It’s April of 2020, and New York State is in complete COVID shutdown. There is, and this is no exaggeration, nothing to do. In our townhouse, our family of five was starting to go a little crazy. Then ESPN announced that they are moving up the debut of their six-part docuseries “The Last Dance” from June to April. It was a smart move on their part – no current sports going on – so haul out the greatest basketball team, and player, of all time and watch the ratings soar. My parents were thrilled! Margaret, Samantha, and I – not so much. We weren’t alive when Jordan played, and quite frankly, hearing all of the members of our family who were alive during Jordan’s reign go on and on about how nothing ever compared to him would get a little old. But, because we are all massive sports fans in our house, they told us we were required to sit and watch with them. Not worth putting up a fight – what else were we going to do? Get an education – that’s what we were about to do.
Fast forward to today, where talking GOATS of sports happens every single day on just about every sports talk show, podcast, and even during live games on television. Every time Mahomes reaches a new milestone in his career it’s “Is he going to pass Tom Brady?”. It used to be “Will Tiger pass Jack for most Majors won?” and now we’re hearing “Could Scotty Schefler become the next Tiger?”. And just this year we’re starting to hear “Is Anthony Edwards going to be the next Lebron James?”. That last one makes me laugh, because after years of hearing people have the most contentious of all the GOAT debates “MJ or Lebron?”, I think it’s time to put that one to rest for good.
After watching “The Last Dance” I started doing my homework on Micheal Jordan. His stats jump off the page at you, but the legend, the brand, the clutch performances – all of it equals a player whose career on and off the court – will never be surpassed, and certainly not by Lebron James.
Let’s start with the basics.
- Michael Jordan is 6/6 in the NBA Finals.
- Lebron James is 4/10 in the NBA Finals. So it took Lebron 10 trips to just get 4?
- Michael Jordan has 5 Finals MVP
- Lebron has 4 Finals MVP
- Michael Jordan has 10 scoring titles (the most in NBA history)
- Lebron only has 1- And the only active player with multiple scoring titles is Kevin Durant with 4
- Lebron James made history again but not for a good reason- Lebron was the first player in two decades to get swept in two different finals. The last to do it were the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson in 1983 and 1989.
- Let’s not forget one of the most important ones that isn’t debatable- Jordan NEVER got swept in the Finals. Lebron has been swept TWICE in the NBA Finals. GOATS DON’T GET SWEPT
Michael Jordan unlike Lebron went to college. Jordan went to college at UNC for 3 years and also managed to win a title and Jordan was just the fourth player in North Carolina history to start his first game as a freshman. Lebron however went straight to the NBA. So already Lebron had a jump start in the NBA and that is why he is currently the all-time scoring leader in NBA history. Lebron has currently been playing in the NBA for 21 years and Jordan played for 15. Lebron played more games this year than he had in the last 6 years. Nobody back then played into their late 30’s like Lebron. Not fair to even compare these two when Lebron has been playing longer and clearly Lebron doesn’t know when it’s time to just let it go.
Jordan 3 peated twice and every basketball writer and historians have all said if it hadn’t been for the 2 years in between, the Chicago Bulls would have won 8 straight. Not to mention those 2 years Jordan took off to pursue his baseball career but his father also had been murdered. Can’t blame the guy for needing time off to grieve and heal from the murder of his father. Speaking of coming back to the NBA, in 2010 “The Decision” was a television special on ESPN in which Lebron announced which team he would join for the 2010-2011 season. This was an hour and 15 minutes long. Really? All Jordan needed was two words and the world blew up, “I’m Back”.
Here are some players who never won a title during Jordan’s reign with the Bulls
- Tim Hardaway
- Reggie Miller
- Patrick Ewing
- Carl Malone
- John Stockton
- Charles Barkley
Those are some pretty big names in the NBA. Now here are the big names in today’s NBA who have won a title during Lebron’s career
- Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Nikola Jokić
- Steph Curry
- Kevin Durant
Those players are considered to be top 10 players in the NBA and they all have won at least one title during Lebron’s career. Jordan didn’t let those big names during his time win a title.
