LeBron James is one of the greatest players of all time, without any hesitation. The King has made history in 17 years of career, breaking records and creating a big legend that will last forever in the league. He is often part of the GOAT conversation, mostly compared to Michael Jordan, who many people considered the greatest of all time.
This is the biggest and most common comparison when it comes to the GOAT, but not everybody believes Bron is to be compared with Jordan since they are very different players with two different styles of play. Former NBA player-turned-analyst Charles Barkley has given his two pennies on this matter, claiming LeBron shouldn’t be compared to Jordan since he’s more of a Magic Johnson.
During an appearance on The Ringer’ podcast, Chuck explained the closest thing we had to MJ was Kobe Bryant (31:00 minute mark).
“Kobe is the closest thing I’ve seen to Michael. Michael’s one, I got Kobe’s six and LeBron eight in my 10 greatest players ever. I consider LeBron as great as he is, I think he’s more of a Magic Johnson type of guy because the other two guys would kill you. They’re not worried about having friends, they’re not worried about what anybody think of them, plain and simple. They just want to kick your butt. Bird was like that, he just didn’t have their athletic ability, but man, Michael and Kobe, though, those are two trained assassins right there.”
Bron has been compared to Magic several times, too, and it looks like that’s the best way to describe him. Obviously, he is creating his own legend in the league, but the similarities are too big to ignore them. James is ok with not taking the last shot in a game, although people believe that’s his job and he should do it all the time. He is a facilitator and yet he’s a great scorer, that’s not Bron’s primary characteristic.
Kobe and Jordan were different. They would go to the court to destroy whoever was in front of them. He didn’t want to know anything about being friends or something; they had a job and until they fulfilled it, they wouldn’t rest.
Different styles but both have been successful for these players. At the end of the day, it’s about what you prefer to see in a player.
