of” their field.
That’s why we need clear, ambiguous definitions, definitions that carry over from sport to sport, position to position. To be the best QB ever you have to accumulate championships but that isn’t the equation for running backs.
In baseball the formula is almost purely stats-driven. If that were the case in basketball wouldn’t the greatest ever be a toss up between Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul Jabbar? Wouldn’t Oscar Robinson figure heavily on the conversation?
If it’s based on winning don’t Bill Russell”s 12 rings give him the conch?
Until we decide as a sports culture what controls we are applying in these thought experiments and if we are grading on a curve, nothing can possibly be solved.
Jordan and James are transcendent talents. Nobody in the post expansion era has dominated the win column like Jordan. Nobody in the post-expansion era has dominated the floor like James. They are incomparable talents so it’s futile to compare them to each other.
Unless we are going to agree on the common definition of what “greatest ever” means “his airness” versus “the King” will remain the great unsolved debate of all time.
Do yourself a favour – just enjoy them for what they are, the greatest of their time, and feel blessed that you lived in a time where you saw both of them and their greatness.
