Michael Jordan > LeBron  James

Da'Quan Tucker, Staff Writer

If you had the chance to make a basketball team and you had to pick between Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Who would you want to lead your franchise or build a team around to win the NBA finals?

If I were going to make a basketball team and I had to pick between Jordan or LeBron, I would have to pick Jordan because I know he will come through in the clutch. Jordan played in a tough era where if you were elbowed while going up for a layup, it would only be a foul. Nowadays if you touch someone it’s a foul. In a 15 year span, Michael scored 32,292 points from 1984-2003 and Lebron scored 30,855 points from 2003-2018. Yes, LeBron has more assists and rebounds but Lebron is also 6’8” so it’s a no brainer that he would have more rebounds. Michael can play on both ends of the floor at a really high level, which even Lebron can’t touch. He was a ten time  scoring champ and all-defensive 1st team 9 times. Also, he won defensive player of the year, something Lebron has not and will never do.

LeBron has only won 1 scoring title, but he has been on the all defensive 1st team 5 times. LeBron can guard all 5 positions or play all 5 positions if he wanted because he is more versatile. But versatility does not equal better. Just look at Draymond Green, who is a 6’7” power forward who can  guard all 5 positions and also won defensive player of the year.

Also, on the big hardware, MVP, LeBron only has 4 MVPs to Jordan’s 5, so Jordan has him there as well.  

Now, if you look at big time games it is clear that Jordan is superior to Lebron. Who could ever  forget about 2011 when LeBron was nowhere to be seen in the finals against the Dallas Mavericks. In those finals, LeBron averaged 17.8 points. Also, LeBron had a superteam because he had Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, who both averaged  more than LeBron. LeBron was even outscored by Jason Terry, who averaged 18 points. Terry was a role player, so LeBron should have been able to stop him.

Michael Jordan always showed up when it was time to go to the big stage. Jordan first three-peat only had one all star caliber player and it was Scottie Pippen. If someone says that Horace Grant is also an all star player, well Horace Grant only made the all star team once and that was when Jordan left. Every time it came in the final seconds of a game coach Phil Jackson wanted Michael to take the last shot. Jordan’s team was never the underdogs because people knew how great he was. LeBron needed Ray Allen to save his career when he played for the Heat. Yes LeBron had a beautiful block on Andre Iguodala in the finals but he needed Kyrie to hit the game winning shot. Finally, Jordan has 6 rings and LeBron only has 3 rings. I’m not saying rings are everything, but they do matter.