LeBron James is making NBA history in the midst of his 23rd season in the league, averaging 21.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 7.0 assists and reaching heights no other player before him has managed. But at the same time, there are mountains James couldn’t scale in his NBA career, like equalling Michael Jordan’s achievements. This includes his 6 NBA Championships, Finals MVPs, as well as two three-peats and winning Defensive Player of the Year.
James has his own set of longevity-based achievements that Jordan can’t equal, but ones he never had a chance to either. This has split the GOAT debate into two sections: one that prefers Jordan’s maximum impact over a minimal period compared to the other, which prefers James’ impact over a much-longer period of time.
Iconic Boston Globe journalist Bob Ryan, who covered the Celtics from the 1970s until his retirement in 2012, recently spoke to the ‘One Two Combo’ podcast and weighed in on the GOAT debate. He acknowledged that the debate comes down to Jordan and James, but Jordan edges it due to his competitiveness.
“When you talk about all-around basketball players who can pass, shoot, and defend, the whole package. There are two names. Michael and LeBron. LeBron is bigger, stronger, faster, a better rebounder, and passer.”
“But if I’m playing for my life tonight, give me Michael Jordan. There’s no comparison in competitiveness and the big game capacity of Michael Jordan (compared to) LeBron James. So, the answer is Michael Jordan.”
This debate will rage on until the end of time, although it does seem the larger consensus in the NBA world falls on Jordan still being ahead of LeBron. As Bob Ryan mentioned, James is a bigger, faster, and stronger player, so it’s hard to make a case against him as a true basketball player compared to Jordan. However, Jordan’s competitiveness also drove him to accomplishments that no player in the NBA has come close to matching,
The closest anyone has come to Jordan is LeBron in terms of individual star power, but the accomplishments don’t fall his way yet. Even Kobe Bryant, who Reggie Miller still believes should outrank James in the GOAT debate, won five championships compared to James’ four.
Similar to how people believing Bryant is better than LeBron is a minority opinion, it seems LeBron being better than Jordan is also still in that camp. James has had former teammates who told him to his face that Jordan is the GOAT, and James’ agent, Rich Paul, also openly said he’d pick Jordan to take the last shot in a hypothetical situation over LeBron. Even players who played alongside both often pick Jordan over James.
All of this seems disrespectful to LeBron, but it isn’t. His accomplishments speak for themselves. Just as we might never see a player match Jordan’s three-peats and undefeated Finals record, we might never see a player cross James in the all-time scoring list or for most All-NBA or All-Star appearances in league history.
Jordan averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.3 steals over a 15-season career. Alongside his titles, he won five MVPs, a DPOY, made 11 All-NBA teams, nine All-Defensive Teams, and 14 All-Star teams. He has won an NBA record 10 scoring titles.
Ultimately, both James and Jordan occupy different lanes in NBA history, but they’ll always be pitted against each other. It’s hard to argue that Jordan doesn’t deserve his spot at No. 1, given what he achieved over what many consider to be the greatest period of basketball. For Ryan and many others, unless somebody can prove their absolute dominance over the game as Jordan did, nobody will ever be good enough.
