LeBron James will turn 38 years old by the end of the year and is only getting closer to his inevitable retirement from the NBA. But even at this age, James proved that he is better than most of the players in the league. He had a breathtaking 19th season last year, something that we haven’t seen in the history of the NBA.
If the Los Angeles Lakers had qualified for the playoffs and won an NBA Championship, the King would have gotten one step closer to improving his case for being regarded as the GOAT.
Maybe he’ll win a ring next season, but there’s no way for us to know that right now. But what we do know is the fact that LBJ has somewhat reduced the gap between him and Michael Jordan over the last decade or so.
He has become a much better all-around player and, most importantly, now has four rings to his name. It’s great to see him reach closer to the level of MJ as he revealed in 2012 that the Bulls legend was his superhero growing up.
Magic Johnson Had A Precise Take On Comparisons Between LeBron James And Michael Jordan
Speaking of the GOAT, the Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson once revealed his unbiased opinion on why Kobe Bryant was closer to MJ and LeBron was simply closer to him in terms of playing style.
(Starts at 0:31):
“LeBron James is special. Why? Because he makes his teammates better. … We haven’t seen the best of LeBron yet. Once LeBron figured out he plays more like me than Michael, now he’s taking off and now he’s understanding winning the championships. Kobe is more like Michael then LeBron is. So now he understands just control the game. See it takes a special person to know how to control a game. Whether they score. Whether they don’t score. Whether they want to feed off to their teammates. See I could control the game and never even shoot one time because it all still gotta go through my hands. Whatever happens I make it happen.”
Magic explained the biggest difference between MJ and LBJ in a pretty simple way, and his prediction about the latter has been true. Ever since James decided to focus on controlling the game rather than simply scoring, he has added more levels to his game.
Despite that, James only needs to average 16.2 PPG next season to become the player with the most points scored in NBA history. Considering his production last season, it should be a piece of cake for the King.
