Reasons why Jordan will always be the GOAT
LeBron James has been on his best playoff run in 2017, averaging 32.2 points per game, 8.5 rebounds per game and 7.1 assists per game which instantly sparks up the conversation of Greatest of All Time.
Although King James is having his best run in his career, Michael Jordan said it best, “I didn't ever call Magic or Bird to help me win titles."
It appears all is forgotten of when James decided to takes his talents to South Beach in order to join a super team with perennial All-Stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
James went from being the NBA's poster child to biggest villain in sports, who is "taking the easy way out" and then back to wearing a white hat and being the player and role model that everyone loves again.
James will be on the Mount Rushmore of basketball players when his career is over, however, he will never catch Jordan.
As long as Jordan was not wearing the number "45" on the baseball diamond or basketball court, he had this clutch gene where he always seemed to deliver in the biggest moments of his career.
In Jordan's prime he was so dominant that while he was chasing titles, the rest of the league had to acquiesce to chasing second place.
Jordan is a better shooter, slasher, and overall scorer that James, for he averaged 30.1 PPG in the regular season and 33.4 PPG in the playoffs during his career.
James is averaging 27.1 PPG in the regular season and 28.3 PPG in the playoffs so far in his career.
I will even say that Jordan was a better three-point shooter too, for he chose not to take as many threes because he was playing a generation where there wasn’t NBA analytics, so he focused on taking the higher percentage two-point shot.
NBA Legend, Clyde Drexler found out the hard way when he suggested that a foible in Jordan's game was his three-point shot.
As a result, in game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals, Jordan set an NBA playoffs record with six consecutive three-point shots made in a half.
Now, will James pass Jordan in all career stats?
Sure, because of the sole reason of longevity, however, longevity does not always equate to being the better player.
Karl Malone is the 2nd all-time leading scorer in NBA history, scoring more points in his career than Wilt Chamberlain, yet it doesn't support that he was a better scorer.
The only reason why James will have more career stats than Jordan is that he was in the NBA at 18 years old. Jordan didn't enter the NBA until after have his junior year at the University of North Carolina, for he was 21 years old.
Also, Jordan missed a year of basketball during his first retirement in 1993-94 and an additional three years after his second retirement before he returned to the Wizards in 2001.
Thus, if you add up the years he missed from both retirements and three seasons of college basketball, that's a total of seven years of NBA stats that is taken away from Jordan's career.
Don't forget that James is not as good of free throw shooter, shooting 74% from the charity stripe, and as a result has missed clutched free throws.
Jordan has never had that problem, shooting a career 83% from the free throw line.
The only offensive edge that I will give James over Jordan, is his court vision from his ability to pass and facilitate for his teammates. James is averaging 7.0 APG in his career and Jordan averaged 5.3 APG in his career.
As a two-way player, Jordan is a better defensive player than James, for he made NBA All-Defensive First Team a total of nine times in his career while winning Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1988.
In comparison, James made NBA Defensive First Team a total of five times and never won DPOY.
Jordan has five NBA Most Valuable Player awards and James still trails him by one MVP award with a total of four NBA MVP awards.
Although I will say that James has achieved an incredible feat as becoming the first non-Boston Celtic to make seven straight NBA Finals appearances this season.
Yet, I think it's even more impressive that Jordan was able to have achieved a three-peat on two separate occasions because the game became boring for him, so he retired and came back when he found motivation and a new challenge.
If Jordan never retired prematurely then he could have easily won eight to ten straight titles and we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
James's legacy will always be affected by losing four times in the Finals, and one of those loses to a Dallas Mavericks team that he should have beaten, for he had his worst Finals series in his career, averaging only 17.8 PPG in that four games to two loss.
Jordan never lost in the finals and I don't think James will ever catch Jordan's six NBA titles and six Finals MVP awards.
In the prime of Jordan's career, he always had this iconic presence, for he was the alpha dog, who had this tenacity and killer instinct of wanting to take every last shot, for he never looked for a subterfuge from the moment.
To this day I still can't say the same about James.
I Rest My Case