LeBron vs. Jordan: The Debate is Over

In basketball, two names sit atop the mountain of players to play the game – Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

To many, it is a highly-contested battle with arguments for both sides. To me, there’s one clear champion, and he never played for the Chicago Bulls. It is LeBron James.

To start, LeBron James owns every counting stat. Michael Jordan has been coined as the greatest scorer ever. That would lead most to think he was able to score the most points ever. That would be wrong. As it stands, James sits atop the all time leading scorers list with a little over 8,000 more points than Jordan.

OK, but “greatest scorer ever” must mean he’s No. 2 … No. 3 … not even No. 4. Michael Jordan is the fifth all time scorer, sitting behind LeBron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant.

When it comes to other important basketball numbers, James is the king of being well rounded. He is fourth all time in assists, Jordan is at 52nd. LeBron is 30th all time in rebounds, Michael Jordan is 137th. LeBron has played the second most minutes ever, MJ barely slides into the top 30. Defensively, LeBron is slated to pass Michael in career total “stocks” (steals plus blocks). LeBron has shattered all of Michael’s career numbers, and he has continued past other players towards the top of every list. That is because of longevity, another reason why James is greater.

James is entering his 22nd season, in which he will turn 40. In his age 39 season, he was an All-NBA member and led his team to a playoff berth against the defending world champions. In Michael Jordan’s age 39 season, he had a good year for the 37-45 Wizards, who missed the playoffs.

Many will try and discredit LeBron’s stats because he has played for longer. That point can be refuted easily when you consider we as a society commend the players who play great for longer. That’s the reason Tom Brady is currently the GOAT of his respective sport. He’s played longer than anyone else, therefore he owns all the stats. Same case with James. It isn’t his fault MJ left the sport for three years to play baseball, retired to play golf, and came back to play two just okay years before retiring.

Next, we have the nucleus of the Jordan support – NBA Finals success.

Michael Jordan won six championships in six finals trips. Unfortunately for Jordan, championships are not the entire debate. If we want to go off of rings, Bill Russell has double of what Jordan has. Does that make him the GOAT? No. He doesn’t have the numbers Jordan has. Abdul-Jabbar has the same amount of rings as Jordan, and also owns almost every other stat over him. LeBron has won four championships, but has been to 10 finals, including a stretch where he was a part of eight straight NBA Finals. His excellence is sustained.

I will concede that Michael Jordan most likely had the greatest peak ever with his 1995 to 1998 threepeat. However, three years don’t make up an entire career, which is also great for Jordan because his first three trips to the playoffs he was bounced in round one. In Jordan’s second trip to the playoffs as a 22 year old, he led an average Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals.

Finally, we have the level of difficulty. The player Michael Jordan has the most minutes played with is Scottie Pippen, a bonafide top-30 player ever. James has played the most minutes with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a two-time all-star (only one coming with James as a teammate) who averaged more than 17 points per game once.

Also, the level of players played on the big stage were also different. In his own right, in Michael Jordan’s NBA Finals appearances, he faced a good James Worthy and Magic Johnson the year before he retired due to contracting HIV, prime Clyde Drexler, MVP Charles Barkley, a good pairing of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, and the great pairing of Karl Malone and John Stockton twice. He had Scottie Pippem for all six titles and Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc for the last three. That list is really good.

James’ finals opponents were as follows: The dynasty Spurs with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili (with the formerly mentioned average Cavs squad); prime Dirk Nowitzki; young Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden; the same Spurs core as before, slightly older and now with a young Kawhi Leonard, back to back years; four straight years against the Warriors with Prime Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green; and a great version of Jimmy Butler. With respect to Jordan, this might be the best collection of finals opponents anyone has ever faced.

In the end, who you side with is all based on era. If you were a kid when either one was playing, you likely will stand by that player. I hope I have given enough evidence as to why James is the greatest player to ever live.

If not, make an argument and start debating.

Kaleb Moore is a Wichita freshman studying journalism. Follow him on Instagram.

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