Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time. He just is, don’t try and argue with it.
One may look at the stats and argue Wilt Chamberlain was a more dominating force, Magic Johnson was a better team player, or Bill Russell was basketball’s greatest winner, but the stats fail to fully show just how Jordan managed to will the Chicago Bulls to victory.
When he finally retired after a few lacklustre seasons with the Washington Wizards in 2003, it seemed like his place as the NBA’s number one would be secured forever.
In Lebron James, we have the greatest athlete to ever walk onto a basketball court, if not the greatest athlete to grace any sport, possibly the best stat-sheet accumulator ever and the only modern day player who has a legitimate chance of dethroning Jordan.
LeBon will overhaul most, if not all, of MJ’s statistical totals, mainly due to the fact Jordan entered the league two years later than LeBron because he played in college, and didn’t play for four-and-a-half seasons through a combination of injuries, retiring “for good” before returning with the Washington Wizards, and spending a season playing basketball with the Looney Tunes.
As long as LeBron’s back doesn’t break from the residual damage of carrying the Cleveland Cavaliers for so long, or he decides ‘taking his talents’ to the NFL is the only thing left to do, James should end his career with an absolutely unfair amount of points.
But MJ’s greatness isn’t defined by his ability to stuff the stats-sheet consistently for so many years.
Jordan was the most homicidally competitive person who ever lived, where every day he went out to rove beyond a shadow of a doubt he was the best.
If a six-year-old in the stands told him he sucked, Jordan would take this as a slight against his reputation and proceed to drop 55 points on the opposition, before approaching the kid after the game and asking if he sucked now, only satisfied when the kid was in tears admitting Jordan’s greatness.
This attitude made him an absolute nightmare to play with, he mentally broke at least two teammates and punched another in the face, but also meant he would never allow himself to get beaten by anyone, ever, whether that be a casual golf meet or game six in the NBA finals.
That is why he has six championships, six Finals MVPs and five regular season MVPs (and he was robbed of at least three more), along with 10 scoring Championships.
LeBron doesn’t have the same desire to win as Jordan. That isn’t a slight against James, because Jordan’s desire to win was ridiculously extreme, and, frankly, a little over the top.
You can’t argue with the results, but just look at Jordan’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech, where he spends 10 minutes reflecting on how much better he was than everyone else in the room and pondering how anyone could ever dare think he wasn’t the greatest instead of being grateful for the honour:
No one can doubt James’ desire to win and the the fact he’s dialed it down a notch for MJ’s excesses has made him a much more likable and well-adjusted human being.
But this isn’t an argument about who is the better human being, it’s about the better basketball player.
A big part of Jordan’s unanimous support as being the greatest of all time is his tremendous popularity, which continues to this day. LeBron will never be as popular as Jordan, as too many people still haven’t forgiven him for ‘The Decision’ and leaving his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.
The only way to recover these fans would be for him to return to Cleveland, win seven consecutive titles, cure world hunger and join Luke Skywalker and blow up the Death Star. And even that might not be enough.
So for LeBron to catch up with Jordan he can’t merely (which by itself would be a sensational achievement) be as good as MJ, because Jordan’s popularity will ensure people remember him as better if that is the case: he’s going to have to be better.
For many years, LeBron was compared unfavourably to Jordan in terms of playoff performances and clutchness.
Since winning his first championship with the Heat, these criticisms have been silenced, as he made clutch shots and buzzer beaters galore, and his previous clutch moments were ‘rediscovered’, where once they had been conveniently forgotten to fit the narrative of ‘LeChoke James’.
However, Jordan’s clutchness is so legendary, so unquestionable in the eyes of basketball fans, that a thousand three-point buzzer beaters won’t be enough to give LeBron a higher clutch reputation than Jordan, so LeBron will have to compensate in other areas.
At this moment in time, LeBron averages 27.5 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game. He also has four regular season MVPs, nine (soon to be 10) All Star game selections, seven All-NBA first team selections and, most importantly, two Championship Rings, for which he was Finals MVP in both triumphs.
And he only just turned 29, meaning that, without injuries, he could be playing for at least another seven or eight years, and for a good portion of that time, he will remain one of the best player’s in the league.
It is not inconceivable LeBron could end his career 40,000 points, seven to eight regular season MVPs, 12 First Team All-NBA’s and 18 All Star selections.
What is in doubt is how many titles and finals MVPs LeBron can win.
The magic number is six: Jordan won six titles and six finals MVPs in six trips to the finals, further endorsing my theory MJ made a deal with the devil in order to be so good at basketball.
Because LeBron has already lost two finals series, he’ll never have the perfect record Jordan had, but he can make up for this if he wins one or two more than MJ did.
The current Miami Heat squad, even with Dwyane Wade starting to show the signs of age, can compete for titles for the next three years at least, especially if Chris Bosh can rediscover his Toronto Raptors form.
After that, who knows? Money won’t be a a factor as he chases his rings, meaning he could go back to Cleveland, stay in Miami, further his brand by joining the world’s most famous team in the LA Lakers, or become immortal by trying to bring a title to New York for the first time in more than 40 years.
Whatever decision he makes will be almost entirely motivated by which team can get him the most titles.
Whatever he does, LeBron will remain in the forefront to win titles for a long time to come.
LeBron James isn’t the second coming of Michael Jordan, he’s the first appearance of Lebron James.
They are fundamentally different players: one was a scoring phenom who was always looking to shoot, the other is the greatest playmaker since Magic Johnson, who also happens to be an athletic specimen, with the size of a power forward and the ball-handling skills of the nimblest point guard.
Nevertheless, they will always be compared to one another, because people want to put greatness into perspective, and Lebron is so obviously great we pay him the highest compliment by comparing him to the greatest of all time.
Whether he likes it or not, Lebron’s whole career will be seen through the lens of him being in pursuit of being better than Jordan, with every basket, title and accolade seen as bringing him even closer.
And I think, when it’s all said and done, we’ll all say ‘LeBron James: The Greatest of All Time’.
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