The rapidly approaching National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs and LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers poised for a run deep into the postseason mean ESPN and our other national media outlets will begin to once again fawn after “The King” as he seeks his third NBA title. Nothing makes my blood boil quite like people comparing James with the greatest who ever lived, Michael Jordan, as ESPN and many causal fans will be prone to do when LeBron carves up lesser talents this postseason.
There is no doubt that LeBron is a special type of player you only see once in a generation. For a multitude of reasons, though, he is not a player or competitor in Jordan’s caliber. “His Airness” simply was the greatest who ever lived, and though I may be biased as a huge Bulls fan, I will try to tackle this in the fairest way possible. They played in two very different eras, so we will likely never be able to conclusively determine the winner, but it’s still a fun debate to have.
Simply by the numbers and accolades up to this point in their careers, LBJ simply can’t hold a candle to the man whose iconic Jumpman logo propelled Nike to the top of the world of sporting goods. LeBron has piled up 10 All-Star selections, four MVPs, seven All-NBA selections, and five All-Defensive first team honors through his 11th season.
Jordan, meanwhile, who had taken two years in the prime of his career off to cope with the murder of his father and pursue a baseball career, had 10 All-Star teams, eight first-team All-NBA selections, seven All-Defensive first team picks, four MVPs and four Finals MVPs through 11 seasons. That’s not to mention Jordan’s four NBA titles at this point to James’s two.
M.J. was at his best on the game’s biggest stage, the NBA Finals, never losing one of his six appearances in this Holy Grail of professional basketball. Recall that LeBron was defeated in the Finals by the Spurs in ’07, and his Miami Heat superteam was ignominiously knocked off by the Mavs in 2011.
One argument I hear for LeBron in this debate is that he is a more complete player than Jordan was, capable of defending anybody on the court and rebounding like a power forward. This is certainly a valid point; King James is an absolute physical specimen and capable of impacting some games with his athleticism in ways that Jordan couldn’t.
However, whatever advantages LeBron might bring to the table in terms of versatility are offset by MJ’s ferocious competitiveness and clutch factor. Michael never stood down from a challenge. Once, as an up-and-comer in the league, Pacers legend Reggie Miller was talking some smack to MJ for not living up to the hype that surrounded him. Jordan proceeded to drop 40 points in the second half for a Bulls win.
MJ was absolutely ruthless to his opponents. Famously, he once told Hornets guard Muggsy Bogues to “Shoot it, you f***ing midget” on a crucial possession. Bogues missed the shot and later admitted that his shooting never recovered and that the single play ruined his whole career.
By contrast, LeBron frequently tweets encouraging notes to players on opposing teams. He stooped to forming a super-team with fellow superstars Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade in Miami and now Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. Jordan, on the other hand, had wanted to destroy his opponents, not join them. That competitive edge is what made him so great.
LeBron doesn’t have that same edge, the same burning passion that drove Jordan to such legendary clutch performances. His Airness once notably scored 38 points, including the clinching shot, in Game Five of the ‘97 NBA Finals while suffering from terrible food poisoning that caused him to collapse into teammate Scottie Pippen’s arms after the game.
LeBron himself called his series-clinching jumper of the 2013 Finals his own “MJ moment.” Unfortunately for LeBron’s greatest-of-all-time case, MJ produced MJ moments routinely, like his 1998 NBA Finals Game Six steal and iconic jumper over Bryon Russell to seal his sixth NBA championship that would be the last shot (and 25th game-winner) of his Bulls career.
Jordan’s legend will never be surpassed by LeBron, not because LeBron is any less physically gifted, but because he lacks the ruthless competitiveness that made Jordan such a great late-game player. No matter how many championships and individual accolades James receives with his super-teams during the rest of his career, he will never surpass Jordan’s singular greatness, will to win and clutch play.
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