This may be one of the most talked about sports topics in all of history and I understand on why some of you may be tired of it, but why is there even a debate still on who is the greatest to ever play in the NBA. The answer is obvious, it’s the King himself, LeBron James. I know I’m probably going to get a lot of heat from you LeBron haters. I can probably guess what your thinking too, its probably something like ‘Mitch, LeBron isn’t clutch and he isn’t six for six in the finals’ and you probably have a bunch of other excuses on why LeBron isn’t as good or not better than Jordan. I was too once like you, in the denial and in the dark and assumed no one could even touch Jordan’s grace, until my eyes were opened in the finals last year. I hope with this piece right here I can open your eyes to the truth. 

To begin my argument, I would like to say that recently LeBron has become the sixth leading scorer in NBA history. Jordan is fourth and got there faster than LeBron James, so I’ll give the LeBron haters that, but LeBron does so much more than scoring, he gets assists, rebounds, and overall just makes his team better while also being able to score the ball effectively. Michael Jordan in his fifteen seasons averaged around 30 ppg, five assists per game, and around six rebounds a game compared to LeBron’s 27 ppg, seven assists per game, and seven rebounds per game. Jordan is able to score about three more points than LeBron per game, but in LeBron’s 15 seasons he is averaging two more assists and a rebound more on significantly worse teams than Jordan ever played on. 

My second argument for LeBron’s status as the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.) is that Jordan played on a way better team than LeBron ever did in Cleveland. Whenever Jordan retired for the first time the 1994 Bulls were still the third seed team in the East and ended up losing in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. In my opinion that’s pretty dang good for losing your best player on your team who is considered the best to ever play. Now, for LeBron and the Cavs, the first time around was bad and I mean really bad. In LeBron’s last year before going to Miami the Cavs were 61-21. The next year whenever LeBron left the Cavs became one of the worst teams in the NBA only winning 19 games that year. This followed LeBron to Miami the year before he left they went 54-28 compared to when LeBron made his return to Cleveland the Heat went 37-45. This is happening for the third time in LeBron’s career, now that he has signed with the Lakers, the Cavs are now on track to be the worst team in the NBA this season even though they made it to the finals last year. It’s a fact LeBron does more for his team than Jordan ever did.

My third argument to bring to the table is that although Jordan went six for six in the finals, which is impressive that he never lost in the championship, he never went to game seven. LeBron has been to eight championships and has made it for the last seven years. How are we considering first round losses better than LeBron making it seven years in a row. LeBron only has three rings, but if you want to talk about rings you have to say Bill Russell is the best for having eleven. Nobody considers Bill Russell to be the best of all time because rings aren’t the only thing that matters.

I hope this helped opened your eyes so that you can see the light a little bit. It’s time to realize that believing Jordan is the G.O.A.T. is just a cry for the good ole days instead of moving forward. We have just assumed that Jordan has been the best for so long it’s hard to see that LeBron has done more with less and is arguably more accomplished. The best things is LeBron still has some really good seasons going forward to really cement his name as the one and only true G.O.A.T. of the NBA.