- Stan Van Gundy chimed in on the Michael Jordan-LeBron James debate
- Van Gundy says it is fine to believe Jordan was a better player than LeBron
- Van Gundy, though, believes there is no case to be made for Jordan having a better career than LeBron
Stan Van Gundy firmly believes that LeBron James has had a better career than Michael Jordan. During an appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast, Van Gundy said there can be no case made for Jordan’s career being better than LeBron’s.
“It’s fine if you want to tell me that Michael Jordan was a better basketball player than LeBron James, that’s fine,” Van Gundy said. “You can make a case for that. What you can’t make a case for is that Michael Jordan had a better career than LeBron James. You can’t make a case for that.”
(starts at 1:19:25 mark):
LeBron certainly clears Jordan in terms of longevity. The Chicago Bulls legend only played 15 seasons in the NBA while LeBron is still going strong after 20 seasons.
Hence, when it comes to total stats, James has the clear edge, as he has more points, rebounds, assists, and blocks, with Jordan only leading in steals. James is also now, of course, the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
All that has to be taken into consideration when talking about their careers, but there is a lot more to it. Let’s take a look:
LeBron James’ career stats: 27.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game
Michael Jordan’s career stats: 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game
LeBron James: 4 NBA Championships
Michael Jordan: 6 NBA Championships
LeBron James: 4 Finals MVPs
Michael Jordan: 6 Finals MVPs
LeBron James: 4 MVP awards
Michael Jordan: 5 MVP awards
LeBron James: 0 Defensive Player of the Year awards
Michael Jordan: 1 Defensive Player of the Year award
LeBron James: 19-time All-Star
Michael Jordan: 14-time All-Star
LeBron James: 19 All-NBA Selections
Michael Jordan: 11 All-NBA Selections
LeBron James: 6 All-Defensive Selections
Michael Jordan: 9 All-Defensive Selections
LeBron James: 1 Scoring title
Michael Jordan: 10 Scoring titles
LeBron James: 1 Assist title
Michael Jordan: 0 Assist titles
When you look at their accolades and accomplishments, Jordan just has the edge. From both an individual and team standpoint, Jordan won more individual honors and won more championships as well.
We made a career comparison of Jordan and LeBron, with the former coming out on top by a score of 5-3.
While Stan may disagree, you can certainly make a very strong case that Jordan had a greater career.
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