MATT VOLZ
Sports Editor
In today’s National Basketball Association (NBA) world, LeBron James is often heralded as the greatest basketball player to ever step onto the court.
I mean, if your nickname is “King James,” there’s probably a good reason for that.
I agree with saying that LeBron is one of the best players ever, and I don’t think there’s too much argument with that.
However, I do not agree that he is the single greatest player ever. In my opinion, that title should go to Michael Jordan.
Sure, LeBron has the all-time NBA scoring record and has passed Jordan in some other categories.
But it’s important to remember the context of their career stats.
First of all, LeBron is currently in the 22nd season of his career. Jordan retired after his 15th season.
In that time, Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game in the regular season, while LeBron is currently around 27.1 points per game.
It’s safe to assume that if Jordan had played for 22 seasons, he would have the scoring title instead.
In fact, Jordan won 10 scoring titles over the course of his career, leading the NBA in offense while competing with Hall of Fame scorers like Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and others. LeBron has only won one scoring title in his entire career, although he faced some stiff competition as well.
But Jordan wasn’t all offense. He was also a significantly better defender than LeBron has been.
Jordan was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team nine times in his career. He also took home the Defensive Player of the Year award for the 1987-88 season, and many fans argue that he should have received the award more than just once.
That argument isn’t heard too much about LeBron, who has only been named to the All-Defensive First Team five times and has never been named the best defensive player in the NBA.
Jordan also displayed an ability to grow his brand off the court better than LeBron has been able to.
Through his deal with Nike, Jordan elevated his presence to the point where he was not only the best basketball player in the world, but he was also quite possibly the most recognizable athlete in the world, too.
Jordan’s line of Nike basketball shoes, called “Air Jordans,” are probably the most prominent basketball shoes of all time.
In 2020, ESPN ranked the top 74 sneakers in NBA history. Two different types of Air Jordans were voted number one and number two, and five sets of Air Jordans were in the top 20.
LeBron’s highest-ranked shoes came in 22nd.
Jordan was also featured in several high-profile commercials, most notably Nike’s “Like Mike” campaign that encouraged kids to want to be just like Jordan.
Finally, my biggest argument for why Jordan is the greatest above LeBron is playoff performance.
In order to be the true G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time), a player needs to elevate their performance on the biggest stages.
There’s no player that embodied that more than Jordan.
He had a knack for coming up big in the most important moments. For example, he hit two different shots to clinch playoff series over the course of his career. He knocked down a buzzer-beater to eliminate the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 1989 playoffs, and he hit the winning shot in the 1998 Finals against the Utah Jazz.
Jordan also averaged 33.4 points per game in his playoff career, an NBA record and a significantly higher mark than LeBron’s playoff average of 28.4 points per game.
Jordan took his Chicago Bulls to the NBA Finals three straight times from 1991-93, winning each time and taking home Finals MVP each time.
After a two-year absence from the game when Jordan tried his hand at baseball, he and the Bulls picked up right where they left off.
From 1996-98, the team again went to the NBA Finals three straight times. Again, the Bulls won all three times, and yet again, Jordan was named Finals MVP each time.
LeBron has been to the NBA Finals 10 times in his career.
He has lost more times than he’s won, with four wins and six losses.
Now, I want to make it clear that wins are a team stat, not an individual one. But the ability to lead your team to the promised land, no matter who you play for or who you’re up against, is what can make a great player the greatest of all time.
That’s exactly what Michael Jordan did.