Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James – who is the GOAT?

For years Michael Jordan was largely considered the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in terms of NBA players. Sure, some would vouch for Wilt, Russell, Kareem, Magic, etc., but by and large the vast majority of people recognized Jordan as the best to ever do it. In recent years LeBron James has strengthened his case as being a worthy contender to the throne. In particular it seems to be ESPN’s mission to anoint him as the GOAT… cutting through all the hype, here’s my take on who was better (it’s January 2019 as I write this).

First of all, let’s note that it’s tough to compare stats. Jordan essentially lost almost 6 years due to college, retirements, and a broken foot, so needless to say his career stat totals would be a lot higher without that lost time. They also played in different eras. Jordan played in a much lower scoring era, when it was far more physical and where there was a plethora of dominant centers, and there wasn’t nearly the emphasis on the 3 point shot that there is today. So maybe the easiest/fairest thing to do would be to say that Jordan was the best of his era, and LeBron was the best of his era. But that would be boring, wouldn’t it? Everyone loves a good sports debate, and this is one that’s not likely to end anytime soon.

Let’s start by ranking them by the boxing 10 point must system on several key categories:

Scoring: Jordan 10 LeBron 8 – This one isn’t particularly close. Jordan was a 10 time scoring champ who could get to the basket (or the foul line) any time he wanted. Later on he had that unstoppable fadeaway too. If prime Jordan played in the current version of the NBA it’s not too hard to imagine him scoring 40 ppg. LeBron is a great scorer, he can bull his way to the basket on anyone, and is a streaky good shooter (a better 3 point shooter than Jordan, though certainly not a better shooter overall if you saw them both play). But if you’re down 1 point in the closing seconds of a big game, it’s a no-brainer on who you’d rather have with the ball in his hands. The disparity at the FT line is hard to ignore as well.

Passing: LeBron 10 Jordan 8 – This one is clearly LeBron, a terrific passer (probably the second best passing forward I’ve seen after Larry Bird), though Jordan was a better passer than he’s typically given credit for being. We’re talking 7+ apg vs 5+ apg, though in fairness the Bulls offense, in which Pippen often played point forward, was far more democratic in terms of touches for everyone when compared to any LeBron dominated offense.

Defense: Jordan 10  LeBron 8 – LeBron may have been able to cover more positions, but he wasn’t anywhere near the lock down defender that Jordan was. And in recent years his defense has slipped dramatically, more due to a lack of effort to save himself on offense than him no longer being capable of playing good defense. Jordan’s effort was never questioned.

Intangibles/Miscellaneous: Jordan 10 LeBron 8 – Jordan may have been a d**k as a teammate at times, as Will Perdue and Steve Kerr would attest, but the guy was a legit leader (he even kept Rodman in line!) and a crunch time assassin who was simply the most competitive player ever. It was a different era, prior to social media, but I can’t imagine Jordan making the many gaffes LeBron has over the years, from The Decision to getting coaches fired (or trying to) to strange passive-aggressive tweets, to repeatedly complaining that that he needs more help (i.e. throwing his teammates under the bus), to flat-out quitting on multiple occasions, and so on. Jordan wanted to destroy his competition, not team up with them and form superteams. He was just mentally much tougher than LeBron.

Accomplishments:
Jordan was a 5 time MVP (should’ve been more), 6 time champ (including 6 Finals MVPs), 10 time scoring champ, defensive player of the year, etc. He also had a flair and a sense of the dramatic unmatched by any other player (the “God Disguised as Michael Jordan” 63 point game vs. probably the best Boston team ever, The Shot vs. Cleveland, the Flu Game vs. Utah, the Shrug Game after a hail of 3 pointers vs. Portland, the Steal/Championship Winning Shot vs. Utah, the “Double Nickel” comeback game against the Knicks, another 55 point game vs. Phoenix in the NBA Finals, and so on and so on). Early on in his career he was criticized for being a ball hog, and maybe there was some merit to it, but once he figured things out and learned to trust his teammates, he became the ultimate winner. Watch a Bulls game from their prime and you’ll notice that Jordan rarely looked to score a lot in the first quarter, he worked as a fascilitator in getting his teammates involved. Gradually he would start scoring, usually in bunches, and then by the fourth quarter it was total takeover time. The Bulls and their triangle offense was predicated on ball movement, so Jordan got his without overly dominating the ball. True, he had a very good team around him, and a lot of LeBron backers like to point out how well the Bulls did in 1994 after Jordan retired (due to burnout and boredom, unless you’re a conspiracy theorist who thinks he really got suspended for gambling…), but let’s remember that they did lose in the second round of the playoffs, and were playing under .500 ball the next season before Jordan came back. (And don’t give me that nonsense about a how a “phantom call” on Scottie Pippen beat the Bulls in ’94, because if you check it out on youtube, it WAS a foul and a dumb play by Pippen – listen to Hubie Brown at 1:30 here – and it was only that close because Derek Harper foolishly got suspended for fighting Bulls scrub A.J. English. Truth be told, if Kukoc hadn’t hit the game 3 game winner while Pippen sulked on the bench, the Knicks probably sweep. And the Bulls still could’ve won game 7 and got blown out – the better team won that year, period. OK, back on point…) Truthfully, had Jordan not retired, and had the Bulls won 8 in a row which was the likely scenario, I doubt there’d be any GOAT debate. After the Bulls won in 1998, and Jordan retired again, no Bull, including Pippen who was a disaster in Houston and a disappointment in Portland, did anything of major significance afterwards. Of course, Jordan didn’t stay retired, even though he should have, but most fans are willing to give him a mulligan for his past his prime stint with the Wizards, which I’d liken to Muhammad Ali taking on Larry Holmes…

