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The Great Debate: King James vs. Air Jordan
During the past few weeks, there has been a resurgence in the debate on Michael Jordan versus LeBron James. As many of you know, ESPN has recently been airing a 10-part documentary called “The Last Dance” that goes behind the scenes in Michael Jordan’s 6th championship season. Throughout this 10-part documentary, there are highlights of Jordan’s entire career from college all the way through his baseball sabbatical and return to the NBA. To those who haven’t watched this yet, go watch it.
Now to understand why this documentary is so important to this debate, you first have to understand one simple point. For the most part, most millennials and all generations under them have NEVER watched Michael Jordan play a live game. Yes, a lot of millennials have watched highlights and heard all the stories, but most of them were too young to understand the significance of what MJ was accomplishing and how he was changing the game.
On the flip side of this with LeBron James, millennials have witnessed LeBron’s entire career since high school. He was literally introduced to this entire generation as “the chosen one” and in LeBron’s defense, he lived up to it.
So typically, in your average everyday LeBron versus Jordan argument, you have the millennial who came up in the LeBron era arguing for LeBron, and the older wiser person who witnessed both players arguing for Jordan.
Now before we jump into the facts of the debate, let’s look at some different ways that we can determine who is truly the better player. Rather than going into deep scenarios about who had the better team, who played in the tougher era, and all these other opinions that cannot truly be measured, we are going to stick purely by what can be measured including:
1.)
Number of Championships
2.)
Career Average Points Per Game (Regular Season & Postseason)
3.)
Other Key Statistics (Assists, Rebounds, Steals, Blocks)
4.)
Best Performances
5.)
Buzzer-Beaters
There are many other statistics that could be looked at, but I think most would agree this debate should be able to be settled by breaking down these 5 and seeing who comes out on top.
So, let’s do it….
Michael Jordan
NBA Championships:
6
PPG:
30.1
Playoff PPG:
33.4
Assists:
5.3
Rebounds:
6.2
Steals:
2.3
Blocks:
0.8
Total Buzzer Beaters:
25
Playoff Buzzer Beaters:
3
Best performances
Most points ever scored in a single game:
69
March 28th 1990 Bulls vs. Cavs
Most meaningful performance:
1998 NBA Finals Game 6
Stat line:
45 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 4 steals
Summary:
What ended up being Michaels final game in a Bulls uniform was definitely one to remember. Even though the Bulls carried a 3-2 series lead going into this game, the Utah Jazz were favored to win this game and extend the series to a game 7 which also would have been played in Utah. Statistically, MJ has definitely had better games, but the competitiveness displayed throughout this game and especially the last 36 seconds makes this one special.
Notable mention performance:
1986 NBA Playoffs Round 1 Game 2
Stat line:
63 points (all time NBA playoff record), 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks
Summary:
In just his second season in the NBA and coming off a significant injury, Michael Jordan absolutely dominated this game start to finish. Not to mention, the Celtics had 5 Hall of Fame players on their roster including one of the greatest players of all time Larry Bird. Michael Jordan’s Bulls were significantly less talented, but Michael single handedly went toe to toe with this group of Hall of Famers/champions. His 63 points still remain as the most of all time in an NBA playoff game.
LeBron James
(As of May 2020)
NBA Championships:
3
PPG:
27.1
Playoff PPG:
28.9
Assists:
7.4
Rebounds:
7.4
Steals:
1.6
Blocks:
0.8
Total Buzzer Beaters:
18
Playoff Buzzer Beaters:
5 *most all time
Editor’s Note - The all time buzzer beater leader is the one and only Kobe Bryant with 26 total (includes regular season & playoffs).
Rest In Paradise Mamba.
Best performances
Most points ever scored in a single game:
61
2014 Charlotte Hornets vs. Miami Heat
Most meaningful performance:
2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 (Heat trail series 3-2)
Stat line:
45 points (73% from field), 15 rebounds, 5 assists
Summary:
This was without a doubt the biggest game of LeBron’s career. At this point LeBron had 0 rings, he is in his second season with the Heat, and they are trailing 3-2 on the brink of an embarrassing elimination. This is also at a time when LeBron had publicly announced his plans to win not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7, but a lot of championships. After bricking the first shot in this game, LeBron had 30 by halftime and completely took control of the game and ultimately the series.
Notable mention performance:
2016 NBA Finals Game 7
Stat line:
27 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks
Summary:
In our opinion, this was not only one of the most dominant NBA performance of all time, but it was one of the greatest games of all time. The Cavs certainly don’t win this championship without the epic performance by King James down the stretch. LeBron’s block on Andre Iguodala is an all-time NBA moment.
Now that we know where both players stand on all 5 of these key statistics, it’s time to come to a conclusion.
For our team here at SteadyPicks, this one is an absolute no brainer. There will never be another Michael Jordan. While LeBron is certainly a worthy contender in this debate, he falls short and here’s why.
1.) Championships.
In order to be the greatest in a sport, you have to measure the greatest accomplishment in that sport. For the NBA, the greatest accomplishment is winning an NBA championship. Michael Jordan is 6-0 in his NBA Finals career. He has NEVER lost in the NBA finals. Additionally, Michael Jordan won his 6th NBA title at the age of 35. LeBron James is currently 35, has played more seasons than Michael Jordan did and has less titles. As far as we are concerned, it is irrelevant how many titles LeBron gets from here on out in this debate because at this very moment, LeBron has already played more seasons than MJ.
2.) Stats.
Both of these players know how to put on a show and fill a stat sheet. The numbers point to Michael being a more dynamic scorer and defender. Yes LeBron currently averages more rebounds and assists, but in our opinion those other categories outweigh a couple extra assists and rebounds per game.
3.) Big time performances.
Truthfully, both of these guys have provided some of the greatest moments in NBA history and we wouldn’t want to slight LeBron for that. With this being said, since we looked at some of the best performances of both of these player’s careers in big games, we have to acknowledge bad ones as well. There are games that LeBron completely vanished in the early-mid years of his career. There is no doubt that LeBron learned to close and shook this trait, but Michael never disappeared in big moments, ever.
At the end of the day, both of these players have made being a fan of the NBA special. We should all appreciate them for what they brought to the game. But when it comes to this argument/debate, there is a right and wrong answer and Michael Jordan was the better player.
We hope everyone enjoyed this article, it was written for entertainment purposes only.
Please email support@steadypicks.com
with any questions or inquiries.
Sincerely,
Team SteadyPicks
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