Ever since entering the league, LeBron James has drawn a lot of comparisons with former legends of the games like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, as he’s been as dominant as them throughout his entire career.
Still, each player has its own stans and while some arguments may be valid, there’s just no way of saying one was better than the other, at least until James also decides to call it a day and retire from the game.
Even so, what we can do is compare facts and stats, not opinions, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do today, as we’re about to break down their 6th season in the league to try and see how all of them fared.
LeBron James
LeBron’s sixth year in the league was pretty much a breaking point for both him and the entire NBA. He posted a monster season and won the league’s MVP, but that wasn’t enough to get his Cleveland Cavaliers past Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Throughout the season, James averaged 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.7 steals, 1.1 blocks and 1.6 three-pointers per game on 48/34/78, but he didn’t have a truly capable supporting cast until he joined the Miami Heat a couple of seasons later.
Michael Jordan
Even though Michael Jordan completely took the league by the horns since the very first day he stepped on an NBA hardwood, it took him a while before translating that personal success into team success with the Chicago Bulls.
During Jordan’s sixth season, he led the league in scoring for the 4th straight season and posted averages of 33.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 2.8 steals (league high) and 0.7 blocks per game on 52% shooting, but couldn’t get past the Pistons in the playoffs.
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Kobe Bryant
Notably, Kobe Bryant had the most successful 6th season in the league among all of these players. While he was a late bloomer and didn’t dominate out of the gate, he had Shaq on his team already and, obviously, that helped him a lot.
Kobe won his 3rd straight Championship in just 6 seasons in the league, his fourth as a starter. While his averages of 25.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game may be the least impressive, he would then go on to become one of the league’s most dominant scorers ever.
