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LeBron doesn't stack up against NBA greats

1st June, 2011
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1st June, 2011
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NBA Hall-of-Famer and Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen recently had the audacity to state that Miami Heat star LeBron James could be better than Michael Jordan. Appearing on ESPN Radio’s ‘Mike & Mike in the Morning’, Pippen was asked to compare LeBron and his former Bulls sidekick.

“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play in the game. But I may go as far as to say LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game…”

Comparing players to His Airness or dubbing young stars The Next Jordan is nothing new, but for anyone – especially someone who played alongside Jordan – to state that he isn’t the greatest, is blasphemy of the highest order.

That’s not trying to take anything away from James.

The Miami Heat star is a truly great player, with a legacy that will only be strengthened if he is able to capture his first NBA Championship against the Dallas Mavericks in the next fortnight. When all is said and done for James, he will almost certainly be considered one of the all-time greats of the NBA, but he has a long way to go before being considered better than Jordan.

Here are five players who stand between James and Jordan, who he has to move past before even thinking about Jordan.

Kobe Bryant

The only active player on this list is the one current player who can undoubtedly claim to be above James.

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Ironically, both Bryant and James are two of the most polarising figures in the NBA today, they are either loved or hated. There is no middle ground with these two.

While it can be argued that James has supplanted Bryant as the best player in the league at present, Bryant’s accomplishments give him the edge. Bryant – at age 31 – has five NBA titles next to his name. James – at age 27 – has zero.

Admittedly, that looks likely to change, with Miami seemingly on track to claim the 2011 crown, but that would still leave James four titles behind Bryant. The Chosen One would need to win the next five NBA titles – including this season – to be at the same level as Bryant is now.

Julius Erving

Doctor J and James have amazingly similar career paths, up to this point.

Both players came into the league riding a wave of hype and publicity. Erving averaged 35 points and 20 rebounds per game during his college career, while James tore apart high school opponents, and was the reason high school basketball became a televised event.

They both stand out as incredibly gifted athletes – even in comparison to their NBA counterparts – and were capable of unimaginable feats on the basketball court.

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Irving was long known during his career as one of the best players to have never won an NBA Championship, before he teamed with another NBA star – Moses Malone – to form one of the most potent duos in history. Irving won his first NBA title in 1983, the first year that he teamed up with a fellow out-and-out superstar.

Sound familiar?

Oscar Robertson

The Big O is seemingly one of the most underrated players, from an NBA era gone by.

Robertson has an astonishing resume, he is a member of the Hall-of-Fame, an NBA Champion (1971), NBA MVP (1964), Rookie of the Year (1961), 12-Time NBA All Star and was voted one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history (1996).

The definition of an all-around player, which is why he is a great comparison for LeBron James, Robertson amazingly averaged a triple-double over the 1961-62 season, a feat that is still seen as one of the greatest in NBA history.

However, over their careers, the two have incredibly similar statistics. Robertson retired averaging 25.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game. James currently averages 26.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7 assists per game, over the course of his eight NBA seasons.

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Again, the similarity of the need for a fellow star emerges with Robertson. The Big O was never able to capture NBA glory during his time with the Cincinnati Royals, often falling to Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers.

However, before the 1970-71 season, Robertson was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, pairing him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, forming a tandem that was the key to the Bucks’ 1971 Championship.

Robertson still holds a slight advantage over James as a result of the 1971 NBA Championship, but once James collects his first ring he could replace Robertson as the greatest all-around player in NBA history.

Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen is one of the most talented and versatile players in NBA history. NBA.com states that Pippen “orchestrated an offense like a point guard, rebounded like a power forward, scored like a shooting guard, and defended on the perimeter like few others.”

These are all descriptions that could be applied to James.

While Pippen clearly has the lead in team success, and although he was a vital component of the Chicago Bulls’ six NBA Championships during the 1990s, he did have the benefit of playing alongside a certain guard from North Carolina.

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LeBron James leads Pippen in basically every other measurement, which can make up for the differential in titles, at least in the Pippen case. As great as Pippen was, he was never able to carry his Chicago Bulls team. Undoubtedly Jordan was the main reason that the Bulls won those 6 titles, and the fact that the Bulls only made the second round of the playoffs in the year when Pippen was the star gives this one to James.

James may not have led the Cavaliers to an NBA Title, but they were a perennial contender during his stint with the team, purely because of his amazing play. With Pippen at the helm, the Bulls were competitive at best.

Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson is arguably the second-best player to have ever laced up a pair of boots.

This comparison really gained more impetus once James joined the Miami Heat. At time this season, the Heat have called upon James to run their offense and he has looked like Johnson out there.

The two are incredibly similar in size and even their chosen styles of play, and if James adopted the role of point guard on a permanent basis, the comparison would be even tighter.

James undoubtedly has greater raw athletic ability than Magic, but he is currently nowhere near him in terms of being the better player.

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Magic played in ten out of twelve finals in his first years in the league. Five of those ten trips ended in championship glory for Magic and his Lakers. In his rookie season, Magic incredibly not only won his first title, but he was also named the NBA Finals MVP.

James really needs to rattle of a series of NBA Championship seasons between now and the end of his career, before he can realistically be seen to have passed Magic.

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