LeBron was anointed as “The Chosen One” or “The King” at an early age, and it’s safe to say that he easily lived up to the billing. His biggest accomplishments are 4 MVP Awards (like Jordan, you could argue it should be more), 3 championships (including 3 Finals MVPs), and 9 Finals appearances including 8 straight, albeit in the generally weak Eastern Conference. He was and remains a physical freak whose combination of strength and athleticism has no peer. He led a mediocre Cavs team to the 2007 Finals, a tremendous accomplishment. However, his team got swept in the Finals in a non-competitive series vs. the Spurs in which he played poorly. After being upset by Orlando in 2009, in 2010 LeBron had a strangely passive series in a losing effort against Boston where mentally he seemed to throw in the towel. After the ill-advised (to put it mildly) Decision and taking his talents to South Beach came the meltdown of all meltdowns in the 2011 Finals against Dallas, probably the biggest negative on his ledger. But then came terrific back-to-back championship seasons, though LeBron critics will always point out how Greg Popovich/Chris Bosh and Ray Allen bailed him out at the end of game 6 (which they did, but let’s remember LeBron still had to win game 7 which he did with a great performance, though the Spurs strategy of essentially giving him the outside shot all game long was certainly a questionable one). The Spurs got their revenge the next season, in dominating fashion, which is why LeBron went back “to win a championship for Cleveland.” It was a bogus narrative of course – he felt Wade was aging and I don’t think he ever thought that highly of Bosh whose numbers went way down in Miami – so he decided to team up with Kyrie Irving (a tremendous young talent) and Kevin Love (at the time considered a top 10 maybe even top 5 player) to give himself a significantly better chance to win. Let’s be real and call things the way they really were, ok? Injuries hampered the Cavs in the Finals vs. Golden State the first time around, but LeBron almost single-handedly made the series competitive, despite shooting poorly (under 40%). The next year he took on the same GS team fresh off a record 73 win season, but by the time the Finals rolled around GS was a tired, injured team that had barely squeaked by Oklahoma City the previous series. Still, they had a commanding 3-1 lead until LeBron decided to throw Draymond Green down and step over him. Draymond took the bait, foolishly swiped at LeBron, and was suspended for game 5, which swung the momentum of the series. The rest is history; an emboldened LeBron and Kyrie played incredible the last 3 games, GS was unable to close the deal, and after Kyrie’s game winning shot the Cavs were champs and everyone who a few years ago burned LeBron’s jersey now loved him. The last 2 years saw more great individual play (at least on offense) from LeBron but after adding Kevin Durant nobody was beating Golden State. Tired of playing sidekick, and realizing he was going to be left leading a bad team built around LeBron after LeBron bolted the next year (a reasonable conclusion given LeBron’s unwillingness to commit to the Cavs), Kyrie forced a trade, but amazingly, LeBron still took the Cavs to the Finals, though again the Eastern Conference teams he beat weren’t exactly a Murderers Row.  Also, after an incredible Finals Game 1 in regulation, it’s hard for me to forget LeBron’s pre-OT meltdown on the bench where his lack of leadership was on full display (go to 1:40 here), and then his weak quit-job in game 4 – I can’t imaging Jordan ever going down so meekly. I often don’t agree with Charles Barkley, but I do here (not that I’m condoning violence, mind you!).

So, who is better?

It’s pretty obvious by now that I prefer Michael Jordan, for many reasons. He was a better scorer, teammate, and defender, and wins big on intangibles (leadership, clutchness, mental toughness, etc.). LeBron was physically bigger and stronger (but not quicker as some say), was a better rebounder as a result (but not by as much as you’d think – essentially 1 rebound per game), and a better passer. Another thing to note is that MJ got all the calls back in the day, if you breathed on him it pretty much was a foul, but LeBron gets away with tons of walks and push offs, so I’d call that one a draw (they both got the “superstar treatment”).

True, LeBron isn’t done yet, though unsurprisingly he’s done with the Cavs again, having joined a young Lakers team where not much is expected. We’ll see how that plays out, but honestly no matter what happens I think it’s too late for him to be the GOAT. It’s also worth noting that fans seem to find LeBron extremely polarizing (he has many hardcore fans but is also extremely disliked by a vocal segment due to his narcissistic me-me-me sense of self-entitlement), whereas Jordan was largely beloved everywhere. Maybe MJ just played the PR game better, and by all accounts LeBron is a true family man who has been good to the communities he’s been a part of, so he’s to be commended for those things.

But Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time, and I don’t think it’s particularly close.

June 2021 update:

Since I updated this blog article after last season, I’m updating it again now that LeBron and the Lakers have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion. And it’s not just that they lost, and that his performance was subpar by his high standards, it’s how he lost. In particular, him leaving the court with over 5 minutes left in game 5; I mean, who else does that? What GOAT has a history of quitting on his team? His effort in game 6 left much to be desired as well, and he was too busy pouting to shake the hands of the other team afterwards. Losing would’ve been ok, one year after winning the title, given the injuries the team suffered and some questionable personnel moves that messed with the team’s chemistry and core identity. But if you’re going to lose, go out like a boss, with guns blazing, and then when it’s over lose with class and shake the other’s team’s hands. As I saw one youtuber put it, “when the games get hard, LeBron gets soft.” GOAT debate is officially over.