Michael Jordan continues to be widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, and Kenny Smith believes there is nothing LeBron James can do to surpass him. During an interview with Charles Bethea of The New Yorker, Smith stated that there is no one like Jordan in the NBA today and explained what separates him from James.
“No, I’m talking about today,” Smith said. “It’s not even close. Michael Jordan touched the fibre of basketball that no one will ever touch today. Larry Bird touched the fiber of basketball that no one’s touching today. Maybe LeBron. LeBron is touching the Larry Bird–Magic Johnson fiber. He’s not touching the Jordan fiber.
“The separating point from LeBron to Michael is defense,” Smith added. “Michael was just as good defensively as he was offensively. He was like the Deion Sanders or Travis Hunter: you’re not throwing to his side. We’re not throwing to the Michael Jordan side of the field in a basketball game. That’s a separator.”
Jordan was indeed phenomenal on both ends of the floor. He won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, a DPOY, and 10 scoring titles in his career. Jordan also made the All-Defensive First Team nine times, tied for the most in NBA history.
As for James, he has four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, a scoring title, and an assists title on his resume. He has never managed to win DPOY, though, finishing runner-up in 2009 and 2013. James also made the All-Defensive First Team just five times and was voted into the Second Team once.
Smith believes those facts ensure James will never catch Jordan. He can be mentioned alongside the likes of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, but not the Chicago Bulls icon.
We did a full comparison of Jordan and James, and the former easily beat out the latter. A closer look at how they performed in the NBA Finals also sees Jordan come out on top.
While there’s nothing James can do to surpass Jordan in Smith’s eyes, that’s not the case for everyone. If he can win another title or two, perhaps the scales would tip in his favor, but he does not have time on his side.
The 40-year-old James shone in the 2024-25 season with averages of 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game, but the end isn’t too far away. He probably only has a season or two left in him.
James appeared to have a shot at winning his fifth championship this season, but the Los Angeles Lakers were shockingly eliminated in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was the second year in a row that he and the Lakers had failed to advance past the first round.
That would be a big concern moving forward, but James has been given a lifeline in the sense that Luka Doncic is now a Laker. Things didn’t work out in these playoffs, but it will be interesting to see how much more effective these two will be in 2025-26 once Doncic has a full preseason under his belt with the team.
If the front office manages to acquire a starting-caliber center this offseason, then you’d back the Lakers to make a lot of noise in the postseason in 2026.
