The “who’s better? Lebron James or Michael Jordan?” debate has been going around ever since Lebron was first drafted in 2003. During Lebron’s senior year, he became one of the most hyped prospects since Jordan. With all this fame and recognition, Lebron was allowed to enter in the NBA draft right out of highschool. With the number one pick in the draft, the Cleveland Cavalier selected Lebron James.
In Lebron’s first three season in the NBA, they failed to make it to the playoffs. In the 4th season, Cleveland finally made it to the playoffs, marking Lebron’s first appearance onto the stage. With their effort, Lebron carried Cleveland all the way to the finals, but quickly got eliminated in a sweep by the San Antonio Spurs. Next season in the playoffs, they eliminated the Wizards in the first round. Although it looked promising so far, the Cavaliers couldn’t stand up against the Boston Celtics, ending their playoff run. From here on, Lebron would make every single playoff appearance, not missing a single one. And topping that, after Lebron moved to Miami and back to Cleveland, Lebron have made 7 NBA finals appearances in a row. And within those seven finals appearances, Lebron has won three of them.
During this current season in the NBA, Lebron had just passed Michael Jordan in the “All Time Scoring Lists” with 32,311 points in his career while Michael Jordan had 32,292 points. Lebron now ranks 4th on the list behind Kobe Bryant with 33,463, Karl Malone with 36,928, and Kareem Abdul-Jaabar with 38,387. At age 34, Lebron has enough time to surpass Kobe Bryant, taking his spot on becoming the third all time scorer in NBA history. If Lebron scores the same pace each game while staying healthy throughout the seasons, he can even beat Kareem Abdul-Jaabar, becoming the top all time scorers in the NBA.
Now with Michael Jordan, he attended Emsley, A. Laney High School, where his athletic career began, playing basketball, baseball, and football. During his sophomore year, he got cut from his basketball varsity team, not knowing who Jordan will become later in the future. Unlike Lebron, Jordan attended to college at North Carolina. After his junior year at North Carolina, Jordan finally entered into the NBA draft. With the third pick, the Chicago Bulls selected Jordan. Knowing that Jordan is one of the greatest player of all time, this is a draft steal as Akeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie was selected before Jordan.
During Jordan’s rookie season, he averaged 28.2 points while shooting 52% from the field. Jordan was performing to well on the court that he was selected as an all star in his rookie season. Many NBA veterans were jealous of how much attention Jordan is getting, so none of them even passed the ball the Jordan during the all star game. Later down the season, Jordan would win rookie of the year unanimously.
Within Jordan’s first year, they led the Bulls to the playoffs, but felt short to the Milwaukee Bucks. The next season, Jordan broke his foot causing him to miss 64 games. Despite Jordan being absent from the roster, the Bulls still made it to the playoffs. Luckily, Jordan healed from his broken foot and played in the series against Boston. Although Jordan set a new record having “the most points in a single playoff game” with 63 points, Boston still managed to sweep the Bulls. This would happen again the following season in the playoffs. In the 1990-1991 season, the Bulls would make it to the finals, matching up with L.A. While these two teams were going back and forth with each other, the Bulls would win this one declaring them NBA finals champion. This would spark a chain reaction, where the Bulls would ending up winning two more rings, now having three in total. Jordan would soon retire to play baseball which slowed down his stats. The following year after playing baseball, he soon returned to the NBA playing for the Bulls again. Following after, the Bulls would go and win three more championships; totally up to six rings for Jordan.
With this debate, it will never end due to how great they are as their individual talent goes. If you’re arguing for Jordan, you can make a point how he is a greater scorer than Lebron. And how Jordan’s player efficiency rating (a calculation rating the player’s overall stats) with 27.91; is better than Lebron with 27.61. If you’re arguing for Lebron, you can make a case how he can carry any of the 30 NBA teams to the playoffs as he did with the Cavaliers. You can point out how Jordan at his time, played with people who weren’t as built as today’s NBA players. But then you can turn around and say that today’s NBA is softer (having more restricted rules) than the NBA back then. This debate will never end as there are always a counter to each statements. In the end, we should all respect what the players have done on the court.