Now Michael Jordan only needed one team to win all of his 6 titles. Lebron needed multiple teams and multiple players to get there. Lebron started his career with the Cleveland Cavs and couldn’t get the job done so he formed his “Big 3” with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. They won 2 in Miami. While Lebron was gone from Cleveland, the Cavs were the worst team in the league so they drafted Kyrie Irving. Therefore, they had a chance to rebuild before Lebron came back to play “savior”. And let’s not forget, Lebron only left Cleveland because he kept getting beat by none other than the Boston Celtics. Speaking of the Celtics, the OG Big 3, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnet won the 2008 Finals and it took Lebron’s Big 3 two years to win a championship.
Now as a Celtics fan, I don’t like bringing Steph Curry up in any basketball discussion but here’s an important stat to know. Curry is not only the greatest 3-point shooter of all time, Curry is 4/6 in the NBA Finals and he unlike Lebron did it all with the same team. Seems to be a running theme here……
Lebron James likes to claim he “doesn’t want to be like MJ”. Well, I’ve got news for you Lebron. Lebron made a remake of Space Jam which originally starred Michael Jordan. Lebron is trying to follow everything that Jordan did first. He loves it when this type of debate comes up. He’s so much of an attention seeker, that he has tried making his son Bronny James the spotlight of the next big thing to come to the NBA. Bronny would be lucky to even get drafted. Lebron now has even toyed with the idea that wherever his son goes in the NBA, that’s where he’ll go to finish his career. God knows when that will be.
Let’s not forget to mention that Lebron is a head coach killer. The Los Angeles Lakers just recently fired their head coach Darvin Ham after just 2 seasons with the Lakers. The Lakers got bounced in the first round by the Denver Nuggets. Remind you, that this coach led this team to the Western Conference Finals last season. Remember Ty Lue? He coached the Cavs to the NBA Finals in the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons; in both seasons, the Cavaliers were defeated by the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. Lue was fired by Cleveland in October 2018. Luke Walton coached the Lakers from 2016 to 2019, just one year after Lebron joined the Lakers he was fired. Interesting…… Frank Vogel coached the Lakers from 2019-2022. He won the championship his first season finishing with a 52-19 record. This was also the year the NBA was in the “bubble”. The following year Lebron and Anthony Davis suffered from injuries throughout the season and finished with a 42-30 record. The Lakers fired Vogel in 2022. Interesting how these head coaches all have something in common. They don’t last very long when coaching Lebron. So when Lebron doesn’t get his way, the coaches get shown the door.
This past week on ESPN” S “Pardon the Interruption, Mike Wilbon had some choice words for Lebron and Anthony Davis about the recent firing of their last head coach Darvin Ham. “He’s a great guy and he’s a pretty damn good coach. He took a team that had done nothing the year before and missed the playoffs, and then last year they got to the conference finals with him and everybody had praise for him — including LeBron and Anthony Davis.” He then went on to say “And now all of a sudden the two of them blame him. Their public comments are inadequate. Let me just say this: If you [LeBron] want to be the GOAT and you want to tell everybody you’re the greatest player of all time, then take accountability like one. Do that!” Finally, someone calling Lebron out on his BS.
On a smaller note, the NBA is already trying to find their next Lebron James. Over the past few weeks, Anthony Edwards has been the talk of the NBA. Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves swept the Phoneix Suns in the first round. Besides the fact people are saying Edwards is MJ’s long-lost son, the NBA is trying to paint this picture of Edwards being the next face of the NBA once Lebron finally decides to retire. Give the guy some time, he’s only 22 and who knows how far the Timberwolves will go the rest of the playoffs
I’m going to try to wrap this up. I’m running out of good things to say about Lebron, not that there was a lot in the first place. Why are we debating MJ Vs. Lebron when Kobe Bryant was 5/7 in the NBA Finals, one of the greatest shooters of all time, won all his championships with the Lakers, and Bryant also 3 peated like MJ.
Not only is Lebron not THE GOAT but he’s not even the GLOAT. Greatest Laker of all time.
